Category: Uncategorized

It’s such a simple idea.

This will stop you in your tracks, honest.

Here goes.

So. Creativity is about connecting the dots. That’s a given. That’s what creatives do. They see links and connections where others don’t.

Great.

But to be able to connect the dots, you’ve got to have some dots in the first place!

(Told you this would be simple.)

So before you can connect them, you’ve got to collect the dots.

And that’s where this wandering business comes in.

We wander the streets (or the forests or the plains) to collect the dots.

And then we connect them.

It’s so simple.

Honestly, it threw us too.

*****

Inspired? Street Wisdom is all about finding better ways. Join a Walkshop near you, or head out for your own wander right now with our Tune Ups. Buy your own copy of Wanderful, all profits go back into Street Wisdom to help keep it free.

Thank you to rawpixel.com for this gorgeous dotty picture!

At the heart of Street Wisdom is a simple, central idea: #SeeThingsDifferently. This extra exercise – which is a great accompaniment to reading Wanderful – is all about playing with your seeing. Enjoy!

*****

Inspired? Fancy some more Street Wisdom? Join a Walkshop near you, or head out for your own wander right now with our Tune Ups. Buy your own copy of Wanderful, all profits go back into Street Wisdom to help keep it free. Share your insights and follow us @StreetWisdom_

In a new series of Walks for you to try out by yourself using our audio guides, we continue with Climate. Plug in your earphones, pop your shoes on, and head out to the streets!

When might you want to go on a Climate Walk?

We can often feel more overwhelmed than motivated when it comes to the climate crisis, especially regarding what we can do to mitigate it on a personal or social level. But the truth is – we need to stay tuned in and ready to act, across all the different kinds of action. There’s also a gargantuan job for the imagination here! There are all kinds of things as yet unimagined that need to happen to make sure we keep temperature rises lower than 1.5 degrees by 2050. For anyone who wants to use their imagination and navigation system (your body!) to find #BetterWays to mitigate the climate crisis, this Walk is for you!

What do you need to go on this Walk?

Yourself, of course. (All of those bits of you, no hiding now.) A little bit of time, 45 minutes is great, give yourself an hour if you can. Shoes and weather-proof clothing are useful. And a phone with headphones so you can listen to our audio guides.

OK, let’s go!

And just to say: firstly – thanks for being here. It means you’re doing something for yourself, about yourself, but also about the world around you, which might make all the difference. Secondly, and more practically, you’re going to do three short Tune Ups to get your amazing navigation system (your body!) into a good place for your Quest, each of about ten minutes. Then you’re going to go on a Quest of about fifteen minutes (longer if you have more time) focused on Climate. Right, let’s do this.

Tune Up One: Let’s Get Curious

About 10 mins.

The first Tune Up is all about tuning in to the world around us and getting curious.

Click play and start wandering now.

Tune Up Two: Take Your Time

About 10 mins.

The second Tune Up is about slowing down and making more time, to allow more space between the gaps so to speak.

Click play and start wandering (more slowly!) now.

Tune Up Three: Lighting Up Life

About 10 mins.

The third Tune Up is about sensing the beauty all around you. It really is a beautiful wake-up call. Don’t miss a thing!

Click play and start wandering beautifully now.

The Quest: Climate

About 15 mins (or longer if you like).

Now you’re all tuned up, your navigation system (aka your body, your mind, your heart, your DNA, your footprint, your imagination, all your senses including your wonderful sense of self) can go on your Climate Quest.

Click play and consider using some of these quests below as prompts for your own Climate enquiry

• Streets, show me options for how I can better do my bit for the climate
• How can I make today an unusually imaginative day?
• How can I appreciate the world around me more?
• Dear streets, give me some ideas for how I can make my work more climate-related
• Hello world, show me what I’ve been missing
• How can [insert your name] keep hopeful during the climate crisis?

Oh, the advanced version?

Ask a friendly-looking stranger your question. Answers are everywhere, and teachers are everywhere too.

If you’ve found this Climate Walk useful

…and we hope you have, then share it with a friend or member of your family. It’s free, after all, and showing them you care really could make all the difference.

If you can, tell us how you found it, email us at [email protected]. We can’t wait to hear from you.

Happy wandering!

*****

Inspired? Fancy some more Street Wisdom? Join a Walkshop near you, or head out for your own wander right now with our Tune Ups. Buy your own copy of Wanderful, all profits go back into Street Wisdom to help keep it free. Share your insights and follow us @StreetWisdom_

Thank you for rawpixel.com for the use of this pic!

What is it?

Street Wisdom is an everyday creative practice you use as you walk. A smart fusion of mindfulness, neuroscience, wellbeing and imagination, it unlocks our minds and unblocks our creativity with every step.

How does it work?

It’s a simple idea, based on the proposition that the environment and people around us are full of wisdom we largely overlook or ignore. Street Wisdom allows us to tune into the rich stimulus and learn all that latent wisdom.

Who is it for?

It’s for anyone who has questions about their life and/or work and wants some fresh answers. It is relevant for anyone tackling a challenge in their working life, figuring out what’s next, struggling with the day-to-day stuff or seeking that inspirational breakthrough.

So how do I get started?

You can have a go right now! Pop your airpods in and click play on our audio guides, which are the essence of the practice beautifully narrated by Street Wisdom founder David Pearl. Be prepared to take part actively as he guides you through the whole process. If you want a more personal experience, you can also sign up to an in-person or online Walkshop at the Street Wisdom website.

Who is behind it?

Street Wisdom is a non-profit venture and registered Community Interest Company (no. 9848643) conceived by entrepreneur and business innovator David Pearl who experimented with the idea for several years before teaming up with a bunch of wonderful volunteers who are now taking it out into an unsuspecting world!

*****

Inspired? Street Wisdom is all about finding better ways. Join a Walkshop near you, or head out for your own wander right now with our Tune Ups. Buy your own copy of Wanderful, all profits go back into Street Wisdom to help keep it free.

We met the wonderful people of PlacemakingX recently, and got thinking together: when does a street become a place? And how can Street Wisdom – or more specifically, the people who have a regular Street Wisdom practice – help with the placemaking mission?

Firstly, what is placemaking?

It seems to us, placemaking is about shaping our shared public spaces so that everyone has an opportunity to shine.

As PlacemakingX say, it’s about “collectively reimagining and reinventing public spaces as the heart of their community”.

They go further:

Strengthening the connection between people and the places they share, “placemaking” offers a collaborative process by which we can shape our public realm in order to maximize its value to everyone. More than just promoting better urban design, placemaking facilitates more satisfying patterns of public use by paying particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its evolution.

OK, so how is Street Wisdom connected (even implicitly) to placemaking?

Let’s go this way. So, one of the founders of placemaking as a movement was William Whyte, and he seems to have lots in common with Street Wisdom!

William Whyte was known as the “Observation Man”. (We like him already.)

He thought we could learn from how people use public spaces only if we “look hard, with a clean, clear mind, and then look again – and believe what [we] see”.

Observation like this is at the heart of Street Wisdom.

During every Street Wisdom Walkshop, we encourage people to slow down and look at the world around them with fresh eyes, to be “drawn to what attracts you, and notice what doesn’t”. We also invite people to “sense the beauty in everything”, even those things that seem at first completely unappealing. That’s Whyte’s kind of “looking hard, with a clean, clear mind, and then looking again and believing what [we] see”.

Both these invitations get people seeing (and believing) the world through new eyes, which is vital to both placemaking and the Street Wisdom process.

It goes further! Placemaking, like Street Wisdom, is interested in getting people who don’t know each other to connect. That’s what makes a place a place, after all.

Whyte used the word “triangulation” to refer to “the process by which some external stimulus provides a linkage between people and prompts strangers to talk to other strangers as if they knew each other”.

At Street Wisdom, we provide people with a similar ‘linkage’ (through our shared activity) and encourage our participants to connect with strangers (each other and passers-by) by sharing their Quest, “as if they know each other”. After all, whatever questions we have going on for us in our private lives are probably shared by people not too far away from us.

Whyte knew that the only way to make the changes that were necessary to making a place a place was to leave your assumptions behind and go down to the streets and walk and observe. It didn’t have to be grandiose. Whyte knew, the magic happens in the ordinary.

That’s so Street Wisdom!

Street Wisdom encourages strangers to come together to slow down, explore and enjoy the streets around them and find answers to questions they’ve had for a while.

Streets are places to come together, share our dreams, ideas and imaginations, and wonder what’s next for ourselves individually and us all collectively.

That’s surely in line with the ambitions of the beautiful global placemaking movement?

*****

Inspired? Street Wisdom is all about finding better ways. Join a Walkshop near you, or head out for your own wander right now with our Tune Ups. Buy your own copy of Wanderful, all profits go back into Street Wisdom to help keep it free.

Thanks to rawpixel.com for this gorgeous pic!

At the heart of Street Wisdom is a simple, central idea: #AnswersAreEverywhere. And part of that is #TeachersAreEverywhere. Strangers, semi-strangers, magical strangers, perfect strangers are all around. This extra exercise – which is a great accompaniment to reading Wanderful – is all about strengthening your relationship with the people around you. Enjoy!

*****

Inspired? Fancy some more Street Wisdom? Join a Walkshop near you, or head out for your own wander right now with our Tune Ups. Buy your own copy of Wanderful, all profits go back into Street Wisdom to help keep it free. Share your insights and follow us @StreetWisdom_

In a new series of Walks for you to try out by yourself using our audio guides, we continue with your Relationships. Plug in your earphones, pop your shoes on, and head out to the streets!

When might you want to go on a Relationships Walk?

We have all kinds of relationships – with our family, our friends, our work colleagues, our lovers, our wise and our weary. And let’s face it, it’s not always sunshine and flowers, is it? If you’re struggling to keep in contact, not sure how to end a romantic liaison, want to find #BetterWays to be a good friend, or are just looking for a bit of you-time to think about your relationship with your relationships, this is the Walk for you!

What do you need to go on this Walk?

Yourself, of course. (All of those bits of you, no hiding now.) A little bit of time, 45 minutes is great, give yourself an hour if you can. Shoes and weather-proof clothing are useful. And a phone with headphones so you can listen to our audio guides.

OK, let’s go!

And just to say: firstly – thanks for being here. It means you’re doing something for yourself, about yourself, which might make all the difference. Secondly, and more practically, you’re going to do three short Tune Ups to get your amazing navigation system (your body!) into a good place for your Quest, each of about ten minutes. Then you’re going to go on a Quest of about fifteen minutes (longer if you have more time) focused on your Relationships. Right, let’s do this.

Tune Up One: Let’s Get Curious

About 10 mins.

The first Tune Up is all about tuning in to the world around us and getting curious.

Click play and start wandering now.

Tune Up Two: Take Your Time

About 10 mins.

The second Tune Up is about slowing down and making more time, to allow more space between the gaps so to speak.

Click play and start wandering (more slowly!) now.

Tune Up Three: Lighting Up Life

About 10 mins.

The third Tune Up is about sensing the beauty all around you. It really is a beautiful wake-up call. Don’t miss a thing!

Click play and start wandering beautifully now.

The Quest: Relationships

About 15 mins (or longer if you like).

Now you’re all tuned up, your navigation system (aka your body, your mind, your heart, your DNA, your footprint, your imagination, all your senses including your wonderful sense of self) can go on your Relationships Quest.

Click play and consider using some of these quests below as prompts for your own Relationships enquiry

• Streets, show me options for how I might be an amazing friend
• How can I make today an unusually connected day?
• What do I need to do to be me in my relationships?
• Dear streets, give me some ideas for how I can expand my support network
• Show me some different ways of relating to myself and others
• How can [insert your name] find fulfilment in [his/her/their] relationships?

Oh, the advanced version?

Ask a friendly-looking stranger your question. Answers are everywhere, and teachers are everywhere too.

If you’ve found this Relationships Walk useful

…and we hope you have, then share it with a friend or member of your family. It’s free, after all, and showing them you care really could make all the difference.

If you can, tell us how you found it, email us at [email protected]. We can’t wait to hear from you.

Happy wandering!

*****

Inspired? Fancy some more Street Wisdom? Join a Walkshop near you, or head out for your own wander right now with our Tune Ups. Buy your own copy of Wanderful, all profits go back into Street Wisdom to help keep it free. Share your insights and follow us @StreetWisdom_

Thank you for rawpixel.com for the use of this pic!

This brilliant New York Times article on walking (“Whatever The Problem, It’s Probably Solved By Walking”) is well worth a read, as it explores the Street Wisdom idea that a walk is good for you not just for the physical benefits. There’s something else going on. It’s very interesting, reader!

We also love the amazing use of quotes throughout the piece and thought we’d gather them all together here, in case you fancied reading them together.

“Walking is man’s best medicine.”
Hippocrates

“If you are in a bad mood, go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk.”
Hippocrates

“I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”
Soren Kierkegaard

“If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish.”
Charles Dickens

Now shall I walk
Or shall I ride?
“Ride,” Pleasure said.
“Walk,” Joy replied.
W.H. Davies

“Thoughts come clearly while one walks.”
Thomas Mann

“[There is] nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas”
J.K. Rowling

“[Walking] is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the life of things.”
Elizabeth von Arnim

“There is something about walking that animates and activates my ideas.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

“I only went out for a walk and … going out, I found, was really going in.”
John Muir

*****

Inspired? Fancy some more Street Wisdom? Join a Walkshop near you, or head out for your own wander right now with our Tune Ups. Buy your own copy of Wanderful, all profits go back into Street Wisdom to help keep it free. Share your insights and follow us @StreetWisdom_

David Pearl, social enterprise inventor, innovator of the wiggliest kind, nice tall bloke who can often be found singing, wrote Wanderful: Human Navigation for a Complex World to help us all understand his thinking behind Street Wisdom a bit more. And hey, as well as being a Very Good Read,  with some Really Good Insights, it’s also had some Fantastic Reviews! 5 stars throughout in fact. We thought we’d share them with you and, well, who knows, make David smile next time he visits the Street Wisdom blog!

And if you’re intrigued enough to read on, buy Wanderful from us or your nearest local bookseller!

*****

Inspired? Fancy some more Street Wisdom? Join a Walkshop near you, or head out for your own wander right now with our Tune Ups. Buy your own copy of Wanderful, all profits go back into Street Wisdom to help keep it free. Share your insights and follow us @StreetWisdom_