Celebrations & Gratitude for August

Wow! I’ve received such a lot of wonderful contributions for this month’s gratitude & celebration! Thank you SO much to everyone who has contributed. In this post, you’ll find a ton of gratitude, meet new team members and say goodbye to a fantastic volunteer and celebrate four awesome quieteers with us today.

Messages of Gratitude

💫  I am grateful for Quiet Connections helping to gently push me out of my comfort zone. This has involved me hosting a meet up and doing a podcast interview – Alistair

💫  Rose from the Redruth group, is a wonderful support helping out the group so much by asking who would like a drink and answering the door to members. Rose is also a natural in helping people to feel calm and connect with other group members at the Redruth community group and particularly at the Bear in Mine’d social gathering – Michele

💫  Stacie has been a consistent support with gentle guidance and encouragement, helping me to feel more confident in my work – Michele

💫  Hayley, for continuously bringing your Masters learnings into QC as you’re discovering new things and approaches to try! It’s starting to shift the focus for QC and pivoting us towards a bigger, more impactful direction that feels inspiring! Thank you – Stacie

💫  Vicky, for always bringing her curiosity and questions to explore different ways of working with quieter people; often challenging her own perspective and approach to do so! I am always in awe of the growth and exploration! And as a result, I love that Vicky is now already creating that QC ripple effect through a new offering specifically for home-ed young people who are quieter! – Stacie

💫  Hayley and Stacie for being such safe and compassionate leaders. I am able to come to you with anything QC related and know I will be heard and valued. I love how conversations quickly become a joint exploration with insights and ideas popping up! The help and support you are offering to QC coaches through explorative conversations and coaching triads is excellent and I look forward to gaining help and support this way – Vicky

💫  I’m grateful for our triad coaching session this week it was such an honest chance for connection – Emily

💫  This month, I am especially grateful to Stacie, for keeping QC flowing and connected whilst I deep-dive into MSc studies. Stacie consistently gives me permission and (sometimes must instruct me!) to take time away from QC work to focus on the MSc, because as Stacie has quite rightly shown me, they are one and the same thing – Hayley

Quieteer Celebrations

💙 I would love to celebrate Sarah R who attends the weekly St Austell meet up. She has been fantastic at gently engaging the other members into a group activity and encouraging them to have a go at something new; from making friendship bracelets, fork pom poms, mini bobble hat decorations, to scrunchies. I feel like she’s a real asset to the group, and our activity queen! – Stacie

💙 I’m celebrating our new team member Alistair M. I have seen Al’s journey from his first steps into the Falmouth community group to gradually helping other members to feel like they belong. Al challenged himself with a comfort stretch and took on the responsibility of facilitating a community group. Then being interviewed by a local radio station about QC! I have watched the growth of his calming presence putting other members at ease and his helpful nature in supporting everyone around him to connect in their own way. He is an asset to the team – Michele

💙 I’d like to nominate Michele C for doing the podcast interview with me (especially when she’s not been very well recently) and for helping me with networking ideas and contacts – Alistair

💙 I would like to celebrate Hannah C this month for her engagement and enthusiasm. I have loved seeing Hannah grow since she first got involved with Quiet Connections, and I truly appreciate how Hannah makes an effort to stay connected and contribute in a way that feels natural to her, with regular attendance on our zoom get-togethers and explorations, sharing questions and ideas, and recently writing a number of fantastic blog posts for QC that I am super excited to be sharing on the new website when it launches later this year. Thank you, Hannah. – Hayley

A warm welcome to our new team members 

Alice Dang joins us as an intern on the community connections project through the School for Social Entrepreneurs throughout September. Alice is studying BSc Marketing and Management at University of Exeter and is enthusiastic about helping people to feel supported and connected in their community. Her focus will be on promoting community groups and using a storytelling approach. She’ll actually be based in Vietnam for most of her placement, 6hrs ahead of us! We’re sure that Alice’s zest and knowledge will really give the Connections Groups a boost in visibility!

Eleanor Zalick, who likes to be known as Ellie, has officially begun volunteering as a Community Connector, already finding a venue for the Liskeard Connections Group. Ellie is a Psychology Student at the University of Exeter and a Dance Fitness Instructor who’s cultivated a following of quieter dancers through her gentle facilitation style. I know that Ellie’s motivation and passion to promote wellbeing and her ability to notice ways to improve accessibility is really going to help Quieteers in Liskeard to feel safe and supported in quietly connecting.

Sarah Russel joins us as a volunteer in St Austell Connections Group and, as an attendee, has already shown that she’s skilled at creating beautiful connections and facilitating group activities. Sarah’s ability to encourage, reassure and engage group participants is really going to contribute to the flourishing of St Austell Connections.

And a farewell for now

We’ll be saying goodbye to St Austell volunteer Abbie Gill this month. We celebrated Abbie in the July Newsletter and we will be sad to see her go! Abbie moves to Lincolnshire on 24th September, so the lucky St Austell Group has four more mornings left with her! We’re looking forward to Abbie dropping by when she returns and, of course, staying connected on the virtual calls. and who knows, perhaps one day Abbie will be leading  a Quiet Connections Meet Up in her new town!

Author

  • Hi, I’m Hayley - the original quieteer. I, too, identify as a quiet person. I’m naturally a highly sensitive introvert and I love and appreciate my quiet strengths now, but I spent much of my life not feeling good enough and experiencing social anxiety. I missed so many opportunities because I was afraid of being judged harshly, criticised and rejected – and because I doubted that I had the ‘right’ personality to succeed. Quiet Connections exists in part because I had a fantastic coach who helped me to work through old patterns of keeping myself small and hidden so that I could show up and be seen to play my part in creating the more connected, curious and compassionate world that I dream of. Now, I’m passionate about helping quiet people discover their unique qualities, gifts, passions and experiences and explore how best to use these to express themselves more authentically and contribute to the world in a way that works with their quieter or more sensitive nature. Get to know me here.

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