What elements nourish the ecosystem of your life—either a certain aspect or the whole of it?

Taking inspiring from Christian Totty and Nourishing Ecologies

Whitehall Gardens, Embankment, London

On my way back from London this weekend, I read Christian Totty’s recent post titled Nourishing Ecologies, where the question, “What elements nourish the ecosystem of your life—either a certain aspect or the whole of it?” was asked and has stayed with me. Totty’s piece takes inspiring from Jamie Figueroa essay, ‘What Nourishes Your Writing Ecosystem?’, where they state that “as artists, as writers, our lives are whole ecosystems,” where there are conditions or elements in life which help and support our creativity versus things what can hindered it. I’ve been pondering this a lot since reading it and I thought I’d take this space, this month’s Studio Notes to explore it further or try and gain some clarity around my writing, creative ecosystem.

I’m completing a Permaculture Design Certificate course this year and the last meeting I was at, when we broke up into groups to discuss something or other and our practice, one participant was trying out using ‘ecologies’ instead of the word ‘system’. We were trying to work out what ecologies meant and how it’s being used in different ways now in different contexts.

Being a past geography student, I took the subject to degree level with English, I’ve always used ecology to mean the study of living organisms in connection or relationship to each other. The interconnections between humans and the physical environment, the plants, the animals, and everything else in this world and how we each depend on each other for life. Within this basic ecology idea are different types or levels for considering organisms like the individual ecologies, community ecologies, population and ecosystems and biosphere ecologies.

Now I realise that the scope can be huge but also can be small scale when I bring it home to me and my body and start to consider the ecosystems I practice and cherish that supports and sustain not just my creative life but my whole life.

So coming back to this question at the beginning, ‘What elements nourish the ecosystem of your life—either a certain aspect or the whole of it?’, I’ve realised that over the past few years, since the pandemic, marriage breakdown and subsequent divorce and whole new single life, I’ve been subconsciously trying out or trying to work out what does support and nourishes me as a whole. What brings me back to myself and the page?

I know I was tired of being in a marriage where O felt unloved and unappreciated, hence me walking out. It was no longer serving me but slowing killing me. But I know that this wasn’t the source of my problems, but it was harming me. It was eating into my self-esteem and self-worth. Changes had to be made but change takes time. And I’m still in the process of finding, or establishing my ideal ecosystem for my creativity and life.

Trial and error, a lot of errors, have taken place n the last three years.

Sometimes I think I’ve got it, got an ecosystem in place that’s working; found it, only to be distracted and lose it again. Forget or neglect the facts of what feels right in the moment and I feel is working. And what I mean by ‘working’, I mean I’m in the flow. I’m tingling with excitement each day. I’m reaching for the light and languishing in the light. My creative pot is full and ready to overflow with ideas and play and fun and joy. I’m feeling myself. I’m feeling full of myself. Do you know that feeling?

So I’ve been thinking these last few days about those elements of my ecosystem which nourish and sustain those conductive conditions for a juicy, abundant creative life. And at the moment the list of elements for my ecosystem include meditation, insight timer style; long or short walks in new and old places; sea swimming and warm up coffee with visual journal afterwards; barefoot walking on grass or sand; rest when I can turn off that incessant voice saying I should be doing something; conversations with friends and other creatives; firm boundaries and clear commitments; reading for research and fun; water, teas, coffees; cafe culture with writing workshops; fruit and vegetables bowls; crime documentaries; music galore, all kinds; art and art galleries and artists talking about their work; doughnuts; the awe and wonder I experience when with nature; a questioning spirit; a gratitude practice; an outlet to share with others in a public way but on my own terms.

When this ecosystem is locked in I’m buzzing. I’m vibrating at another level and I’m creating and in love. I’m in love with myself, my life and this world. This fills me with hope and allows me to keep going, to keep dreaming and creating.

My word of the year is listen. And it hasn't been a blatant, incessant focus as some of the past words have been, but it’s been a powerful influence nonetheless. I think its allowed me to remain open, and fluid as I pay attention to my inner knowing, my inner workings which are always crying out for me to listen to them. Because that’s where the wisdom, beauty and my true self lies.

The bottom line is my inner wisdom is always cheerleading me on to be more fully, more totally me in every situation more of the time. And I get that now but I know I can fulfil this wish for myself when I’m singing through my own ecosystem which is full of those elements that nourishes and supports me in this one beautiful, abundant life.

So I thank Christian Totty for asking the question an now I pass it on to you, “What elements nourish the ecosystem of your life—either a certain aspect or the whole of it?”