Deep breath…

How do we ground ourselves in our work while rooting in this ultimate truth? More so, how do we navigate when we take the time to plan the work with intention and care, only to see our plans going South?

Well, that is what happened to us this year, kind of. Let’s rewind a little…

On the importance of a wellbeing economy…

2022 brought the ominous phrase of the “cost-of-living crisis” to prominence. All around the globe, everyday goods and services are getting more expensive, especially for the already economically marginalised. In one way, it’s an absurd phrase because there should not be a cost to simply surviving and staying alive. In another way, the phrase conceals the reality that our current economic models are actively withering human and more-than-human life systems rather than serving their flourishing.

This year, we rooted our systems work deeper into advocating for a post-growth and wellbeing economy. A wellbeing economy aims to put the wellbeing of people and planet first (as one), and understands that economic systems change is needed to unblock issues across the spectrum of different social, economic and environmental struggles. There are a range of organisations, movements, and alliances addressing the different component parts of human and environmental wellbeing, and at Recipes for Wellbeing we are tackling one key component around changemaking and wellbeing. We were also proud to join as a member of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance this year, which is a global collaboration of 200 individuals, organisations, governments, academics, communities, and businesses working towards a wellbeing economy, delivering human and ecological wellbeing.

But we also faced challenges in navigating the reality of funding systems with this approach. In our blog post “2021 in Review: Pushed to the Edges of Resilience” (published on 23rd December 2021), we outlined the development of our “Wholebeing Framework” as a key priority for 2022. We knew that additional funding would be required for such an ambitious endeavour, so we started collaborating with our Wellbeing Fundraiser, David Martin. David brilliantly facilitated us through restructuring how we think about our services, products, and offerings in a way that is more aligned with our theory and system of change. However, despite all the incredible work we put in, we did not succeed in finding an aligned partner ready (yet) to support this groundbreaking project. We would be lying if we said we were not disappointed, so we are taking some time to reassess how we can move forward with this while ensuring that we stay true to our values and wellbeing economics philosophy.

On publishing content for wellbeing…

While the fundraising was going on, we also focused our efforts on expanding our online library of wellbeing resources. We had set an initial target of reaching 200 recipes (from a total of 174 at the end of 2021) and we are pleased to announce that we not only met that goal but highly surpassed it! In fact, our online library now counts 250 (!) recipes, mostly thanks to our Wellbeing Content Writer, Marissa Del Mistro. We are particularly proud of having expanded our online library to include “new” sections such as “Communities” and “Youth” (we had added “Gender” and “Organisations” last year). We are now in the process of adding an entire new systemic wellbeing economy set of recipes, including themes such as Doughnut Economics, Community Wealth Building, Economic democracy, and Culivating a Core Economy. There are sooo many great recipes there so choose what you are interested in or browse through the entire library!

We also want to thank Kimberly Carpenter of Thunder and Ice Cream for creating two beautiful icons for the “Communities” and “Youth” categories, our Wellbeing Illustrator Heliana Lubis for all the gorgeous illustrations for each recipe, and all the various contributors who kindly donated one (or more) wellbeing recipes – Dream a Dream, One Future Collective, and Jiezhen Wu. Lastly, our gratitude goes to The Wellbeing Project, which has regularly shared some of our recipes through their social media channels! 

If you are reading this and feel inspired to donate one of your wellbeing practices, reach out to us at info@recipesforwellbeing.org! We have a very simple process to follow to turn your practice into a recipe and publish it on our website.

On facilitating for wellbeing…

Since the fundraising and content creation efforts took up quite a lot of our time, we had to be more intentional about which opportunities we said “yes” to. On the bright side, we were able to resume a lot of in-person facilitation, leading the WISE Emerging Leaders Program for the fourth year in a row and spreading wellbeing at the CXC Changemakers for the Planet summits in Italy, Egypt, and in the USA. We are immensely grateful to WISE and CXC for their ongoing trust and support! And as you know, we also enjoy facilitating online, and this autumn we had the absolute pleasure of creating a personalised training on new leadership, wellbeing, and facilitation for the Thriftify team (check out their work, they are amazing!).

But apart from the joy we experience when hosting spaces for wellbeing, we are glad that participants appreciate the intentionality and find the activities help to foster their wellbeing. 

Here are a few testimonials from various participants:

On partnering for wellbeing…

While we feed on these reassuring words, we also want to share that it is not always easy to find aligned partners who share our commitment to wellbeing. At the start of the year we entered a partnership for a project which, unfortunately, given the misalignment between the parties, had to come to a premature conclusion. We went through some tough weeks, which took a heavy toll on our wellbeing, but we are genuinely grateful for the experienced support we received from one of our board members, Nathalie Bréant. As a result of this experience, at the start of 2023, we will be working on creating wellbeing-centred “contract templates” that will ensure our wellbeing when entering new partnerships.

On planning 2023 for wellbeing…

For more stats and numbers on our 2022, please refer to our 2022 Impact Report. And what about 2023? What do we have in store?

• Online Wellbeing Course: We have just found out that we will receive a small grant to create our first online wellbeing course! This self-directed and self-paced course will focus on personal wellbeing for changemakers to prevent burnout and learn ways to thrive in their changemaking work. The course will be available in English, but it will also be translated into a second language (probably French or German) and be online by the end of 2023. We would like to thank euforia for believing in our vision to make wellbeing more accessible to changemakers all around the world! 

• Website Translation: This has been WIP for a while, so we would like to renew our commitment to translate our full website into Italian, German, and French. This is a huuuge endeavour so if you know of anyone who might be willing to help out, please connect us with them!

• Wellbeing Recipes: We will continue to create and add wellbeing recipes to our online library, but not in the same numbers as this year. The goal is to add 25 new recipes throughout 2023. Once again, email us if you want to donate a wellbeing recipe.
• M&E: We are also looking to improve our M&E to have more consistent and coherent impact measures, which we hope will also strengthen our position when reaching out to potential donors and funders.
• Fundraising: Yes, we are still looking to diversify our funding streams and build a more wellbeing centred financial model. If you are interested in partnering with us, reach out to arrange a call at the start of 2023.

Finally, three other things we are super excited about in 2023:

• WEL 2023: We are ready to enter the 5th year of our collaboration with WISE and are already planning the details of the 2023 WISE Emerging Leaders Fellowship!

• The Possibilists 2023: We cannot wait to see the results of The Possibilists Report 2023 as it provides valuable data to back our work. By the way, did you know that we are featured in The Possibilists Directory?

• Wellbeing Retreat 2023: We are planting the seeds for an in-person wellbeing retreat in 2023 so fill out this quick form to express your potential interest and receive future communications about this opportunity. It has been 4 years since we were able to host an in-person retreat so we are absolutely thrilled!

Thank you for taking the time to read our reflections on the past year, as well as our plans for 2023.

We wish you a healthy, safe, and regenerative festive season!

Alessia, Greta, and Tariq

Co-founders of Recipes for Wellbeing

P.S.: Are you looking for end-of-year activities to wrap 2022 and turn to 2023? Check out the following wellbeing recipes: “4 steps to choosing your guiding word for the new year”, “End-of-year reflection”, “End-of-year spell casting”, “Mind mapping for a rewarding year”, “New Year’s Manifesto”, and “Year Compass”.