2022 in Reflection: Year in Review through a Lens of Well-being, Mindfulness, and XR for Transformation
Looking back, there’s absolutely no way to sum up 2022 in a Year-in-Review that does justice to all of the quiet nuance as well as the magnitude. It represents the emergence of innovative approaches to technologies that have the potential to greatly improve the quality of our lives, if used wisely.
It’s a year that heralded AI advancements that are expanding what it means to be a collaborative, creative human, using technology as a layer. We contain multitudes. We live in the layers.
It’s a year when bravery and resolve have been tested and perseverance makes a difference.
As I face 2023 and the turn of the year, letting go of 2022, I am reminded that I am not the same as I was one year ago. I’m definitely not the same as three years ago. This is true for many of us, and I name the gravity as well as the levity. We have endured something significant which has left us changed. This is an emotional journey with the capacity to expand our hearts and minds.
Three areas in particular have left an impression on me as I look in “macro view” at the past year of 2022 with Future Trends of 2023+ in mind:
1. The growth and popularity of virtual events, allowing people to connect and engage with each other from anywhere in the world. XR is less of an exotic animal, and more of an enabling tool that allows people greater freedom.
2. The increased awareness and efforts to support mental health and well-being through initiatives that empower more people to seek out resources and support to improve their overall health and happiness. Mindfulness and creative expression have a place here, as does technology as a tool for inner and outer connection.
3. The flourishing of web3 communities and in particular the creativity within them, with people finding new ways to express their ingenuity and share with wider audiences.
The connection and possibility are palpable. The coming year will reveal more of the “how” of the shapes that connection will take.
As the year draws to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the things that have made 2022 special. It’s been remarkable, even astonishing. A year of awe. A year of magical thinking, as Joan Didion coined. I feel it.
Each exchange has been meaningful, in a year that’s had its share of emotion, challenge, loss, and along with it, a sense of wonder. I’m grateful to have such an inspiring, supportive group of friends, colleagues and collaborators in a community worldwide. I hope that this post will give you a glimpse into some of the things that have been keeping me busy this year. Each discovery is one that is better shared in inner connection and outer reflection.
Among the salient and remarkable moments were many gatherings and discoveries along the way. Many of the virtual gatherings and meet-ups were in XR social spaces — AltspaceVR, ENGAGE, Horizon Worlds, Mozilla Hubs, Spatial, Shapes, RecRoom, VRChat and more, thank you to you and to the hosts and creators.
I’ve chosen a few highlights below to mention… and the list is not confined to these, but it’s a start!
1 Speaking at SXSW about the language of emotion
Being on a panel with Sophia Batchelor, Jude Dai and Nicole Lazzaro is a just plain awesome event whenever and wherever it takes place. Our crew of speakers + audience had a rooftop afterparty and a Designing Wonder book fest to continue the discussion, because it was still going strong at our session’s close. There was so much to learn and enjoy at SXSW 2022, and one of my personal highlights was seeing Dolly Parton in concert. She’s someone I admire, and her kindness, verve and ability to shape her own destiny make her an absolute powerhouse.
2 Well-being at Stanford, in many shapes and forms
I teach Digital Well-being at Stanford and use a designer’s mindset, and I’m always guiding toward applications, storytelling and use cases. 2022 was a year punctuated by online interactive sessions as well as in-person classes, workshops, and gatherings for students and faculty. The learnings I’m most excited about include deeper dialogue about intentional design, rituals of our workdays and habits, and ways that mental health incorporates emotional and physical health in community. On that note, the inaugural gatherings of S.N.O.W. (the Stanford Network of Well-being, where I serve on the Steering Committee) have been powerful ways to connect initiatives and the people championing them.
3 Time in Nashville with IVRHA
Bob Fine knows how to gather a community. I’d never been to Nashville and enjoyed the sharing, learning, and the larger music scene beyond the conference. I spent time there with a friend and writer, KB Ballentine, a classmate from my MFA in creative writing master’s program studies. Poetry came back into my world during this time. Nashville woke me up.
4 Fires. Particularly Campfires.
That quiet knowing. The understanding beyond words, drawing me to circles around fires, to source connection in a social way that has to do with reflection first. Internal first, and external combined. Simplicity in the complexity of it all, stepping back from analysis and thinking. “Just quiet the mind. Open the heart…” These are Ram Das’ words, fanning the ember in the ashes. “Start to love that which you can love, and just keep expanding it.” Every meaningful detail. meaningful seems to come back to truths about opening the heart, letting go, “You don’t need loneliness, when you couldn’t possibly be alone…” How can I map out the constellation of these connected moments in a way that does justice to each of them? They were all over 2022, punctuated by challenge, loss, and expansions in even bigger form.
5 Wisdom 2.0 with a theme of “emergence,” identifying the tribrid form and function of in-person gatherings
… and in particular those campfire moments mentioned above, with humans with such a warmth that they feel like immediate friends. Also, being able to talk with Jon Kabat-Zinn about virtual reality, and Tristan Harris’ words about social media. The whole experience is something I wrote a longer post about here.
6 Holding a meditation in virtual reality that crossed the threshold into physical
This was for an event hosted by XR Women for their 100th anniversary (of 100 events, not a centennial!), where I was invited to create a wellness session. As they met in a physical location that enabled high-fidelity sound and projected images, we could simultaneously have a virtual session taking place. The palpable connection and ability for our minds and physical selves to exist and embrace wellness in ways that layer in the digital is something I don’t take for granted, and I expect to build on this concept in 2023.
7 Engaging with iLRN, giving opening and closing keynotes
Something novel, to have bookends that reference each other, and a whole set of experiences in between that serve as the forum, the confluence and connectivity. Brilliantly ahead of its time, the conference, chaired by Jonathon Richter, Daphne Economou and Anasol Pena-Rios, had a 2022 theme about adaptation and resilience in the digital age. My opening talk, held in Virbela in desktop XR, was called “Adaptive Intelligence, Resilience, and Creative Capacity.”
My closing speech, held in-person at the technical school in Vienna FH University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna, was entitled “Ver Sacrum, Creativity, and Designer’s Mindset.” I addressed Klimt and the Secession, and what it means to be a creative designer in this day and age, juxtaposing that with parallels throughout the past two centuries. AI offers us learnings as designers, about ways to integrate and to keep ourselves fresh, our Ver Sacrum, Sacred Spring, vibrant. Are we afraid? Absolutely not, Well, maybe a little healthy dose of fear-excitement. If there’s a risk, there’s likely some sort of vibration of fear within it. So with all we take seriously. Keep the levity. Where is that balance? I sought to span the threshold, to reintroduce the physical with the virtual in Vienna. To embody both worlds in one. I fell in love with the community, relationships, and Vienna during this time. I can bring myself back there in a heartbeat, in my imagination. I looked at the Beethoven Frieze for so long, taking time, that I can go back and see it in my mind. I imprinted it there, seeing each panel by heart, the vision linked with the music. Some for the city. I remember the streets because I wandered there at all hours of day and night. I wish everyone a trip like that sometime in their lifetime.
8 Hiking in Switzerland, inspiring metaversal designs
This must be on the list of highlights, as it brings me back to self. Tolkien was inspired to write Lord of the Rings after visiting Switzerland. The epic landscapes, simple cadence of cowbells, the feeling of wind in my hair, the unparalleled views in the Alps. There’s nothing like time in this country. I absolutely love it. This year, I discovered a few new special spots, including one that made the cover of National Geographic recently. It was as fantastical as advertised, and certainly played a part in helping me conjure XR journeys and transformative experiences.
9 Joining the Leadership Team at TRIPP as Chief Wellness Officer
I wrote a post here about what’s led me to this point, how much joining the team means to me, and where my values and vision are guiding next steps and expansions ahead. There’s a lot to build and look forward to, and this top organization is at the forefront! Truly, after joining in July, TRIPP has been on a trajectory, with an appearance on the Today show this fall, and TIME magazine’s “Best Inventions 2022” list in the wellness category. TRIPP is a team of standout individuals building incredible experiences reshaping well-being from the inside out.
10 Going to the UAE for the inaugural Games for Change in Abu Dhabi
Games have always been an important part of my life. Creating game-based opportunities for social impact is vital for systemic change. People engage in innovation and new forms of thinking through scenario shaping and creative play, and the applications are multi-faceted, from health to leadership, wellness to design and beyond.
It was an honor to participate in the first Games for Change Summit in Abu Dhabi about Exploring How Games Can Change the World alongside @ Lindsay, Jessica, Sam, and moderator Susanna. It was a joy for me to shine a light on the great work @TRIPP is doing to advance the field. Thank you Games for Change and ADGaming.
11 Being at C2 Montreal and leading a workshop about the Metaverse and creative design.
I began the conference onstage after an introduction by Justin Trudeau — talk about surreal! C2 is about commerce and creativity, an ideal blend. Instead of speaking about topics in abstract form, I led exercises that got the audience directly involved as creators. This was such a dynamic, colorful event. Impressions are lasting.
12 Speaking at the LinkedIn TalentConnect Summit about emotional intelligence and soft skills in the Metaverse
Leading an interactive session with the LinkedIn community was invigorating. We crossed thresholds and experienced the transformation in full sensory, social and shared environments. There are so many ways that emotional intelligence can be amplified in virtual reality, and I valued the chance to show the “how” to leadership at LinkedIn, a company that connects the world.
13 Deepening friendships within a book club community I am part of called BookFlow — and celebrating the extensions of our activities and curiosities with digital gatherings and in-person collaborations. Associated with AD360 and Peter Diamandis as part of its origin story, this diverse weekly online gathering is run by Michael Morrissey. This year, we’ve read and discussed books that stretch us in new directions, from The Network State to Metaverse to Being You, among dozens of others. Each book teaches something new in perspective and content — and, the greatest teacher is our community.
14 Creating and Hosting daily Well-being events in May for Mental Health Awareness month, across multiple physical and digital venues.
15 Expanding MindWise FlowCamp, with trainings in creative flow, metaverse fluency, wonder and awe in spatialized experiences
These highlights are in no particular order and definitely more formative, not summative. There are many more layers, for sure!
There’s an exercise that Brené Brown likes to play: name two emotions you are feeling.
I am feeling curious and bold. I’ll take those two into 2023! Traditionally, I picture time as a spiral shape, an elongated curved staircase, wrapped inward and outward on itself.
It’s been a year of juxtaposition, stretching, and spirals. I’m embracing 2023. Hope you are, too!
