Sometimes, the brightest and most magical lightbulbs ping on when you’re immersed in the tasks that have a tendency to be put to the bottom of the list – and that’s exactly what happened to me on Thursday, 22nd October.
Practising one of my self care routines of clearing emails, sorting out life admin, the flicker of an idea began to push through the recesses of my mind.
This is what I love the best about these moments – when you allow ideas to form – I jotted it down to come back to later. Brain took over and wanted to make it complicated, a launch, a plan, pushing it back to a week out. Heart was shouting… just get on with it woman, stop making it so complicated.
That flicker shapeshifted into the glorious, luminous lightbulb that is the concept behind #celebratingmagicalconnection.
Sitting back, I had a moment of realisation: I’m all about PR with heart, I had just been invited to comment about what I’m all about in Authority magazine. So that was still relatively fresh in my mind.
My mission, and I’ve chosen to accept it, is one of truth, connection and tribe.
With out the right people around you, when you go it alone it can be a lonely place.
I realised I wanted to do something to honour and acknowledge the multitude of heart & soul-centred businesses and individuals I’ve met over the last three years.
To my mind, publicity is far from just being all about media coverage – it’s also about the dots, the connections, the deliciously divine doors that open and the people we meet along the way on this crazy journey that we call modern life.
Turning to focus a little on why I think there’s such potency in celebrating others and sharing stories, I come back to the very basic premise that humans, by their very nature, are meant to connect.
Humans have shared stories for as long as we can know: while there’s no definitive evidence of storytelling before the dawn of the written word, I think it’s safe to assume that it’s been central to human life for many thousands of years.
It costs absolutely nothing to tell people that they’ve inspired you, or to shout from the rooftops about the alchemy their presence has woven into your life at one time or another – it may be a fleeting touch of magic that leaves a legacy, or it could be a connection that blooms into the most beautiful and profound lifelong link – the kind of relationship that feels as though the other person has been with you in lives before this one.
From scrabbling on treacherously wet rocks, soaked to the bone in the inky bowels of Merlin’s Cave and roaring with hysterical laughter, to washing down breakfast tacos with morning margaritas in a hippy church in Austin, I look with sheer wonder at the treasure trove of memories I have created with some precious souls and never cease to marvel at them.
So, how best to go about celebrating the stories of those in your own wonderful networks?
I created a rough format, that I’ve used on my social media feeds for the last few days, along with the hashtag #celebratingmagicalconnection. I wanted it to be easy for me, so others might feel the call to share too. Already other business owners are adopting a version of this to share their stories which just makes my heart sing… and so I invite you to join me in doing the same, in whatever form feels good to you:
1. Honour your connections
2. Share the story
3. Share the love
4. Widen the circle
5. Pay it forward
Let’s use social media as a form of sorcery for good, by making those who have touched our lives in some way feel valued, and at the same time quite possibly bring these fabulous folk on to the radars of others who might just need a sprinkling of their gold dust.
I want to conclude this piece with these final words, because I truly feel that they capture the spirit of the #celebratingmagicalconnection movement: We rise together. We sit together. We are not alone. And so it is.