Introducing 'Plant Studies,' a New Series on Essential Life Topics (!) 🌸
Get ready to bloom!
Plant Studies is a six-month series of personal essays and self-guided courses, kicking off mid-April on Morning Person. It will cover the topics I believe are essential to reflect on, in order to live a fully engaged and meaningful life.
The name is inspired by an interaction I had with a professor while earning my master’s in mental health counseling. After watching videos of me practicing “therapy” with classmates, in a class on practical skills, she told me, “You’ve operated as a robot for most of your life, but you have a plant inside of you that you’ve been ignoring. You have to tend to that plant, and that plant is the part of you that should be connecting with the client, not the robot.”
The feedback prompted a year of intense self-reflection on many of the deeper topics we’ll be delving into here, and helped me begin to grasp the delicate internal work that is required to help others as a therapist at a much deeper level—as well as engage more meaningfully with my own life.
Each month will begin with a mini-course on a deeper topic, beginning with ‘Death + Mortality.’ (Kicking things off with something easy, breezy…) There will be essays on my own experience, prompts for reflection, monthly book clubs and Zoom meetings, and conversations with experts as we move through each topic, so you can engage with each as deeply as you’d like. There will be two to three posts each month dedicated to that month’s topics, but still plenty of classic Morning Person content! This is not meant to replace content, but add space for process and reflection. Here’s what we’ll be covering:
April | Death + Mortality
May | Awe + Attention
June | Addiction + Consumption
July | Love + Relationships
August | Ethics + Meaning
September | Integration + Embodiment
There will be plenty of recommended prompts and further reading, to take what you need and leave what you don’t! I’m sharing the things that inspired me, and added to my own life, but this is ultimately for you!
Subscribe to Morning Person! At the start of each month, I’ll share dates you should know, like RSVPs for Zoom gatherings and book club deadlines.
All of the goodness of Plant Studies is included in a paid subscription—there won’t be any unexpected subscription price change, and, as always, I offer some need-based scholarships. Just email me and we’ll work something out! I’m just genuinely excited to engage in these deeper topics with you, and see where they take you!
Here’s the schedule of topics I’ll be covering each month! Please let me know if there are certain experts you’d like me to interview, books you recommend, or specific angles you’d like to see covered—or simply anything you’re looking forward to! I have a plan for where I’d like to go each month, but this community is such a wealth of information. Comment with any thoughts or questions! x
Grief is often associated with the passing of a loved one, but grief can also present in many other formats. I’d love to see grief covered from alternative angles, such as grieving a decision you’ve made or a relationship that has ended or changed. I recently made a decision not to have children, and as a result I’ve experienced a lot of grief - grieving a life I now know I will never have and grieving relationships that have been impacted by my decision. Might be something to explore with this community.
Reading your newsletter today, I kept thinking, I want to do the same exploration but where do I begin? I’m thrilled that you are helping us take the same, important adventure. Thank you!