Yes, bébé, Wided has entered the wellness chatroom.

Everyone just wants to be part of something.

Azul fellawn,

I hope you are all enjoying June sipping on cold drinks and snacking on crunchy snacks. I’ve been busy scheming and planning and writing.

Only one update this time:

I am trying to launch a little something. If you’re here for art world gossips and snarky remarks, this edition is going to disappoint so I suggest you close it and go eat something delicious on my behalf because today is my birthday, but if you’re interested in holistic interplay between the mind, body, and spirit while building community, read on, babes, read on.

You might be wondering what now, Wided? What new thing do you have up your sleeve?

This isn’t another lost art cause my friends, it’s still me, and this still technically falls into the shit I love of food, art, culture, design, stories, and connection categories.

The Idea

What I am thinking now is starting up a wellness-focused online community that fuses aligned values and aspirations, trying to create and collect fellow humans who might vibe. Bébé, I am here for wellbeing practices run on a super simple platform, where you can meet new people, I can host and recommend some healers, and you can ask for relevant help from the community and actually receive it.

The idea is to build community, globally, and to simplify accessing what you need and/or are in the mood for while focusing on inclusivity, decolonisation, and holistic approaches.

Click here for more information. Made a little Google Doc sheet to explain the details.

Background

I’ve been on one hell of A Journey when it comes to mental wellbeing. I believe in spiritual and traditional practices. I also believe in advanced certificates in psychology & counselling from the West™. I vibe with anything Indigenous. I also value therapists of whatever practice who can appreciate and hold space for the nuances that make me, me. #realinclusivity In conclusion, I believe in it all.

In the words of Palestinian-Algerian artist, Saint Levant, in his song 5am in Paris

Mon corps à Paris
Mon coeur à Gaza
Mon âme à Algiers
Mon ex à Casa
Ma meuf à LA
Me prend dans ses bras
Je me sens chez moi nulle part

في عيلتي بالشرق
وصحابي بالغرب
وامي بالذات
متمسكة بالأرض
بتفاجا من حالي
لما في ضعط
بس عمري بنساش
تربايتي بالحرب

I resonate with the fragmented nature of his identity, effortlessly gliding through language and space without ever feeling completely at home in one place. But one key difference - I am not after a sense of home. Home is arbitrary and fluid. Not the kind of make-believe I ascribe to.

I’m after making a little bit of making sense of our time here on this planet. I’m here for a soft landing. I’m here for calm content. This is apparently hard to find. I shared this issue with my circle and found out this issue was not only a Wided problem, but for a lot of other humans close to me.

Super Important Peer-Reviewed Research

This process of untangling and talking to people and reaching out it how I got here. I asked a bunch of homies and they asked their homies and the consensus from my very serious research methodological undertaking was that people want community, they want space, they want to be seen, and they want to connect. They don’t mind doing it online for the most part, but IRL meet ups are fantastic too. Everyone just wants to be part of something.

People are tired of being anxious automatons who run from one spot to another like the race is the part that matters. It doesn’t.  

I don’t necessarily agree with the ‘healing’ refrain usually found in mental health and wellness circles, so this is not an attempt to fix you, because you are not broken and this isn’t an attempt to rescue you, because you are not powerless.

I think we are all on an exploration of identity, placating cosmic displacement, and quest for belonging.

Conclusion

So basically, this project is my attempt of community building, one focused on mental wellness, which in reality is what community offers. I want to provide a place to work on whatever you want to work on, together or alone, and an opportunity to become a tightly knit ensemble. Maybe start a book club focusing on Latinx diaspora. Maybe start a weekly therapy session with other like minded souls. Exchange recipes. Etc.

All while being lo-tech AF - I am running this thing on Slack for the moment. I just don’t want to overcomplicate the thing. Download the app if you’re feel like doing the most, or you can just use it as a tab.

It’s an invite-only space not because I believe in excluding people but because I believe in intimacy.

Little dinner party with homemade aghroum > megaclub with weak mid cocktails.

It’s also a paid service because I am trying to change how I think, believe, and act around money, in hopes that money will show up differently for me.

I’ve done a lot of hunting I have lists upon lists of shaman, astrologers, coaches, mental health practitioners who specialize in TCK; I am offering a mixed bag babes, all of us serving Kuzco and Pacha trying to find the right combination of potions energy. I also believe we are part of that tonic - each of us and how we can show up for each other.

I’ve been fake/real threatening to open up a little spiritual bodega where I sell bkhour, mountain herbs, and other siḥr adjacent accessories but I just don’t have that necessary Solomon effort, also I got itchy feet. Hard to open a physical store when I like travel sized shampoos so much. So I am doing something I can actually manage; not trying to command the winds, talk to animals, and bind demons but rather just creating a safe space to land. I can try to build a community that is here to hold a space that celebrates connection and nuance and create a tool that you can use to bring more self-love, kindness and links into your life whenever and however you feel like it.

So, yes bébé, Wided has entered the wellness chatroom.

The best experiences I have had, the conversations that have nourished me my soul have often happened at my house; around a table, snacking on something. While I can’t physically do that with my global community, I can still bring the essence. To host is to open up to a bigger life, and that is what I’m trying to project.

My friend/soulbrother Ayman said not to take any of this too seriously to the point of paralysis; to just try. We are all learning here together.

So if you’re feeling like you got some extra $ and want to join the community for some amazing finds, beautiful connections, and insight to therapists and magicians and other humans who have something to offer that passed my litmus test then click on the cute little button below:

Let’s go.

All my love, as always.

See you next month for more hysterics and tangents.

Wided

x

P.S. تحيا فلسطين. ¡Viva Palestina! Long Live Palestine.