How Kim Arazi creates space to reconnect people to themselves through the senses
Happyplaces Stories (video)
And so we met again. The last time we met in London, with the colourful houses of Notting Hill as a backdrop. We talked for hours but did not record anything then. Meanwhile, Kim moved to Lisbon just before Brexit and Covid happened. We walked, talked and danced through the streets of Lisbon and recorded her story. Kim is an entrepreneur and is passionate about focusing on the human side of creativity and innovation. She is a sensory experience designer, creative futurist, curator, producer, workshop facilitator, storyteller, advisor, innovation consultant, coach, keynote speaker, and a lot more. However, the common thread is her passion for helping people connect to their inner wisdom to access their creativity.
Through her company, she creates multi-sensory experiences (mainly centred around the dinner table) to help us become more conscious humans. These experiences use sensory engagement to encourage a deeper understanding of ourselves. She truly believes that transformational change happens inside out. And what better way to do this than by breaking bread together around the table? She is very passionate about the importance of diversity and inclusion and, in particular, empowering women to find their purpose and become leaders in their fields. She gives talks and workshops on this subject and the important role our senses play in our wellbeing and experience of the world.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
Conquering new space
One of the ways I created space for myself was by leaving the big city of London and deciding to move to a more peaceful, quiet and relaxing place, Lisbon. I feel that it has created a lot of space inside me. It helped me declutter a lot of a sort of ‘fear of missing out’ that you feel, I think, in a big city like London. Just getting out of the rat race, I suppose. It wasn’t leaving me space to be creative, reflective, spend time with myself, or get to know my inner being. I feel that making this move, which is quite a big move even though it is only two hours by flight, is quite a big move in terms of culture and pace. I now feel that I have given myself that gift of space, to have the time to reflect, the time to work on myself and go inside.
One of the ways I created space for myself was by leaving the big city of London and deciding to move to a more peaceful, quiet and relaxing place, Lisbon. I now feel that I have given myself that gift of space, to have the time to reflect, the time to work on myself and go inside.
What is unique about Portugal is that it is kind of calling people here to do that, and I feel that the people I meet here are also on this journey of wanting to create more space for themselves as if Portugal called them. If you ask many people who are not originally from Portugal why they are here, they don’t really know why. They say that they felt a calling to come. For me, it was the same. It was a calling. I didn’t know the country very well. I don’t speak the language, but I just knew that this was where I needed to be. So I am very happy to be here; it feels like a whole new story I am creating here. And it is a story that is authentic to me because I have the time to go into myself to reflect. That is one aspect of how I helped myself to create space by changing my surroundings.
I feel that we are disconnected. I feel that we’re so addicted to technology, so busy tapping screens all the time, that we’re not even conscious of who we are anymore.
Space for the senses
I am all about helping people to create space for themselves. Of course, it is a journey, and I’m always looking for new space inside me and trying to deeper and declutter within. But now that I have done that for myself, I want to help others do that as well. So that has become a focus of my work. I work with the senses. I create multi-sensory experiences, but the whole purpose is that I got into helping people engage with their senses because I feel that we are disconnected. In these times, even before we went through a pandemic, I felt that we’re so addicted to technology, so busy tapping screens all the time, that we’re not even conscious of who we are anymore. We don’t even take the time to think about that anymore. My work is about helping people figure out and reconnect to themselves. The way a tangible way for people to understand is through sensory experiences. Through touch, taste, smell, sight, and playing with these senses. How do you experience something if you can’t see it? Or if you can’t hear it? Or how is what you hear impact how you taste something? Thinking about these connections helps us be more mindful in everything we do.
Sitting around a table is so important. It is a ritual that has been lost over the years, unfortunately. Families used to sit around the table every single night for dinner. We don’t have that anymore.
Breaking bread at the table
One of the ways I started this multi-sensory journey is to create dining experiences. I work a lot with food. It is not that I’m a chef; I don’t cook myself for the experiences I create. But I work with chefs, and I create a whole experience around a dinner that helps people to go inside, that helps them to think about what they’re eating differently. I use food to encourage them to communicate with each other differently and as a way to reconnect. It is using food as a way to become more mindful. Sitting around a table is so important. It is a ritual that has been lost over the years, unfortunately. Families used to sit around the table every single night for dinner. We don’t have that anymore. Now everyone eats on the go or is ordering from Uber Eats. You eat while you’re behind the computer, working or watching Netflix. We’re so stuck in this pattern that we don’t even take the time to taste what we are eating. We lost that ritual of sitting with each other.
Sitting together and breaking the bread together, and experiencing this together helps us reconnect. Not only with each other, because then you’re just going through this together, having a meal where you’re interacting with other people — but you’re reconnecting to yourself differently.
My experiences always start around the question of how we can bring everyone together in a way that makes everyone stop and sit and experience a meal for what it is. It is the opposite of going to a restaurant to having a meeting over dinner; it makes the dinner the purpose of the meeting. Breaking bread together is something sacred, and I’m trying to bring that ritual back to show people how we can have such a different experience if we take the time to stop and enjoy our food differently, through all of our senses. The whole process of preparing the dish to eat helps to achieve this. If they come to one of my experiences, they don’t need to prepare dinner themselves, but it hopefully makes them think about it. I bring up these topics when we’re sitting together, like preparing the dish, smelling it, and thinking about what you want to make. Sitting together and breaking the bread together, and experiencing this together helps us reconnect. Not only with each other, because then you’re just going through this together, having a meal where you’re interacting with other people — but you’re reconnecting to yourself differently. Then the food means something. It is not just nourishment so you can get through the day; it is a beautiful ritual.
I feel we’re disconnected as a society, as humanity. We’re disconnected from ourselves, each other, our surroundings, and nature.
My whole thing is around ‘connection’. I feel we’re disconnected as a society, as humanity. We’re disconnected from ourselves, each other, our surroundings, and nature. We’re so disconnected. After a two-year pandemic, we’re even more disconnected. So I feel that my work is even more needed now. Not only my work but any work about connecting people back to themselves, helping them go inside and go to that place to find who they are. And to be able to interact with other people from that place. Whether is in a business, a company or whether it is just through social circumstances — finding a way to connect to people is so important. That is what I’m trying to do through all of my work.
