Voxel Hub Newsletter vol.55
Welcome to our June Newsletter!
Welcome to our June Newsletter!
I hope this email finds you well. This month, this week, I have a confession to make - I am operating from the place of a very broken heart. Despite my regular allotment trips, June was heavy, and (risking a huge assumption here) it was heavy for most of us. I won't list all the reasons here; it's enough to open the news app or any of our social media channels to see what's going on. During weeks like this, it can be so tempting to switch off the news (for our own wellbeing), forget, avoid and disconnect. Today, I am here to propose that perhaps, just perhaps, this reaction of ours is also at the core of the current systemic design, and in the long run, it is not helpful. When we face existential challenges it can be so tempting to disconnect from our feelings. However, if we do so, aren't we proving the point that feeling, broken heart and empathy are useless? Aren't we turning into some form of a bio-machine designed to produce?
Trust me, I know the broken heart first-hand from my past life experiences, and today, I face it each time I enter a counselling or coaching session. I meet people who survived unimaginable losses and traumas and still carry on connecting with the broken hearts. Because here is the truth: we can operate from this place, and this is exactly the place we should tap into - our broken heart, the pain, the suffering we cannot ignore.
Today, my suggestion to you is to shift focus from suffering to restoration. What I have learned from my leaders in the liberation psychology and EDI work is this: on the one hand, we spend too much time holding on to our White fragility; on the other hand, we also ignore the cost of witnessing suffering when placed in a position of displacement or witnessing the pain we (collectively) may be inflicting on others as a majority. We need to pause, reconnect with ourselves and each other, restore and start working on better ways of being, living and collaborating. I am not going to take the credit for this answer to our brokenness - this way of living always paid off for me, and just this month, I had a few reminders of incredible groups of people approaching social change this way. So credit to them. Please find a moment to stop, rest and restart the amazing work that you are doing. Please, instead of disconnecting, consider reconnecting - at your own pace, one step at a time.
At Voxel Hub, we have a few new developments.
First of all, a huge shout out to our Advisory Board Member, Lewis Wedlock, who is publishing his (much-needed) book on masculinities in schools this month. If you don’t know Lewis, check out his heartfelt TED Talk and pre-order the book here.
Secondly, back to my June inspirations. I have joined OPOKA, a Bristol-based charity that, for over a decade, has been supporting Polish women and children who survived domestic abuse in the UK. Polish minority is the second largest group of survivors after British citizens, so this service is crucial, and I am incredibly honoured to join their therapeutic team. I had the honour of attending the AGM of the entire Chrysalis group this month and learn more about their incredible stories and impact across our country. I came away inspired but also educated. Colin Mackell, the CEO and Founder of the group shared his painful story and the motivation behind the entire project. I love his point on fragility: “If we dress ourselves in fragility, we’ll never overcome”. I also like his reminder to us therapists: “As a counsellor, just witness it. Just be there.” Luke Hart, who lost his mum and sister to domestic abuse, spoke about the importance of connecting with and operating from that broken heart to heal - he shared his experience of grief: “I was containing my sickness to every part of my body, BUT the heart”. Finally, Dr Niklas Serning (who worked for early OTR Bristol and now is on the board of my NSPC college) reminded us about the respect owed to the Global Majority, especially in the way those countries and peoples approach suffering.
Lastly, I have attended a group therapy training hosted by our local charity supporting the mental health of men, the Talk Club. If you’re drinking the ClearHead non-alcoholic beer (like me), you have seen their logo on the can. It was by far the best group therapy training I’ve attended so far and it is there in my top three training providers to date. I came away, changed, and inspired to support more male-identifying people, and I hope to stay working with them, time permitting.
One more thing from us: we have an update on our policies. Considering that AI awareness and use are now steadily entering the general public, I wanted to make it clear that we follow the usual transparency rules. This month, especially, I have felt the AI’s smooth integration into many core tools (such as emails) and automation of risk assessments we should really keep in the hands of people. We have seen the first major report on the impact of AI on our critical thinking, which may not be so surprising for some of us who have worked in tech for quite some time and is welcomed by others; however, for Voxel Hub means it is time to take a stand on this area of innovation.
If you don’t see an AI disclaimer, everything we post is generated by humans - our ideas, our framework, and ourapproach to digital wellbeing and mental health were originally created by me with the support of my dear offline friends.We continue investing in friends who write blog post articles for us because we care about their income and their unique human voice. If we use AI, it’s for basic editing (Grammarly) and for temporary and clearly marked experimentation (“AI generated post” category on our blog). We will continue to highlight the importance of humanity in the digital age - it is our core mission, our beating heart.
To leave you with a little bit of sunshine and lightness after those heavy thoughts, here’s some of us in Bristol parading with street art, a unique type of it. Enjoy!
I wish you a peaceful and connected July!
Monthly reflection
Today, I am inviting you to reflect on your quality of attention, contact and critical thinking:
Spend a day putting down your smartphone and seeking eye contact instead - practice on your friends, family, andpets. If you feel very isolated, look up at Nature and the landscape around you. Practice focussing your vision - zoom in and out, and pay attention to small details of the view in front of you. Check-in with yourself - sometimes we can feel more regulated, but sometimes this pause can also feel awkward, so soothe it if needed.
Spend a day monitoring your social media use - are you scrolling for relaxing videos (which is needed and can get a little bit addictive), or are you proactively checking in with your friends? Can you shift from consolation to authentic engagement?
Spend a few moments each day for a week reaching out to people around you and noticing the quality of the connection - it can be a moment of stopping and checking in with your elderly neighbour or smiling at a person in the cue while waiting to pay; it can also be a message to a friend or family member.
When you read the news, scan your social network for friends who may be directly impacted by it and check in with them. The news is upsetting to all of us, but some of us are more impacted than others, so let’s practice some allyship.
When you find yourself feeling helpless, find one or two small actions you can take to help others or to soothe and reconnect with yourself - a simple walk or feeding the birds in your garden can make all the difference.
My favourite topic this month
This month, I am researching the mental health of men, so here are some of my current reads and inspirations:
Masculinities in Schools by our Advisory Board Member, Lewis Wedlock (I cannot wait to read it; in the meantime Lewis is posting about it here).
Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood by William S Pollack
Iron John by Robert Bly
Fantasy, Online Misogyny and the Manosphere: Male Bodies of Dis/Inhibition by Jacob Johanssen
Broken Roads Lead Me Here: For Adults Who Live Each Day in Darkness by Colin Mackell
Remembered Forever: Our family's devastating story of domestic abuse and murder by Luke and Ryan Heart
An Existential Approach to Interpersonal Trauma: Modes of Existing and Confrontations with Reality by Marc Boaz
Resources and offerings
We will be talking about this a little bit more soon on our blog, so this is gentle reminder that my essay on the liberation journey of Yennefer de Vengerberg from the Witcher Universe is now available in multiple formats - in print, e-book and audio-book format.
Featured blog post - Our take on AI tools – privacy policy update
At Voxel Hub, our mission is to support good digital wellbeing. One of the key, critical aspects of our work is to do our best to avoid dark patterns in our design and marketing and remain transparent about how we operate. Hence, we do not offer ebooks linking to newsletter subscription, and our Privacy Policy is simple and clear. We keep our client records securely, especially those related to counselling and client work, of course. However, how we work and how our marketing is organised is centred around supporting, not tricking clients into loyalty. Despite the well-established UK GDPR law, we receive offers to scale our leads and purchase mailing lists DAILY. Sometimes, when I have the time and energy to respond, I do.
Today, I am writing an important update on something that has been entering mainstream workplace processes for quite a few years and entered the general public discourse (in my experience) last year – the AI tools. This year, we are starting to see some relevant statistics on AI use and attitudes, too (here’s just one example); however, we do not seem to be talking about AI disclosures or policies. The majority of AI experts support the AI disclosures. We know that consumers want AI disclosures, but are 49% less likely to buy from a brand that posts AI content. Ethan Mollick writes about the additional aspect of AI use: readers of AI-generated content believe it less if they know it was generated by AI.
So, what do we think at Voxel Hub? Well, as always, first thing I am going to say: it is complicated. AI tools are growing in popularity, and it can be incredibly tempting to use them for ideas and content generation to save on time, resources and energy. Managers and company owners who are under a lot of economic pressure may find AI solutions incredibly helpful. Business owners who designed their companies to exploit people for a lot of gain and very little investment may find AI solutions perfect for the job.
However, I would encourage a different question: where are we rushing, and what are we saving this energy and resources for? Providing our business is ethical, and by extension, planned to allow for rest, emergency resources and supportive services, what is the ACTUAL case for the use of AI tools to hack and hack and hack? If we aim to nurture our clients’ wellbeing and calm existence, while also supporting our staff, wouldn’t it make more sense to support creatives, researchers and other team members?
My take on Voxel Hub was always clear: we are open and support the wellbeing of all our stakeholders. Our aim is to promote a healthy life balance in the digital age. Our marketing is designed to explain who we are, what we do, but also to support our clients, not to mislead them. So today, we have updated our privacy policy with the following AI Disclaimer:
“We believe in full AI transparency. This website contains original, human-generated content only. Occasionally, we may conduct AI experiments on our blog with clear AI disclosure.”
Thank you for reading our Newsletter. Talk to us online, check out our blog and let us know what else you would like to see here in the upcoming months.
Stay safe. Stay well. Stay connected.
Sylwia
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