Oh, The Problems You Can Solve! (At The F Of X Festival)
On social media, we asked you what challenges you’d like to address while you’re at the F Of X festival. From pivoting to focus and mental health to collaborations, we received an overwhelming response! This showed us that in designing a space for the wild ones, we have several aspects to take into consideration.
While it is impossible to answer all of these questions in a virtual setting, we picked the three most commonly discussed issues, and what our guides said about solving them, at F Of X 2019.
How do you prioritise wellness in a busy world?
Wellness can take many forms: self-care is probably the most underrated but there’s also self-help and improvement on a spiritual, mental or practical level, or getting fitter and healthier on a physical level. Take some time to get in touch with your inner being and see which one is your particular wellness need. Spend some time in nature or simply meditate to shut out the noise.
A participant at last year’s festival shared what is probably the most important aspect of self-care- stop apologising!
We should be who we are and live fearlessly. This is not to say that we must exclude others, especially loved ones, from our sphere, but we certainly need to know where to draw the line.
Mohit Satyanand, Founder, Teamwork Arts said at the last edition that it is not important what career you choose; it’s how you balance that career with your personal life that matters. Not having spent time with loved ones and not having lived each moment with purpose is one of life’s worst regrets.
And Llamas have no regrets!
How do you focus on one aspect of development?
As with discovering what aspect of wellness you need to work on, it is helpful to zoom in on the area of development that matters the most to you, personally.
Put multitasking aside, shut out the noise, and get down to business. Deepak Ramola, founder at Project Fuel and one of our guides, puts this across perfectly. “The joy is in the verb, but people focus on the noun.”
When you say you want to be a writer, many people actually get wrapped up in the “notion” of being a writer, rather than actually writing. Maybe this is one area where you can take a page from the GenX and Baby Boomer handbook- roll up your sleeves and dive wholeheartedly into whatever it is you want to learn. Be disciplined and go the distance.
If you’re writing a book, write. Stash the worrying about the social media campaign for later.
How do you beat isolation in times of the gig economy?
Today’s gig economy is a direct by-product of the digital phenomenon. Once associated with musicians, “gigs” could apply to many areas of short-term work contracts these days. Certain digital work channels such as writing, designing or graphic artwork could be isolating.
Freelancing, where you have to compete for work, even more so. While true introverts welcome this revolution and build their social capital through digital media and online forums, none of us can actually live as an island.
This is where peer-to-peer interactions and opportunities like the F of X Festival for idea exchange, illuminating talks and growing your tribe can help. In building the concept for this festival, one of our core ideas was to build a tribe that just ‘gets’ you. It is a chance to hang out with others of your species that are like you, and unlike you, and all of it is for you to be better.
Got more questions? Send them in! Even better, come to the festival and experience the answers for yourself.
F of X is a festival for creators to grow their magic, learn the tricks of the creative trade and find a tribe to belong to. Feb 20–23, you’ll see Jim Corbett abuzz with creators from all over the country.
To come join edition 2 of this creative intervention, head over to www.fofxfestival.com and request an invite!
