Come & join us by the fire & say hello! 🙏🏻

Let me start us off - my name is Stella McKenna and I use she/her pronouns (not sure why that’s important? read more here.)

I am a guide, strategist, facilitator, feminist, community builder and many other things - we all contain multitudes, right? I am also the host of Strong Back, Soft Front.

As much as I am looking forward to getting to know everyone who finds their way to sit by this fire…don’t you hate it when someone asks you what you ‘do’?*

Here, instead, are a few of the things I am currently curious about

• Buddhism and how mindfulness based practices can support us to ‘be with’ the complexity and uncertainty of modernity. I have recently started training in Mindfulness Based Psychotherapy with Karuna Institute so I am on quite the journey with this one!

• How bringing people and nature together can resource us for what is to come, because (to quote Joanna Macy) ‘burnt-out people aren’t equipped to serve a burning planet’.

• What will it look like to really hold space for change? To build truly relational spaces that support resilience, adaptability and a more imaginative visions of the future?

• How can I/we find the acupressure points, that when pressed, will allow new energy to flow and new systems or ways of being to emerge?

• How might we act differently if vulnerability was our greatest measure of leadership?

* If you do actually want to know you can read about what I ‘do’ here.

When I’m not pondering my many, many questions - I live on the edge of the Peak District National Pack in the city of Sheffield, UK. I love spending time with trees, listening to podcasts (under trees, or in the bath) and reading as many books as I can. I love swimming in cold water, sitting around fires, and exploring with others how we will muddle our way through all that is ahead of us.

Now, enough about me, I would love to know something about you! Who are you? What are you curious about? What brought you here and how might this community support you? I look forward to learning about you in the comments below 🙏🏻

Ps. you can tell us what you ‘do’ if you’d like to! 🙂

Pps. if you find are enjoying this community and our newsletter, then please do tell a few friends about us. If we are to change everything, we are going to need everyone.