The art of slowing down, a crash course on “masturdating” and eye-opening firsts that changed our understanding of self-care in the process
Was it just us or did January feel like a sprint and a crawl all at once? As we approached the finish line of the month that felt like forever, we at Wonder found ourselves setting up our first pocket event at a particularly busy juncture. We were doing things that took care of the now while planning like madmen for the next and backtracking on x, y and z in between. We’re sure this is something that you, our dear readers, do too: like something of a massive balancing act that requires you to wear many hats and give your 100% each time, every time.
A not-so-typical Thursday afternoon with life coach Kimi Lu, ceramic artist Iori Espiritu and fragrance specialist Bernadette Lim called to challenge all this. On January 31, we hosted our first-ever pocket event––a Wonder experience, if you will––that looked to treat some friends to a little calm and quiet at Local Edition Coffee & Tea in Makati’s Legaspi Village. In keeping with our theme for the month, this, for us, was the completion of that hard reset for January.
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What made this take on self-care special was that everything about the intimate gathering was familiar. There was a station for crystals, something most people know of to some extent. This knowledge, perhaps, comes from their mothers or grandmothers who would sport certain crystals for certain reasons. A pottery session was part of the afternoon, too. For some, this might have been part of a high school art class, done once but never again revisited. The day capped off with a sensorial experience featuring essential oils: the stuff of spa days and aromatherapy massages that we wouldn’t have figured could be made part of the every day.
Save for the picturesque setup created by visual storyteller Chichi Tullao, this self-care workshop was not at all about indulging in the outlandish or needlessly fancy. This approach to self-care meant stripping down the “now” and basking for a change in being right where you are. Believe it or not, for the busy person, it’s a lot harder than it sounds.
In this workshop, the “treat yourself” aspect of self-care was not the name of the game. This was more a masterclass on feeling: focusing on living in the moment so deliberately, it’s almost like you’re relearning how to use your senses. For a lot of us, that was the case. It was the experience getting our hands dirty during pottery; there was a rush from being able to create something out of nothing with your bare hands. In this day and age, where apps and smartphones rule all, we don’t get this creative with our hands anymore. This was also the experience learning about essential oils, where, for the first time in a long time, a lot of us did any deep, mindful breathing.
The fun activities, if anything, felt like a wakeup call: that we don’t slow down nearly enough to actually enjoy where we are. A realization that’s a little disconcerting, but a welcome lightbulb moment.
From talks about movies that influenced our lives (which told us we really should be watching to enrich and not just entertain) to discussions on gratitude, this afternoon felt like a perennial load had been lifted off of our shoulders. “Congratulations,” Kimi tells us. “You’ve just spent an afternoon masturdating together.”
As witty as this term is (to hear this after such a mellow session was hilarious, too), we do see the merit of going out alone or doing things for yourself and by yourself from time to time. Isn’t that what self-care is about, after all? So, here’s to taking on the rest of 2019, feeling a little refreshed, a little lighter with days we pledge to the wonderful new habit of masturdating.
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Photography Keana del Rosario
Videography and Editing Carl Louis Alvior
Art Alexandra Lara
