Wake-up calls often happen when things get really bad. Pain motivates us to change, because we rarely make changes when we’re comfortable. That’s why I’ve loved Chris Baréz-Brown’s wake-up column over the last year. It’s been a joyful way to inch out of our comfort zone and try a weekly ‘wake-up experiment’ to make conscious choices about the way we live. If we work on regular ways to stop putting up with what we don’t want and start creating what we do want, we no longer feel disempowered and can be part of the solution rather than the problem. Read how the experiments impacted on our wake-up bloggers’ lives on page 26.
Connection is at the heart of the magazine this month. Whether you’re dealing with a toxic family dynamic (page 39) or a haunted moustache (!) (page 50), all roads lead to taking responsibility about the way you connect. It’s all about having an ongoing honest conversation. ‘I realise this whole mission was part of a bigger change for me, about a desire for greater authenticity and satisfaction in my whole life,’ says Grace Abelola on creating more intimacy with her partner (page 32).