CULTUVATING THE PRACTICE OF BEING WELL
TOGETHER
The Culture of Being Well Together
Culture grows out of the behaviours we repeat, the things we value, what we (un)consciously allow to occur and what we care for every day.
Being well begins with knowing ourselves well enough to notice what helps us feel grounded, integrated and able to pause. When we understand what is happening within us, we can choose how we want to respond.
Being well together brings that inner awareness into external relationship: how we listen, support, disagree, repair and make space for differences without changing ourselves. When we are well together, we start to notice who is heard, whose experiences and knowledge are taken seriously, what shapes the spaces we are in and what we have inherited from those who came before us.
The practice developed here: is learning to move through what we notice with care, paying attention to how we treat ourselves, each other and the world around us.
Hello, welcome. I’m Hyacinth, a cultural wellbeing facilitator and educator, with family roots stretching across the globe.
I’ve spent much of my life feeling slightly out of step with the rooms I show up in. Not always dramatically, just enough to notice what others seemed to accept without question. I have mastered following that discomfort instead of constantly correcting or belittling myself.
I’m a rebel with a cause, drawn to the people and places where something does not quite fit, where voices go unheard, or where belonging comes with conditions.
I love working with young people and the adults around them. I love it when they notice what they need to help them feel seen, respected and ultimately grow in confidence in who they are while learning and growing with others.
A Body That Learns
Bringing the awareness of seasons, cycles and history into how we think about education, rest and activity.
Our bodies shape how we live and learn. By moving through cycles of waking and sleeping, activity and rest, hormones, seasons, growth and ageing, we learn to respond to these rhythms seamlessly or with hiccups.
Those early lessons in the home, influence when we rest, what pain we tolerate, which feelings we express and when we are expected to carry on. They travel with us into classrooms, workplaces and care settings.
Learning about the body also means asking where these expectations come from, including histories shaped by colonialism and patriarchy, whose pain and knowledge are taken seriously and what happens when productivity is valued above the person.
Ground Notes: Learning from Within Daycare
Culture, communication and care as lived inside the crèche.
Working in a Flemish crèche with babies and toddlers showed me how much knowledge care requires. Young children are learning language, limits, relationships and how to move through strong feelings, while adults are constantly interpreting behaviour, supporting safety and helping them make sense of the world.
We are rarely taught how to do this well, or how much our own histories shape the way we respond. The crèche brought many of those questions into view.
I started Ground Notes to reflect on what the children, the work and the wider culture of care taught me. Again and again, the invitation was the same: slow down, notice more, and ask what is really happening here.
Still curious?
From here, I invite you to explore the reflections, resources and conversations gathered across this site, and to notice where they meet, affirm, complicate or gently unsettle how you see yourself, other people and the world.
Ground Notes - Blog
