🐙✨The Nexialist #0042
My Octopus Teacher | Octopus in My House | How to Bend Without Breaking | Santé | The Best Social Conference | Unfinished
Welcome to my cozy corner of content discovery, The Nexialist
This week’s Nexialist will be a bit shorter (and a bit late, Happy Friday!). Firstly, I would like to thank all of the heartwarming get-well messages, it definitely put some spark in my heart and soul.
Secondly, I would also like to share quite a personal story:
On the second night of the facial paralysis, a nightmare woke me up: a red octopus was eating the right side of my face. It was so real, I could feel its tentacles wrapping around my face and I could even feel the suckers touching my skin and the beak approaching my ear. I woke up breathless and in pain. In my dream, the octopus had an evil face.
What’s uncanny is that I have an octopus tattooed on my right arm, the same side of the paralysis. It’s been there for around 5 years, a red giant octopus holding a submarine. I could not stop thinking about it, as if there was a message I could get from it.
🐙My Octopus Teacher
I had this movie on my watchlist for a while (it won Best Documentary in the last Academy Awards), so last Monday when I took the evening to be alone and rest, I thought it was my chance to watch it. It was exactly what I needed. For a year, Craig Foster dives daily and films the life of this cute octopus, revealing so much intelligence and curiosity. The images are fascinating and the way the story is made me watch it nonstop. The message that stayed with me is about resilience, creativity, and curiosity. I also had forgotten these animals have the fascinating ability to regenerate themselves, and of course, this was a great reminder for this period. My tattoo has a whole new meaning now.
🧶Octopus in My House
The same week, Octopus in My House from BBC Earth kept popping up as suggested on my Youtube. I watched a couple of episodes and I’m in love. It is such a great idea to see how this animal, so different from us, interacts inside a home. The way Heidi (yes, that’s the octopus’ name) moves around, looks at people, plays and even dreams is just such a joy to watch.
The Octopus In My House: A professor develops an extraordinary relationship with an octopus when he invites it to live in his home. The octopus, called Heidi, unravels puzzles, recognises individual humans and even watches TV with the family. The episode also shows remarkable behaviour from around the world - from the day octopus, which can change colour and texture in a split second, to the coconut octopus, which carries around its own coconut shell to hide in. But most fascinating of all is seeing how Professor David Scheel and his daughter Laurel bond with an animal that has nine brains, three hearts and blue blood running through its veins.
🧘How to Bend Without Breaking
Esther Perel does monthly workshops for free on Youtube. In this class about adaptability, she brings some powerful images and questions. For instance, since Coronavirus hit, were the changes in your life more reactive (yourself adapting to the outside) or proactive (you felt you needed to change?). It’s always a joy to learn from her.
…Adaptation: one spiritual counselor was writing it really depends on what type of tree you are. So i closed my eyes and I started to imagine the kind of tree I am. You know the willow, she weeps over the water is actually always bent over. The mighty oak believes that it's king and grows to poke a hole in the sky. But when the wind comes the weeping willow lives and the oak falls.
🥂Santé
Stromae is back with a new single and the name is Santé. Very timely!
🫀The Best Social Conference
Yes, I have invited you and I’ll invite you again because I am super proud of our program. Some of the people I have mentioned here will be there, such as Matt Klein (Zine Newsletter), digital fashion house The Fabricant, Dr. Itoro Emembolu (talking about Digital Fluency), Gustavo Nogueira (Torus Time Lab), and Pablo Rochat. It’s one day of talks, panels, workshops, and networking about the future of social media through creativity, innovation, and impact. Here you can check out the program and there’s a coupon with discount for you: THENEXIALIST.
🖤UNFINISHED
Also, next week #UNFINISHED21 is happening. It’s a one-week-long multidisciplinary experience taking place online. Just reading their manifesto brings me hope.
We are a vibrant community of global thinkers and makers. Part festival, part talks, part art, part undefined, it is an experience in constant evolution.
The name UNFINISHED reflects our core belief: that making the world a more conscious place is a continuous work in progress. That we should never stop growing and questioning ourselves. That we should be willing to take risks and learn from failure. That is why we bring together a wide range of exceptional people from all backgrounds and age groups, offering them radical venues and ever-evolving gatherings for honest dialogue, knowledge-sharing and the creation of lasting connections.
UNFINISHED surpasses the thresholds of classic event structures and bridges the gaps – both geographical and cognitive – between people, between generations and between practices. And beyond these bridges, we delve into what sprouts in between disciplines and anticipate what is not yet defined as one. We thus celebrate curiosity as the single most important shared value in the quest for change across fields and borders.
❤️If anything made your brain tingle, click like and don't hesitate to share it with the world. It helps The Nexialist to reach more curious minds. See you next week!🦦
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🤙Call me…
If you like what you see here and your project, brand or business needs some ideas or inspiration from outside your bubble, maybe you need a Nexialist to help you out 🙋🏻♂️ I can participate in brainstorms and workshops, guide inspiration sessions, or provide you with creative research. You can always send me an e-mail to figure something out together.