in season: #1
what i have been up to: tending to a garden of infinite selves, training to become a coach, teaching yoga, cultivating products, handstanding and other bits
hi internet friend,
welcome to the very first In Season writing🌻
here you will find updates on the projects i grow, media i enjoy, creations my friends make, and other curious happenings. i intend to make these rhythmic - coming every month or so.
🌱 what has been seeded
Garden of Infinite Selves is my new life-long art project. each flower represents an Infinite Self within me, inspired by IFS frame of thinking. Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a form of therapy that breaks down the single “Self” into a family of Selves, each with its own needs and desires.
for example, the Anxious Self is red, bouncy, and spinning into narrowed fearful thinking, whereas the Healer-Fixer Self is cross-shaped (hi Jesus on the cross), always auto-invoked with its troubleshooting tendencies.
the video above shows Unfolding Self, Healer-Fixer Self, Anxious Self, and Stoner Self (lol yes). i enjoy the creative process a lot — i first draw them with watercolor, then digitize with chatgpt, and then veo3/krea it into dynamic form.
Aletheia Unfoldment Coaching Training
i started training to be a coach🌱
i feel called to be of service and support for others. i chose Aletheia as my first course because it integrates IFS, non-dualism, and poetic attunement. so far, it feels very right to me.
Aletheia’s core thesis is that we, human beans, unfold our innate resourcefulness spontaneously given the right conditions.
here is a beautiful example of this.
“consider an acorn. it starts out whole and complete. it is not deficient in any way. from the very start, it is an expression of its innate wholeness. everything an acorn needs to grow is packed into this tiny space and with the right conditions - soil, water, sunlight, climate - it will unfold into a beautiful oak tree, while staying whole on every step of its way.” (source)
Inner Voice Dojo App
earlier, i joined a conference on Memory Systems. while most of the participants use Spaced Repetition for intellectual things, i realized that my Intention Card System is a unique example of applying a smart science thing to tweak my Default Inner Voice into the shape of my desire.
i now have so many of these cards, that it gets out of hand organizing them. hence building a digital app to support the curation and retrieval of right decks at the right time.
Product Cultivator i am
for a while, i had been neglecting my professional title and Product Manager identity because of its strong corporate association and the itchiness of the word “manage”. i had been dismissing product management as a valid skillset because i thought it didn’t produce anything, contrary to engineers and designers.
well now, i am choosing to step into it. not only have i started having so much fun at my corporate Google job, but i also started leading product sessions on pond.space. i observe how an integration of structured design thinking and emotional awareness makes the creative process more honest and depth-full.
while the “Manager” part still doesn’t resonate with me, i have given myself full permission to see this function as a Cultivator in my own head (while translating it to a Manager outside). and moving onward, i am intentional about leaning into my Product Cultivator’s power.
the video shows my routine — every thursday i come to mountain view (i call it just a mountain) and i see the most beautiful sunrise next to my google ads office.
🌳 what has been growing
Life Artist i am
smart germans have a word for everything and while the sound of this language feels like heavy steel to my ear, i love this one word of theirs:
lebenskünstler = (leben : to live) + (künstler : artist) = life artist.
so this is who i am! i am a Life Artist, or lebenskünstler if said in steel language.
for me, being a Life Artist means seeing my life as a canvas and myself as an instrument. it means seeing every second as an opportunity to express my values and truth. the way i converse with my friends, the way i treat strangers, the way i walk to the bathroom — it is all expression of who i am, an expression that i desire to make beautiful.
Yoga Teacher i am
while my in-home classes are on pause, i’ve been deepening my teaching practice by leading weekly sessions at my office. and oh boy, it’s been so enjoyable and rewarding — i’m genuinely grateful to have discovered this side of myself.
since silicon valley is obsessed with speed, i try to balance it out by cultivating slowness in the class. for example, i cue a little “slowness competition,” where we, google-y human beans, take forever to lower our leg after standing in tree pose.
“the longer, the better,” i say. “we’re not in asap email mode — we’re melting into the stretchiness of time.”:)
Curator i am
i have multiple collections of things i maintain and expand.
1. svitlana.me/yumm - collection of books and media, usually with extensive notes, thanks to Excellent Student conditioning that is still alive in me.
2. svitlana.me/youandme - collection of feeling good practices for interpersonal relationships. includes languages of attunement and other perception observations.
3. svitlana.me/innerworldpractices - collection of feeling good practices for self.
oftentimes they are messy dump of things but eventually i get to a clean up mode hehe. i want these to be collective spaces for gathering yummy things that we all discover - hence it is always comment-able and share-able.
🌻what has been blossoming
FormTranslator.com
my first philosophical art project. here, instead of translating between languages, the tool translates between Ontological Forms.
the question i am curious to deepen through this is: what is the difference between a Form and a Frame? i welcome and desire your ponderings. 1
handstands practice
:) loving it and wanna turn it into some silly things.
🌾 what has been pollinating me
here goes a list of curious media
- my body by Emily Ratajkowski
- cognitive tools for making invisible visible by Judy Fan
- contemplative wisdom for superalignment by scientists
- ai and meaning crisis by John Vervaeke and others
- fountainhead by ayn rand
- eastern body western mind by Anodea Judith
- platonic representation hypothesis by scientists
💛 offerings of my friends
my friend and a powerful relational designer Kristen is organizing an online workshop “Play Into Being” to help you meet your projects. “what if you thought of your projects as Living Beings?” she asks. Kristen is always someone who plants mindbending ideas into my mind and its exciting to see her and Dave share their gifts to the world.
🌅that’s the end of this in season harvest
thank you for being a witness (and perhaps also co-creator;) of my journey.
huggingly,
svitlana
1
thanks Xiq and Octopusyarn for inspiring. read their writing about it.
this is so rich! 🔥 handstand and relearning to embrace being a PM, love it. i'm also inspired to make my own internal card system.
what a lovely update, it sounds like things are really flourishing 🌸 excited to hear how you get on with the coaching training- my partner (now wife!) Laura just finished it (looking forward to you two meeting too). mettā to you