Treasure Hunter | May 2020

May just flew by. Why? Maybe because it feels that we are going back to ‘normal’? Here are the best bits from May 2020.

1. Street Art

It’s only natural to start with the legendary art that Bansky made this month, reminding us that the real superhero are NHS workings around the world. Original story here

2. Outstanding Short film

This short film took my breath away. Incredible production, great acting, good story. Highly recommended.

3. Mini-Series Unorthodox

I started the month quite strongly by coming across Unothodox series on Netflix. It was an invitation to see into a private community that I’m very little familiar with. It felt like an authentic piece of Art. Unorthodox is a story of a Hasidic Jew young woman who after a year of marriage decides to escape her community in Williamsburg and flee to Berlin.

It’s a four-episode mini-series. It kept me on the edge of my seat and I felt that I was secretly getting to see the insight into how the community operates and lives. We go through the journey of Esty, the main character. We get to meet her husband and then go to her wedding, witnessing all the rituals, clothes and traditions. Following this, we enter her life post marriage and how her worth now is defined by getting pregnant. It continues with her struggle to accept the unhappiness that she has been living with and makes a plan to escape to Berlin, where her mother lives.

When she arrives to Berlin, Esty starts to go with a flow of life. It takes her to meet a group of young musicians. The story does end on a positive and hopeful note, but I’m not sure if that's a possibility knowing the rules and regulations that the community of Esty’s lives by.

What will you get out of it? A front-row seat into the Hasidic Jewish community, their traditions, expectations and rules. Also, beautiful cinematography, admiration for Yiddish language and a diverse cast. The team of female directors, writers and producers made history, making something that feels like an art film, presented as a popular culture work.

4. Drive to Survival

I’m a huge fan of Formula 1 right now, only thanks to Netflix series Drive to Survival. The two seasons are filled with drama, tensions, speed and diversity of problems. I’ve been following Lewis Hamilton for a while, but Vettle is my new favourite, not only for his driving, but his sense of humour. Highly recommended.

5. MasterClass on Interior Design

In recent months, I have been attracted to the concept of interior design and the beauty of a process that it is. My first Interior Design course was on skillset where I learned the 4 basic principles of interior design, and now I felt like upgrading my introduction to the discipline, by enrolling myself into a masterclass with Interior Design Kelly Wearstler. I like her style, her work ethic and her confidence.

6. Productivity — Getting things done.

This TED Talk was inspiring as it helped me to look at getting things done in a slightly new way. Some of the things he mentions in the talk:

• If you are already in the mess, you don’t have time to do anything creative.
• If you don't get out of the psychic, you get overwhelmed, you lose perspective. What you need is an organisation system.
• Be fully available for things that you doing, put focused attention where you need it. Don’t accumulate things. If you do not pay attention to what has your attention you will give it more attention than it deserves.
• 1. Get Everything out of your head. 2. Then notice what you notice. What does the work involve? What outcome am I committed to finishing. What’s my target, what’s my project? Outcome. Action.
• Write stuff down, Identify actions, Use the right maps, And then use the map to say here is the course we will go on.

7. Book — The Burnout

I’ve been working on reducing pressure and stress in the past couple of months. Quarantine helped a lot, but at the same time it still feels like there is much to do. The Book Burnout was recommended to me by my colleague and I enjoyed the concept of the stress cycle and how to complete it. A video explaining the concept is below and full quotes from the book available here.

8. On character

Michelle Obama is back on Netflix talking about her book tour Becoming. Pay attention to every person to meet. Be fully present. This is something that Sahar Halamzai said to me a long time ago, this is what she pinned down as my strength, that I was able to pay attention to one person and be so present. They would feel seen.^To be seen^ what does that really mean. What does that really feel like, what does it even mean to us all? You have to find the tools within yourself to feel visible and use them to be heard and to use your voice. Michelle Obama mentioned that to her the greatest honour of her life has been to be the First Lady of America and how many people have experienced that, in public when your every move is being seen, in every step, every word you say, you might be scrutinized or questioned.

9. Movie: Britany Runs a Marathon

This movies is about an overweight 28-year old that goes to the doctors to talk about getting a prescription for a recreational drug, but the doctor informs her about the news that she might not have liked to hear. He said that she needs to get healthier through diet and excessive. Slowly she decides to take on running and little by little, one step at the time, she started running.

A year or so later when things started to look positive for her, she faced overwhelming positive energies and emotions that she was not ready to handle. Her friends wanted to help her to run a marathon and sponsor her entry. The guy that she was seeing wanted to go exclusive because he liked her. And then, her best friend said to her to not let go of her fat clothes, because she will always be a fat girl inside.

This got me thinking. Fat Girl Mentality. This is something that has haunted me for a while as well as so many others. What can beat this feeling? gratitude, appreciation, joy and connection with people around us. Britany at this point decided to take responsibility for her life and she needed to become vulnerable enough to ask for help. She needed to bypass her self sabotaging ways towards happiness and accept that she deserved good things in her life. She deserved to achieve the dreams that she set out for herself such as running a marathon.

Brittany's story relates to many women no matter if you have a weight problem or not. I had a conversation with my colleague this week where she opened up about how much she struggled to accept her dream life because she feels the time is up. She is in her early twenties and the fact that she kept on sabotaging herself for so long, she lost trust in her own self. At least we know, there is always a solution to a problem if we want to find a way to transform it.

Other things to explore:

• Movie: The Banker
• Movie: Old Boys
• Movie: Lost in Translation
• Movie: Britney runs a marathon
• Comedy: Ricky Gervais Humanity 2018
• Series: Workin’ Moms
• On Character: Masterclass with Samuel L Jackson and Tailor switch — Americana