Author: Amanda Viviers

The beauty of personal growth, is the fact that you never arrive. We live in a destination orientated world.

“What did you get for Christmas?”

“What are your New Year’s resolutions?”

“Where are you going this year on holidays?”

We start with the end point in mind and we are trained to assess the success of our everyday lives, from the things we attain, the places we visit and what we consume.

The destination is not a key performance indicator, especially in relation to the expansion of our leadership capacity or life’s goals. I think the growth that happens along the way, is the incremental joy, found with experiencing life through the lens of a curious mindset.

Today I pulled out my simplify journal, when it was a hard moment in my work day. I opened the pages to the letters to myself section and I started to journal in a way that showed up to what I was feeling. This is a powerful leadership tool, when you lead in spaces where things change constantly.

“Are we there yet?” Herald my children from the back seat.

When we own our feelings, give space to the insecurity and show up for ourselves— life changes. When we numb the reaction, it sits dormant under the surface, waiting to be waded through.

Life is muddy.

Growth is shocking.

Maturity is humbling.

Journaling is a powerful tool to help us reset the expectation of others and learn from our own stories. What stories have you been ignoring?

2024, was tough for us. The repeating misunderstanding of grief, held us captive. Cars broke down. Friendships stalled. Careers were redirected. The list continues.

The way we show up to the residue left from these experiences, is the insight required for the coming days. So here I am again, sitting in a little pub, in the outskirts of Perth, showing up to my pages. Let’s begin again.

Simplify is designed to be a degustation, not just a one time sitting. My end of year review, is a daily contemplation to articulate the things held within my deep ocean. The desire for that which is difficult to express.

It does not need to be perfect. It is an unwritten rule of contemplation. The question is … when did you stop delving?

Is it time to return again and keep refining? Your end of year review and yearly intentions do not need to be set in stone, in fact the facilitation of thought and process, brings the gold lying deep within.

Creatively Yours,

You can find any opinion that supports your views if you know where to look. The internet has created a buffet of information without the accountability of digestion.

In 2025, God said, “Fewer Voices = More Clarity”. Across many seasons of leadership, I have been the kind of person who values a company of voices: differing opinions, cultures and experiences than mine.

I believe in vast friendship circles and don’t believe in the Hollywood myth of a singular best friend. I have friends older than me, younger friends, and those who live in other countries with different upbringings and beliefs. I will sit at a table with someone of varying religions and am willing to explore the width and depths of humanity for wisdom. Some of my most meaningful friendships have walked daily with me in a season, and then that season changes.

I am well-connected across many different spheres. Yet, I often feel overwhelmed and lonely and look for wisdom outside these circles.

There are too many voices, opinions, stories and a lack of real-life application.

A few years ago, amid my New Year reflections, I decided to stop reading non-fiction books for a year. I realised I could buy and consume many life-changing philosophies, but it was just more noise unless the concepts were applied. So, that year, I only read fiction. I allowed my imagination to thrive and explored the creative side of writing for a while. It was a great year of reading and storytelling. I grew and still focused on professional and personal development without self-help books. Non-fiction books started to come back on my reading menu, however these days I have a steady stream of both.

Another year, I stopped purchasing new clothes. I realised I had over-consumed in this area and allowed other voices to determine my style more than my sense of expression. Fashion cycles come and go, but the impact on our environment is compelling. So, outside of a few second-hand swaps and op shop buys, I didn’t buy any clothing for a year. The noise of consumption was reduced, and I trained my mind to imagine new outfit combinations with a smaller and well-used cupboard of clothes.

The less voices theme for 2025 has developed from my online consumption, especially from Christian content creators.

What I am learning in this season from this warning, I believe whispered from God, is this…

Every word of knowledge, scriptural teaching, and opinion about the world around us needs localisation to bring about application and significant change. Preaching, teaching and reflection— should bring transformation, not comfort.

Who wrote the quote is just as important as my interpretation of it! Who filmed the clip is just as important as the message received. It is easy to listen to a podcast, but sitting with a pastor or counsellor on a couch and applying it holistically to our lives is more challenging.

It is easy to read a prophet’s post and accept it as gospel for our season, but the rigour required in interpreting the word involves skill. We all need accountability, but it’s unpopular in a world that prefers individualisation. Our over-saturated, content-rich worlds have created a buffet of inspiration that requires verification before we re-narrate its meaning for our lives.

This is why all social media apps this year have been removed from my phone. I am also attempting to decrease the number of people I listen to and consume online. I will use the time spent grazing to communicate deeply with a smaller group of people— in person and read the Bible for myself- with the Spirit of God bringing the application to my daily life.

Tomorrow night it begins with a group of local women pastors having dinner together once a month. I want to sit and listen to my local community’s needs and decrease the number of voices in my world. I’ve also said no to quite a few opportunities in my everyday life so I can focus more this year on finishing my master’s and learning more about my faith in this season with applied knowledge in my own life.

What big, courageous ideas have you been thinking about applying?

Whose opinions are noisy in your life?

How can you reframe their opinions through accountability and localisation?

I.e., how can you start to apply the inspiration rather than consume more and more ideas?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on my blog as I’m not on social media much this year, reframing my relationship with scrolling.

Creatively Yours,

My latest release is called Simplify. It is a series of journalling worksheets to help you find clarity.

Stellenbosch

11 January

We are at the tail end of our trip home and it’s time to say goodbye to our family. Spending Christmas in South Africa, was a dream come true— a country of contradictions. As we have travelled from Stellenbosch through to Port Elizabeth, the clear impact of the class systems here shocked us.

Each settlement that we passed, I heard my children ask for clarity with curiosity. They hear about poverty, the impact of the systems and injustice of our world regularly at our dinner table. However, seeing children play in dirty river beds, sewerage flowing onto the beach, watching families walk for miles upon highways and women stand alone on street corners. The stranger hitchhiking and the signs held at traffic lights by the homeless asking for money. The fear of car jacking and finding our belongings at risk was ever present. The misunderstandings etched into the soul of a culture, from years of colonialism.

We stood on a pier in Gqurbeha (Port Elizabeth), reminiscing about my husband’s youth and the times he spent with his family on the beach. I looked out upon hundreds of people swimming and I heard a sound from a group of men. They were singing. Loud, strong and free.

Their laughter and passion, made me smile. It was a sound of hope, an anthem of resilience and an expression of hope for tomorrow. I stood on the pier with the tension of so much challenge and violence, heartbreak and fear, yet creativity asked us to look beyond the horizon and look for resolve.

Each persons story made an impact yet it is difficult to see complexity and not be able to do something about it.

Since the beginning of 2025, I have removed all apps from social media off my phone. It’s an intentional separation of my life, to find more space for reflection. In an act of simplicity, I am intentionally quietening the stories I consume. I have quickly realised, with less scrolling, that I carry so many stories. I can’t help but absorb the emotion of the information that I am consuming online. Each post I read, each picture I observe, takes a moment of interpretation and asks me to respond. If I don’t respond, I am intentionally numbing myself to what I am seeing. This accumulates.

We have a choice, do we ignore what we have witnessed or do we engage? We are designed to respond. Empathy is the ethical response to the challenge of being human. Whether you are aware of it or not, you are digesting the information that you consume. Every highlight, lowlight and in-between, creates a reaction in our souls.

We have a choice do we numb these feelings? This has an impact. This translates into the way we communicate with the environments we exist within and the families we live our days with.

These last two weeks have been an unravelling of my soul. It’s like a tight coil of stories sits in my chest and I must untie them from my emotions. On social media I read stories of difficulty, I see the impact of your divorce, I know about your child’s diagnosis and I contribute to go fund me’s from strangers I’ve never met. Every day I am reading hundreds of stories, whether it’s a piece of artwork, your new business or the impact of something that you are expressing online.

Humans were not designed to carry this many stories.

We were designed to care for a handful of narratives. We were designed to hear about difficulties and respond with compassion. The more stories we carry, the more weight we absorb, without realising, we are unable to do something about the impact of the world around us and it loads.

Each piece of content, designed to engage my heart and life, means that I carry too many stories. My heart was not designed to lift the weight of the world. We were designed to live a village life. This enlarging of world, has meant I stay in touch with many more friends than I ever would have historically. Which is so beautiful, but it carries a cost.

Like tabs open on a computer, these tabs in our mind remain open and our soul needs resolve. We need to bring closure to the emotions we have shared. Life needs to be reset. I realised in 2024, I have so many online friendships, but they do not translate into every day relationships. I call these my 5 minute friends. Someone I can sit on my couch with an have a cup of tea. People who know the stories I don’t share online. Someone to hug and hold.

How have you resolved the stories you consume?

Has this online culture made you feel as alone as I have felt?

Paul speaks about our stories being letters written on our hearts. We are created to spend time with a group of people, to journey with them and to listen with compassion to their stories.

“You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to one known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” — 2 Corinthians 2: 2-3

The meaning of the word resolve is “settle or find a solution to (a problem or contentious matter). The ability to communicate and translate the stories that we are each consuming means we must find ways to express the concerns, the etching of our hearts and allow our minds to rest.

Peace is not just an external lack of conflict, it is also the internal settling of our hearts and minds, to be able to rest fully with resolve. One of my intentions for this new year, is to be more present to people in my local environments, than those online. My catalogue of stories in my heart, is overfull. My internal hard drive is at capacity. I need God to reset these places so that I can pour out my life with compassion once again.

Our world is writhing with stories of conflict, challenge and poverty. Our neighbourhoods are filled with need, children at risk and difficulty. We are asked to respond, but we cannot do something about every story we observe. We cannot do everything, but we can do something.

In fact, when I spend time with people helping and bringing resolve together, a conversation that brings insight and reflection—life becomes so much more meaningful.

In comparison when I consume story after story, read the news, hear strangers narratives and opinions, without the capacity to engage fully, my heart increasingly feels burdened by the state of the world.

My challenge to you today is this;

1. How many stories are you consuming?
2. Are you numbing yourself to these real people, with real challenges?
3. How many 5 minute friends do you have?
4. What can you do this year, to be intentional with them?

Let’s resolve to live life simpler. My latest journaling worksheet bundle is designed to help you unpack the stories you carry. Purchase simplify today and host a private retreat to reset your heart and mind.

Creatively yours,

9 January

Addo Elephant Park

Nature shows our need for one another spectacularly. We’ve been on safari the last few days. Time out from the urban landscape of South Africa and an opportunity to go slower.

Female Elephants, in a herd gather in a circle around the younger female calf’s when a predator approaches. They circle around them and provide the nurture needed for survival.

I have observed a very different phenomenon on social media. Environments when humans storm one another when they are weak. Gossiping and pulling people down, to make themselves feel seen or approved.

What if we nurtured one another in a way that was protective?

Have you worked in an environment, that preferred achievement over connection? I have also worked in places that create opposition over the unity that they value.

Can you create moments where the younger members feel safe?

This is nature showing us a way to protect and nurture one another for the future.

A group of giraffes is called a journey. They travel together, albeit very individual. They don’t need each other, but enjoy the journey. Therefore as they travel, they walk together, for the enjoyment of one another’s company. This posture of companionship inspires me to remember the beauty of travelling every day life with fellow people.

We live in a world that promotes individualism, but reminding ourselves that companionship is the beauty of a humble, quiet life— alongside. Nature proves an animal alone is unsafe. There are times, like when a teenage boy elephant must go and learn the lessons of independence, when it is important for his maturity. But also, a lone animal is an unsafe one. They are subject to predators.

We need one another. I need you. You need me. We are stronger together.

A group of zebras are known as a dazzle. It’s hard to know what is happening when all their stripes confuse the predator. They stand together, each stripe unique to the individual, but in a group they form an eclipse of stripes. Nature is very beautiful. This trip to Africa has endeared my heart towards nature and has shown me the spectacular creativity of God.

One of my favourite activities of 2024, was a meditation that Anne, my co- retreat facilitator ran in our overseas retreat in Bali, Indonesia.

She took us to a place of rest and contemplation. Asking us to imagine a safe place in a forrest. A place where we could rest and observe. As we took a moment to focus our imaginations on a place that bought us peace, she then led us in a creative meditation, where we imagined an animal.

She asked us “What animal comes to sit alongside you?” She spoke of an animal that had strength, one that was able to inspire us in this place of safety in our minds.

This moment became one I reflected on many times across the last few months of the year. I imagined a white tiger, she was female. She was strong, calm and present. I sat on the log in the forrest, I wasn’t afraid or concerned at all, with the animal sitting with me. The calming presence of this animal, was so comforting. I found strength in this safe place.

Anne facilitated a moment where we learnt from that animal and allowed our Spirit to use a metaphor to speak to our current situation. A learning, that we desired and needed. I needed strength. I needed to rest and be calm, to allow the moment to refuel me.

Across scripture, story tellers use metaphors of animals, mountains and nature to speak into our current circumstance. The psalms are a specific example of this. Moments where deers ask us to look to the mountains for their hind places of hope. Or the allegory of God as a lion, who roars through the earth, showing His majesty and Kingship.

Moments when birds are looked after by a God who sees. A talking donkey in the Old Testament, a snake tempts humanity and an eagle who shouts “woe, woe, woe” in the book of Revelation.

There is something powerful about nature mimicking the eternal and I can’t explain the transformation that happens to my inner ocean, when I sit and spend time observing the world around me.

Tell me in the comments linked above, have you ever had an encounter with an animal that has impacted you?

Creatively Yours,