Walden Gathering: Self-Care

the silver bullet for productivity

What we act on today will determine the world we will live in tomorrow.

As we continue to climb the proverbial ladder of success, unlocking the next level of personal and professional growth continues to get harder and more stressful.

Gone are the days where doing more, sleeping less and being busier are the keys to reach the next level. Instead, a focus on self-care has been proven to increase productivity, creativity and happiness.

Our choices today build the world we’ll inherit tomorrow

The idea of self-care can sometimes be aspirational, amorphous, and unattainable. In this Walden Gathering, we discussed how to make self-care actionable and maintainable.

THE WALDEN GATHERING FOCUSED ON these questions:

How do we make some of the emotional and spiritual rehabilitation self care ideas actionable?
How can we use our leadership positions to model for others that success does not come merely through burning the candle at both ends?
Is it important to measure incremental productivity achieved through self-care? If so, how?
If you are a person who defaults to “Yes!”, how can you ensure you first take care of yourself and lead by example?

Walking Discussions

We started the day with a rigorous networking hike around the Walden property.

A steady uphill climb among the leafy coastal oaks, let us breathe and introduce ourselves in a relaxed style.

Let’s step away from our desks, and into nature

Gathering Discussions

Following the morning hike a farm to table breakfast was served; providing Nick Jekogian with the opportunity to introduce the philosophies behind Walden Gathering.

“We use a design-thinking format around the table, walking discussions on nature trails, and guided meditation to inspire the group to solve big problems. Instead of the hyper-intense networking of your typical conference, participants spend the entire day outside with a carefully curated small and diverse group of people.”

During these discussions, participants break up into groups to increase contributions and engagement. Topics are addressed, opinions are shared and summaries are presented to all.

Key Themes

There is a beauty to the people that select into a Walden Gathering. They are open to new experiences, embrace new connections, share, listen, and often, say yes too much. In this Walden Gathering, through our hikes, meals and breakout sessions, we covered a range of topics:

How to lead (and push) while caring for yourself, and ensuring your team cares for themselves
What was holding us back from taking better care of ourselves
What are small ways to practice self-care, and encourage others to do so
How Nature is a catalyst for us to care for ourselves (and how we can foster this sense even when at our desk)

WALDEN GATHERINGS ARE NOT JUST FOCUSED ON TALKING ABOUT SOLUTIONS, BUT PUTTING SOLUTIONS INTO ACTION.

While ideas are shared throughout the day, we gather to create change.

In order to improve the world around us, we must not only speak about the issues at hand, but work towards solutions. The point of the discussions is to establish the framework for identifying and understanding the problems.

As always, new friendships were formed, walls were broken and many laughs (and toasts) were had. This group continues to stay connected and has started a whatsapp group to encourage each other to step away from the daily grind to find nature and think about the bigger picture.

We aim to bring together passionate individuals, groups and organizations to gather, learn and collaborate in small groups on how best to contribute and invest their time, talent and resources to innovative solutions -- and then take them back into the world. We see everyone who joins as an equal expert at the table because we believe in the wisdom of the crowd to find solutions.