Welcome to Strong Back, Soft Front

Resources | Practice | Community to support our resilience, adaptability and leadership in this moment of transition.

How are you, really? It’s been a while. After a long period of hibernation, and then perhaps an even longer period of figuring out what I wanted to share. I am back, and so pleased to be writing to you, finally. Thank you for reading, it really means the world to me.

With all my love - Stella

Welcome to Strong Back, Soft Front - a curated space for resources, practice and community to support our resilience, adaptability and leadership in this turbulent moment of transition. A place, I hope, of guidance, support and inspiration for your journey.

Here is what you can expect from Strong Back, Soft Front in 2024;

🌳 Field Notes - a fortnightly digest of supplies that you can read now or store away in your backpack for later. Notes, tools, models & inspiration that I hope will inspire you, as they do me, as we navigate these complex times. I’ll do the research & reading so you don’t have to. 

🕸️ In Conversation - with leaders, creatives, thinkers & activists. Each asked to share their reflections on how they cultivate a strong back and a soft front in their work and lives. Expect insights on vulnerability, leadership, nature connection, mindfulness and more.

🌀 Personal Practice - an invitation to explore a practice together. A practice in the Eastern idea of ‘practice’ - an experience, an opportunity, an invitation to create, to reveal something that is already there. Not to practice for something, not to do but to be, as you are. A practice to remember how to return to ourselves and to, perhaps, foster a deeper and reciprocal relationship with the world around us.

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…and where does ‘Strong Back, Soft Front’ come from?

“Strong back, Soft front” is a teaching from activist, hospice caregiver and Buddhist teacher, Roshi Joan Halifax. To have a “strong back” is the fearlessness that arises when we feel strong, safe, grounded, and have a deep sense of belonging. It is equanimity, resilience and the capacity to stay balanced in tough times. Whilst cultivating a “soft front” is to be with things as they truly are. To stay tender and open, in discomfort, isolation or even fear. To embrace vulnerability, softness and compassion. I will share more on the importance of this teaching to me, and I believe to the world, soon.

This space is cared for and curated by me, Stella McKenna (she/her) - if we don’t know each other yet you can a read a little more about who I am and what I care about here.

Before we set sail together, I thought I would share a few intentions for our journey - guiding stars to support me, and us, to stay on the right path. Intentions are the reasons behind what we do. An intention followed by an action leads to an outcome, and I have big dreams for what, together, our outcomes might be. 

Six intentions for Strong Back, Soft Front - Winter Solstice, 21st December 2023

1. To guide us to the ‘woods’ so that we can be resourced and ready to continue our work in ‘the village’. Shout out to

   dan burgess 💙
   for sharing this framing with me, it journeys with me every day. 

2. To offer a place for practice. To experiment & explore in order to return to ourselves and to, perhaps, foster a deeper and reciprocal relationship with the world around us.

3. To learn in the open, together. To be a sense-making space, a place to ‘form’, not ‘per-form’ knowledge.

4. To be a place of resourcing. To take care of the people who are taking care of the world. A space to feel grounded, supported, validated, activated, accepted.

5. To build community, a woven net of people who can support the despair, grief & confusion, as well as the joy, hope & celebration.

6. and to hold it all lightly, to allow for the fluid, the emergent, the intuitive and in the moment. The uncertain and the unexpected.

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I look forward to sharing an abundant ‘Field Notes’ with you this coming Sunday 24 December. They’ve been on hiatus for over a year and there is much to share with you.

Take care until then, Stella 🙏🏻

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