Designfulness

Excited to be part of the Women’s Day Event organized by Tech Connect Alberta this coming Saturday, March 14th Platform Calgary!

I’ll be at the booth sharing how Designfulness guides individuals and teams to move from autopilot to intentional action by cultivating a culture of trust, presence, creativity, and meaningful collaboration through the practices of mindfulness, design, and play.

I’ll also be introducing our upcoming Designfulness event happening in April, along with a few surprises. You’ll be among the first to hear about it. 🙂

If you’re attending, stop by and experience the power of hand knowledge, how thinking through our hands can unlock new ideas and perspectives.

Come say hello and connect. I’d love to meet you!
Looking forward to meeting many inspiring people from the community!

Event details:
Location: Platform Calgary
Date: Saturday, March 14
Time: 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM MDT
Showpass Registration: https://lnkd.in/gQFmqNiN

Most teams jump straight into solutions.

But when people are stressed, distracted, or in autopilot, collaboration and creativity struggle.

Last week at UX Camp Calgary, I facilitated an experimental workshop called Presence & Play: A UX Toolkit for Creative Thinking, during UX Camp Calgary by Calgary UX.

Before thinking together, we practiced arriving together.
We started with grounded presence.
Then moved into play.

Using LEGO® Serious Play, participants explored ideas through metaphor and shared meaning, letting intuition and new perspectives emerge beyond what words alone can express.

Participants shared they felt:
• more connected
• more open and creative
• more grounded
• able to see situations differently

One reflection stayed with me:
“No one ever told me how to stop.”

And that’s often the real challenge at work today.

When we pause and regulate first, collaboration changes.

When people feel safe, creativity expands.

Mindfulness, design, and play are the practices we use to create space for human connection, collaboration, and better thinking together.

This is Designfulness, where inner awareness creates outer impact.

When I first moved to live alone in my own apartment in Toronto 11 years ago, I didn’t know how to be in silence.

I would turn on the TV the moment I got home, just to fill the emptiness with sound.

Quiet felt uncomfortable, almost lonely.

I didn’t know how to hold silence within my body.

This was at a crucial point in my life when I was deeply committed to my personal growth.

I realized that filling emptiness with noise was not allowing me to hear myself properly.

One day, I canceled my TV cable.

That decision changed everything.

Over time, I started enjoying empty spaces.

Through yoga, meditation, and years of practice, I discovered that silence isn’t empty—it’s full of creativity, clarity, and connection.

In silence, I recalibrate.

Silence has become a crucial aspect of how I start my day and work.

Working in corporate for many years as a UX Designer, the invitation to allow silence and pause before the start of the day, a meeting, or between tasks has been a game changer.

I have also been introducing mindfulness-based practices and somatic movement into the workshops I facilitate, and they open the door to inspiration and meaningful collaboration.

When you pause and sit in silence, your nervous system settles.

When your nervous system settles, clarity returns.

And from clarity, creativity and meaningful conversation naturally arise.

Pause is not an interruption or wasted time, it’s actually where creativity and connection begin.

In Designfulness, we see silence as a creative ally: we use it a practice to bring clarity, creativity,and connection into everything we do.

Advancement is the backbone of any effective organization today. For some organizations, the quest for inventive thoughts is feeling the loss of a key component: imagination. It's a typical misinterpretation that creativity exists just in individuals with explicitly "creative" jobs. Any can learn innovatively.

In order to enhance the creative side of the person, he/she must take mental breaks. It's difficult to support innovativeness in a drained, wore out brain. Empowering mental breaks is the way to building up representatives' inventive side and boost productivity through it.

Sustaining your imaginative self is the best way to really open your essential mind and carry your business abilities to bear in new, significant ways that can profit the whole team and the business as well.

It can be very easy to get lost in your work, especially if you are in back to back meetings, are getting close to a deadline, or are starting a new project you are unsure how to take on. This can quickly lead to working longer hours, being more stressed, and not taking the time to break, relax and stretch during the work day. In the long run, this can negatively impact focus, energy, motivation and most importantly your health. Not sure what to do?

💡 Swipe left to learn about 3 tips to help you be more mindful at work!