Welcome to my community. This space is for you
Welcome to my community. This space is for you
How I'm rewilding the internet with the what I'm calling “New Age Analogue”
***If you’re a scroller head straight to the end for essential deets. But remember sometimes it’s not all about the destination ;)
Hey there Gen X and Welcome!
Older Millennials and all of Gen X were the last generation to recall life before the internet.
We remember VHS, cassettes, photo albums and even Vinyl.
My first overseas back packing photos from the early 2000’s are still in photo albums in boxes in cupboards even though they were long ago digitised.
I remember being an early adopter of those tiny white iPods… were they called the shuffle?
My iPod classic lasting a good ten years until it finally died in 2014 or thereabouts.
You might also recall the early days of blogging and the communities that were created and the IRL friendships that grew from this.
So many women in my extended community that I have long since created real life friendship and business connections with came out of a period of time around 2010 to 2014.
Instagram was also brand new and it connected lots of us that were seeking community and creativity.
Kris Franken who I eventually met in Sydney has since moved north and written two books, Ros and I have our podcast and she teaches much needed work on the nervous system, Nicole Mathieson published her first book this year too.
Many of these friendships sprung from Blog Hearted an incredible online course by Rach Macdonald. Other magical connections brought to me by the internet include Lauren from Inner Hue and Alex from Violet Gray. These all formed in a time when the internet seemed a much smaller and less shouty place.
I’m not sure if that was true necessarily but it was certainly much newer.
These women and so so many more across the world have watched each other over the years grow and pivot, get married, get divorced, have babies, move countries and create magical things on the internet. I for one love this way of connection and would hate to see it suddenly vanish.
So this isn’t one of those pieces where I idealise and romanticise the past and ignore the context. It is however a recognition of the many things I loved about the internet communities of the past and I believe gives us hints of how to move forward.
As course creators, creatives, and businesses we get to bring as much of what we love from the past with us as we move forward into this age of AI and digital realities.
As users and creators of this new space we do actually have a say.
At the beginning of the year I sent out an email to my small newsletter community.
Many of these people have been with me for a decade or more as I too have grown and changed in direction from my Rockupucnture Roadshow days to online course offerings and coaching.
They are health practitioners, business owners, creatives, and seekers of wellbeing knowledge.
I asked them, “Where to now?” I wanted to continue to have real sometimes long conversations. I rebelled at the idea of having to shrink my ideas, and creations down to 15sec, not because I don’t know how or am against any thing new! Far from it.
Sharing on instagram whilst free is guiding our choices in creation and the much maligned algorithm rewards fast creation of short videos. Long form it has been proclaimed is dead! Well I have news for you it’s absolutely not. I mean when was the last time you read a book? I read two on a weekend away three weeks ago.
In response to that email and across the last few weeks here on Substack those responding in my dms have been sharing that they too are feeling lost, frustrated, confused about the state of play.
Do they continue sharing their health practices on instagram when more and more it feels fake and forced?
What the hell do we do about the wellness washing of genuine health care that I mentioned in my article here?
So what do we do?
Well of course I think we can do both! And I want to share here how I am doing that and that the reason I’m creating this Substack is so that you might too.
Why I am excited about Substack and why I want you to be too!
Firstly like in the olden days of blogging I am going to be HERE in the comments. Those of you who have messaged me and even those of you who haven’t but have thought it, you get to be here TOGETHER instead of just one on one with me in my dms.
Chatting to you one on one is delightful and something I still thoroughly enjoy about the internet but also, it’s a lot, and multiple magical humans sharing in a HELD space means more creative ways of problem solving and cheerleading within the conversations we are having.
And no you don’t suddenly need to live here like myspace lol but considering the amount of hours used in mindless scrolling how about we take a couple of those hours a week and actually learn, question laugh and connect.. together?
Prioritising community isn’t nostalgia, it’s a human need, and there are ways to do it well, even in times of hardship as we have found over the last few years.
Here is how I’m fitting that into my digital day-
I have been ruthlessly unfollowing on instagram.
I’m not anti anything, I don’t have time to whine and whinge about the socials. Our attention is what is being sold on these platforms this isn’t news!
There is just no way any of us need so much information crammed into your brain without warning on any given day.
Choose your path.
You can re follow or seek out new content at any time.
“But I know this person its awkward!” Ok so if I know you personally and this is your business account and I’m not your ideal client then sorry but I unfollow and possibly follow your personal page or sign up for your newsletter to stay in the loop if I like.
If I just don’t enjoy an instagram page but they offer content that is valuable to me in some way for eg acupuncture courses, I sign up to your newsletter or substack and then I get to stay in the loop, skim or see the headlines that I need to know about. (there is no guarantee that I would actually see your posts about your offerings anyway so this is always the preferable way to go!)
And yes you guessed it I am also unsubscribing emails like a maniac too.
All those retail businesses that I’m receiving multiple emails from because I signed up from both emails. Yup unsubscribe.
And what’s that you’re asking? When do you have time to read all these things Keri?
Well you know that 3-4 hours a day we statistically spend scrolling?
On the loo (don’t get me started on this) at the coffee shop, in the queue.
Yep I’m reading your Substack article or email newsletter .
I’ve read the blow by blow hardship of being in lockdown in Italy, (whilst sorting my money story) I discover the magic occurring in Lindseys life in Belgium, I read gorgeous poetry from people that I have never heard about before but have been recommended.
And my brain and my heart feel nourished, I don’t feel over stimulated and I just get to BE in my little (sometimes large) community that spans the surrounding 20ks where I live and across the oceans to those I love and those whose words speak to my soul.
Discernement my loves.
It’s possible that as non digital natives that we have felt that we need to consume it all and stay across it all. This is as impossible as counting grains of sand on the beach, and at least if we were counting sand our Vitamin D levels would be decent.
Bare bones of what you need to know- Stop here if you’re scrolling!
This is what is on offer in the magical new substack portal.
Free subscription - mostly weekly articles like this and this..
Sometimes they might even be shorter :)
Paid subscription - industry articles around Wellness, Chinese Medicine, Health and my Peri-menopause book content. If you haven’t read or listened to this, pop on the kettle!
I cannot wait for the conversations on these topics. PLEASE don’t be shy!
This workbook above is just the first of many valuable pieces of content that will exclusively be available to paid subscribers here on You’re Not Going Crazy.
Founding subscription will get the paid articles AND instant access to my courses such as the Emotional Wellbeing Masterclass as well as all the content I have ever written for my mentoring and coaching clients, workplaces wellness workshops and so much more. These are worth thousands and are yours for the suggested price OR a number you get to choose that is at least above the annual sub. I think that’s a bloody good offer :)
For all paid subscribers I will be in the comments weekly and I have plans to create discussion threads for things like this series here which is nearly over and doing my head in!!!
I would love to hear your thoughts on all this.
And also please pretty please, one of the most important ways that we get to have this conversation is by you sharing this with your community or besties.
Keri
x
PS It’s called You’re Not Going Crazy, because you’re not, and so often as women in this world the first response we have to shit being shit is to wonder if we’re going nuts. So just in case you’re wondering … you’re not!