Life Context
This making of this project has spanned decades of my life. The conscious design began last winter; therefore, the creating of the OP itself has spanned a solid year. Steeping myself in the all important question of how we live a happy and healthy life has been a true gift to myself. The final push occurred during this hibernating winter of 2015 in the house I grew up in in Pittsburgh, PA. The spaciousness I gave myself this January through mid March afforded the opportunity to write freely and creatively, to create personal practices and spend my time and energy consciously. I did not have many constraints regarding others' expectations or work. I am grateful for this moment. I am grateful for this time. I am grateful for the encouragement to articulate how I aim to live the good life, following the Way.
Observing the Opportunity
My maximum point of leverage or key opportunity revolves around the Permaculture Ethic of People Care, including myself. I have combined my vast experience in many aspects of the personal health care industry to make tangible my perspectives on optimal health. I am hopeful that the material I have created will serve well my professional life as a healer, caterer, permaculture designer. Additionally, I am confident that writing and researching personal health was the greatest gift I could give to my own well being.
OP Goals Articulation
The primary goal of this OP was to create a framework within which to construct the many articles and content within the core report.
Side goals include
- OP Template creation
- Using charts to reflect upon my growth
- Exploring digital literacy with keynote, pages, numbers.
Output Packet Outcomes
This OP greatly assisted me in manifesting my primary goal of having a framework from which to express many key themes regarding personal health.
In addition
- I am very happy with the OP Template I have created for my Capstone year, and I imagine my next several OP's will follow this basic format.
- My use of metrics and charts continues to grow
- My digital literacy inspired by Gaia continues to grow through classes at the Apple Store and Active Experimentation with different applications.
Incorporating Feedback from my Advisor
1 Do a final proofread.
2 Include compare/contrast design methodologies and more insight on myself as a designer.
3 Include more detail on project management.
4 Include more detail on leadership.
5 Include more tracking regarding field and dissemination.
In Response:
1 I did a final proofread.
2 I used a new design methodology. I included a design for both the OP and for the Core Report. I talked more about self as a designer.
3 I talk more about myself as a project manager.
4 I include more information on collaboration and my experience as a leader.
5 I included an entire section on field and my dissemination efforts.
MORE FEEDBACK:
1 More comparative assessment within the field.
2 Have an introduction and conculsion in each section.
3 Highlight my growth as a designer including comparative assessment of different design methodologies used.
4 Double the size of the annotated resource review
MY RESPONSE:
1 I discuss the broad field of health and my place in it.
2 I considered context more and how I am able to introduce and close general patterns of my thoughts.
3 Again, I used multiple design methodologies. I also made a few comments regarding my perspective on design.
4 I offered more annotated resources.
From My LIPD : OP 2
SUMMARY: Health is foundational for our experience of life. There are dozens of billion dollar industries built around our collective experience of health. I am using this OP to scale back, question modern day approaches and present key aspects of health from the perspective of various traditions and my personal journey. I will present a scale of Relevance to ask ourselves which aspects of our personal journey potentially require the most attention. I will frame this design around a permaculture awareness of Zone 0 and personal health. Many of my clients (massage, permaculture and catering) spend time while we are together gleaning my perspectives on various health questions. My sense is that I radiate thoughtful perspectives on lifestyle: work, travel, diet, exercise, personal practices, self care. I am excited to create videos, slideshows, articles, classes and a website showcasing my unique perspective on health: yoga, gardening, massage therapy, breathing, meditation, exercise, nutrition, massage, touch, nutrition, stress management, exercise, and herbalism.
KEY OPPORTUNITY: Through good design, utilizing my vast breadth of information on personal health, I have the capacity to share through articles, videos, and website my renaissance approach to living the good life in the 21st century.
IDEAL OUTCOMES:
- Website, articles and classes prepared on various topics pertaining to personal health.
- Personal practices developed and documented to gain more awareness toward my own personal health.
- I would like to be employed as a Health/Life Coach.
The Design Process
The design process has an elusive quality. Awareness toward process is our greatest tool to engage with design. At its most fundamental, design places conscious practice around 'the how' and 'the what' we do: Goals Articulation, Analysis, Assessment, Implementation, Evaluation are all commonly used in the cyclic nature of design. It is crucial to recognize that design is not static; it is a dynamic process that most often is refined in its iterative nature: constant reassessment.
Anywhere there is repetition in life is an opportunity to design for greater efficiency by creating templates or automation. Designing structure around any iterative process or designing small routines into our life can be an effective use of making systems more efficient: templates, automation. Design is an opportunity to create a structure; however, I would argue that those of us that feel free to improvise within our designs truly grasp the utility of design. Design, thus, creates a structure in which we are free to improvise in a container toward our goals. Full circle evaluation of any automation is recognizing the iterative reassessment and refinement. When the scale of a project is vast, design holds this structure by enabling delegation (to a worker or our future self).
NVC Design Methodology
I was reading Marshall Rosenberg's Non-Violent Communication during this OP and felt it was a very fitting design to impose over the creation of this particular OP. Marshall outlines the following four stages as appropriate stages for many of our personal processes.
Observation --
I would like to create an OP of which I am proud. I hope to share wisdom with friends and colleagues regarding my pathway of presenting myself and my thoughts in more readable and pleasurable ways (i.e. style in OP creation.)
Need -- What is my need?
Examining some of the core human values from NVC perspective helped me to realize that I would like to
1. share my gifts = Giving
2. refine my beliefs/understandings = Learning
3. produce something of value = Respect
Feelings -- What am I feeling?
I am excited, optimistic, nervous, hesitant
Request -- Specific Clear Request
I request myself to spend time weekly journalling on how the OP creation is going.
I request myself to push my edges in the creation of textual and video content in this OP.
I request myself to be willing to share this OP with more friends as it synthesizes much of my knowledge as a healer over the years.
OP Management
The spaciousness I gave myself to work on this OP in conjunction with articulated "Broad strokes" in my LIPD helped unify for me the acceptance, compassion and joy I want to bring into my life. Through the space I gave myself to do this OP, I have found significant compassion and acceptance of how I approach work, projects and life.
I have renegotiated with myself and my advisor several times to give myself adequate time in a healthy environment to complete this project. I certainly believe that form meets content when I am taking care of myself when articulating key patterns of health. An unknown good benefit of this methodology was the keen awareness that I love doing this project and the only question is how much to do at any given point.
Energy continues to flow into workflow templates including documentation, OP and basic project templates. I discovered the concept of “Structured Journalling.” Basically, I am journalling on the aspects of my OP’s that I know I need to reflect upon (i.e. I set up the metrics for the OP project and know what I need to reflect upon regularly). Examining the PoDAPO criteria has been part of my process since September when working on this OP. Examining how I work has yielded fruitful results regarding my workflows in general.