From paused to busy

If there is something I love doing, apart from drinking coffee, is to come up with new names and concepts.

Cake-away, Yodragon Yoga, Pause and Flow, Trend Tourist, The Colourblind and the Dyslexic, Somos Mag, you name it. In common, they have a really cool concept behind that rarely came to life.

Jokes apart, when people talk to me about an idea they have, a name for their project or business comes very naturally to me. This can be very nice or very annoying, in case they didn't ask. Nevertheless, apart from the times I was able to work on names for my own ideas, they rarely see the light of the day.

One of the main barriers to naming, is that the "creator" is usually so attached to their idea, their baby, that they don't know what they want to see, until they see it. This process can go on for days, weeks, even months, until there is the "ha!" moment: this is exactly what I am looking for -which is valid in other areas of life too, but that's another post. Sometimes it never happens and they prefer not to pay for your work.

Well, if this is not easy to navigate when you are the writer, it becomes even harder when you are both the ideator and the writer - some would say, that is why it is so important to have an external eye to help on projects. That and friends with great design skills. God bless them.

The first few writing projects I had, let's call them blogs, were so raw and wonky that just the idea of showing them to someone would make me blush. But what could I do? I had all these words, and feelings, and stories inside me that had to come out. Writing them on my diaries was lovely, but it was time to expose them.

So I did it, and the more I wrote, the less uncomfortable it got (feedback and reading other writers helps). Today I tend to share more my work but, above all, I practise constantly and consistently. Yes, I still question each and every word I write, specially on the self-sabotaging days, when does not matter how much love you put into stuff it feels not enough. But I keep going.

More recently, less than a year ago when I got myself the first full-time job in 5 years, I felt the need to rebrand my own brand, Pause and Flow. This name, as a lot of them, had came out of my morning meditation practise, that moment when the head is still clear from external crap and noise. I absolutely loved this name. Inspired by the Flow theory from Csikszentmihályi, the name was not only good for a wellbeing brand, but also made a lot of sense in the phase I was. I had recently quit my agency job in London to embarque on a crazy internal self-reflection journey.

What I've realised back then was that pausing is essencial in life, but you cannot pause forevers, otherwise you don't move; being in flow is blissful, but you only get there once you learn to take breaks and respects your body and life cycles in general.

Long story short, and after nearly 4 years writing, teaching yoga and meditation and hosting workshops on the behalf of Pause and Flow, I felt my heart was not there anymore. And what does one do when our heart is not there anymore? We pause, thank the lover and move on.

My heart is now at Sorry, I am busy! I am still not 100% sure how to describe fully, but I am super clear with what I want to do: inspire creative people to have a healthier relationship with their creative process, by learning to respect timings, cycles, other and the process. And this includes body, mind, spirit and fun.

Because creating is a process, not a destination that can be measured in likes and interactions, as new age wellbeing likes to be proud of.

Again, that is another story. For today, I just wanted to say I love words. And creating names. So don't be shy, like myself sometimes, and drop me a line if you need a name or just want to bounce some ideas.