FIRST BLOG POST.. LET’S DO THIS!

Written By Veronika Hofmann

It all began with an idea… Or two… Or Multiple... And a deep desire to ‘do something and contribute to disrupting structures and patterns that no longer serve us and create a more tolerant, joyful, soulful, and compassionate world… Welcome to The Positive Disruptor’s/(my) blog.

Not going to lie, writing a blog won’t be my strength: I am dyslexic, have ADHD, and am a non-native speaker. BUT in true anti-capitalist and anti-white patriarchal nature, I have thrown perfectionism out the window and committed myself to ‘just give it a go’, screw the roles, and ‘shoulds, musts, woulds, coulds’ and let's see what happens…

I have alwys been a sensitive soul and the world around me had hughe impacts on me. But over the last few years, this curiosity about understanding I have had this fire inside of me. Yes, it was a spiritual awakening but also one of ‘I need to learn more to be helpful’. Like a sponge, I have been soaking up information based on people’s lived experience in particular over the last 8 year. In particular voices of marginalised folks and communities have become crucial. Especially black women like Tricia Hersey, bell hooks, Angela Saini, Regina Jackson, Saira Rao, Adrienne Maree Brown, Luuvie Ajayi Jones, as well as other authors, activists and academics like Aubrey Gordon, Emily Nagoski, Brene Brown, Johann Hari and Matt Haig and many many others…

My intention with this blog is to share the amazing resources, articles, posts, podcasts, documentaries, discussions, and sources of information (that blow my mind, make me wonder and excited!!) I come across with people like you who might also find them thought-provoking and interesting. I will very likely also add my two pennies’ worth every as to why I found those particular pieces shareworthy, the thoughts they have provokes, and potential calls to action.

What can you expect..?

As a neurodivergent over-committer, it will ruin my wellbeing to make a commitment of “I shall be blogging every Thursday”. Those of you reading this know me might have just laughed out loud.. Why? because you know that weekly/on the same day new posts won’t happen - ha! And you are correct.

BUT what you CAN expect of this blog is that I will make sure as soon as I have enough to share and say, I will be doing that. And I want to hear from you too. Once you have read the blog post, let me your reflections and thoughts. Not in a keyboard-warrior/troll-y way, but in a “V,I hear what you’re saying but what about xyz…” Yes, please! Let’s learn, wonder, grow, question, and disrupt together.

What are the topics you will be writing about, V?, I hear you say. It is very much going to be along the lines of the following topics, themes, schools of thought and cornerstones of my work in general:

  • Systems of Opression and Power

  • Anti-capitalism/ Hustle Culture aka. De-growth 

  • Anti-White Supremacy and Neo-colonialism

  • Slowing down & Resting   

  • Intersectionality (althought I recently saw an interview with bell hooks saying she doesn’t like the term, because it’s very much a white thing to put people in boxes/categories. Which was very thought provoking.)

  • Anti-Ecological breakdown

  • Liberation

  • Privilege

  • Honesty

  • Accountability

  • Joy 

  • Warmth

  • Community / Togetherness

  • Belonging

  • Social Justice 

  • How white supremacy shows up at work/ Wellbeing & rest-centered workplaces —> SLOWING DOWN rather than speeding up! 

  • Trauma-informed work

  • Grief-informed work

  • Anti-always functioning 

  • Anti- Inauthentic “Performing” / masking

  • Anti - Performance 

  • Anti-Perfections & embracing uniqueness and authenticity 

  • And many more…

    —> Inclusion, Wellbeing, Healing, and Environmental work MUST be descriptive activism work - because the status quo is not good enough.

    —> We MUST address White Women Allyship (and the lack thereoff) in the EDI space

    —> We MUST address Male Allyship 

    —> We MUST address Disability Allyship 

    —> We MUST address Trans Allyship 

I shall leave it at that and already look forward to my next post. Truly. But gotta make dinner now.. The body needs feeding.

Love, warmth, and joy to you all!

Vx

Hand holding a mug with a lake and trees in the background. The mug says “The Adventure Begins”

Veronika Hofmann