The Salons for Beauty Hunters are facilitated conversations among existential travelers who seek fresh ideas, more optimism, greater freedom, pleasure & presence in daily life, more fun & flourishing, and want to explore the juicier issues of being alive within a community.
Together, we enter an exploration into new frontiers and possibilities. Conversations change lives.
The Beauty of Uncertainty & Not Knowing
September 27 - Oct 18
8 - 9 am, PT on Zoom
In a four-week exploratory conversation, we're going to consider the inherent natural-ness and no-problem-ness of uncertainty and *not knowing*.
We'll play around with the following questions:
🐒What if *not knowing* what's next or what to do in a situation isn't a crisis-of-faith problem?
🧚♀️What if we softened our resistance around uncertainty, to the point where we could even befriend it?
🤷🏻♀️What if we could see the Truth & Beauty in uncertainty/not knowing?
For four weeks we are going to get downright KEATSIAN, and go directly into the frontier of uncertainty and see it for all the beauty and truth/non-truth it is.
Why Keats?
1. Keats is responsible for this famed line:
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty" — what if uncertainty is the ultimate truth of living? By Keats, this means uncertainty = beauty💥
2. Keats is also known for coining "negative capability"--in which he encouraged all artists to allow for the uncertainty, mysteries and doubts that are part of the human and to simply HANDLE IT, or *not make such a goddamn big deal about 'em.* (That's my phrasing.)
The world is lively, life feels jaunty, uncertain and what the hell does the future hold? So with all that in mind, let's see how we can turn toward the beauty of all that uncertainty to calm our minds, spirits and engage more whole-heartedly with the world around us. And maybe simply get a good night's sleep for goodness sakes!
Dates:
September 27 - October 18
Four Wednesdays
8 - 9 am PT
Fee $300
$270 if you're a paid Beauty Hunter substack member
Your payment will save your place. You can pay via:
Venmo: @Tatyana-Sussex
or PayPal at:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/tatyanasussex/300
Or $270 at
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/tatyanasussex/270
The salons were birthed at Beauty Hunter, my Substack newsletter.
What is a salon?
From the humor, play & fun salon, fall 2022. “We all went deep and had so much fun--and hats.” - salon-er Kelli Russell Agadon, in dali painting above
A salon is a collaborative conversation among cool & curious people that amuses & delights and raises awareness of new ideas, experiences, and possibilities. A salon is a fresh exploration that expands the mind and spirit, and creates more capacity by replacing fear with curiosity; worry with inquiry.
The Salons for Beauty Hunters are facilitated conversations that bring together an intimate group of existential travelers. We are humans who seek fresh optimism, greater freedom, an increase in pleasure & presence in daily life, more fun & flourishing, more connection with ourselves, others and the world—and want to explore the juicier issues of being alive within a community.
Tatyana’s Beauty Salon is in a league of its own. Tatyana is a perfect guide – witty, wise, and warm! She is truly magic, she sees beauty in most unusual places, and will inspire you to do the same! If you are someone who finds these times challenging, feels there is not enough hope and light in the world, or just simply wants more beauty in your life, - you must sign up for her next Salon. You will come out changed, renewed, blessed.
—Lusia Moskvicheva, Coach, The Happy Life Strategist
If you like exploring these kinds of questions, subscribe to Beauty Hunter, and join a spirited community.
“A salon for beauty hunters?!? Who would have known that this 8-week program could change how I woke up, how I walked out the door? These weekly discussions on beauty brought me more clarity, less turbulence, and awakened my sensory tools. Thanks to Tatyana and the prompts, poetry and discussions, I am now a Beauty Hunter.”
“Tatyana’s engaging salon was a delight, awakening my childlike sense of wonder at the beauty surrounding us. Don’t miss a chance to participate!”
💥The Salon for Beauty Hunters
Re-ignite your natural love of lifeFall in love with the beauty of life
How does life get better without anything having to change?
What the hell is beauty?
We’re going to explore all these questions, using the persistence of Beauty as our guide. This is the foundation salon of Beauty Hunter. We will stretch and customize definitions of “Beauty” which so far have included: that which exalts the senses and expands the mind and spirit; Beauty as an action, Beauty as a verb; creativity; as something that surprises, produces awe, builds resilience; beauty as an omniscient force that is always at work, whether we feel it or not; Beauty as unconditional love, there for us no matter what we’re experiencing. Beauty as an object, an action, both ineffable and precisely located. What else could it be?
These conversations are happening among people who know there’s more joy, optimism, aliveness, connection, and flourishing to be had, and they want to spread their wings and stand in the full experience of being alive. And if you’re feeling tetchy or/and down, we’re going to honor that too. Beauty accepts all feelings and moods! Just as the tree remains beautiful in the storm—limbs shredding and tearing, roots losing their hold—so do we.
For eight weeks, a group of curious minds will come together to open those beauty portals, get our wet noses sniffing with curiosity, delight ourselves, learn, let loose of conventional thinking, share passions and intrigues, re-energize, inspire, and expand our capacity for beauty and mystery in everyday life.
The salon’s aim is to integrate fresh ideas into daily life. It’s not a class with homework, but an antennae-raising experiment with weekly email prompts, where we prioritize beauty-spotting, and then talk about it. Let’s reimagine Beauty as central to our existence, something that creates a sense of expansion and more freedom to spread our wings and be our unique wild selves.
By turning toward Beauty, and the persistence of it, our lives can get better without our circumstances having to change.
As your guide, I will lead the experience, and keep it open and collaborative. Think of this as a collective inquiry. We're like beauty scientists in a lab, exploring, sharing our findings and reflections.
Here’s to the unexpected thrills and the quiet joys that make life worth living.
Next Beauty Salon TBD. If interested, send me an email to let me know!
Recommended listen: The Inner Landscape of Beauty, Krista Tippet of On Being talks to Irish poet, and philosopher John O’Donohue (who also wrote a book called “Beauty”).
Recommended reading: The Book of Delights
Try this Wikipedia entry for the history of the salon.
Email me at tatyana@everydaycreative to sign up, or with any questions.
Exacly.
Beauty at Work
Nothing at this time. If this tickles your fancy, email and let me know. xo
“The Beauty at Work salon is an experience worth having. Tatyana’s warmth, spunkiness, sense of humor and energy left me light-hearted but grounded at the same time. The group was incredibly genuine and engaging. Our weekly explorations and prompts provided a refreshing space in which to step back & evaluate what I actually deem to be beautiful in my work, and as Mary Oliver so eloquently describes it, to “loving the world” Looking forward to future groups with Tatyana.”
For two months, we’re going to imagine the unthinkable: the beauty of work.
Going a bit deeper, we’ll imagine a vaster definition of Beauty and apply it to this thing we call Work. We’ll see how Beauty—an expansion of mind and spirit, an exaltation of the senses, the little things and simple pleasures, surprise, awe, love—can improve the quality and experience of our workdays, without anything having to change (and when change happens, it comes from a place of creative ownership and curiosity, instead of fixing or panicking). We’ll also kick some conventional, inhibiting ideas of “work” to the curb.
As your guide, I will lead the experience, and keep it open and collaborative. Think of this as a collective inquiry. We're going to be like scientists in a lab, exploring, sharing our findings and reflections.
Let’s see what happens when we stop asking our jobs to make us happy.
This salon isn’t about “finding your passion,” and “loving your job”; we’re not going to force-feed ourselves positive thinking or stick-to-it-iveness. We’re going to consider the whole gamut of experiences and emotions. Then, we’ll get curious and bear witness. This is about knowing we can ride the roller coaster with the persistence of beauty at our side.
Here’s a sample of recent salon participants’ experiences:
More expansion, sensing more opportunities & possibilities
Seeing the long game as something that’s sustainable and fun
Enjoying more playfulness at work
Seeing a packed day as intriguing, even exciting—instead of overwhelming.
As a group, the salon had fun considering Beauty as a way to be in the world, loving it, and that work was this space where we practiced loving. It is a bit 🤯 - that's the beauty lab for you.
The nitty-gritty:
WHEN: Starting April 6, and every Wednesday through May
TIME: 8:00 - 9:00 am Pacific Standard Time
WHERE: Zoom
WHAT ELSE: An emailed weekly prompt in between discussions.
COST: $325
WHAT ON EARTH IS A SALON? Read this history of the salon.
Email me at tatyana@everydaycreative to sign up, or with any questions.
*this phrase is from Mary Oliver’s maginificent poem “Messenger”. You don’t have to love the world for work if it sounds too hokey. However, we will be kicking our conventional definitions of “work/career” into the stratosphere, and re-imagine.
“The Beauty at Work salon was enlightening, inspiring and invigorating. The discussions challenged the group to examine our ideas, relationships and notions of beauty at work. Tatyana always had a good prompt, quote, question and comment to guide us along. So glad I went with my instinct to join!”
Business Salon for Creatives
This is an intimate community in which we share our ideas, experiences, and resources, egg each other on, and offer a sense of buoyancy for those of us who get stuck in the solitude silo of being an independent creative-biz person.
There will be a focus on more flourishing and less hustling.
It will be led/facilitated by an experienced business coach, in a collaborative atmosphere, with an aim to have fun, share brainpower, take new ideas out into the world and report back, and have some good laughs in the process.
Email if interested: tatyana@everydaycreative.net
Painting by brendan ryan