August update: Progress is a funny thing.
Exploring how real progress often begins within, and how we’re building from the inside out. Introducing The Compass this summer.
Hey friends,
Progress is a funny thing.
The last six months have been some of the most transformative I’ve had, personally, inwardly, mentally, and even in how I’m building the Nurture Map and Social Mental Wealth movement. But if I tried to measure that progress in conventional terms, sales, numbers, likes, followers, it wouldn’t show up in any obvious way. There’s no new zero added to my income, no viral moment or headline-making milestone. And yet, everything feels different.
There’s a quiet, rooted kind of shift happening. A growing confidence in the foundations being laid, the clarity deepening, and the way this vision is beginning to shape itself around values that don’t always scream for attention but offer something much deeper: integrity, care, spaciousness, and sustainability.
Maybe you're in a similar season too. The kind where everything is shifting, just not in ways the world always celebrates.
So I thought I’d share what’s been happening over the past half-year, because even though the surface might look still, so much is stirring beneath it.
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Launching the Social Mental Wealth Movement
One of the most exciting and quietly revolutionary shifts was launching the Social Mental Wealth movement. This isn’t just a rebrand or a new campaign. It’s a cultural foundation for everything we’re building.
It’s about moving beyond scarcity-led models of healing and into collective care, shared resources, and alternative ways of supporting one another.
Rather than fixing people, we’re investing in spaces that honour our wholeness, and systems that value rest, reciprocity, and regeneration. Social Mental Wealth is a deep shift in how we approach support, and you’ll see it woven through everything we do moving forward.
You can read a full article on the Social Mental Wealth movement and my own personal Substack entitled: From commodity to community. Reclaiming out birthright to wellbeing.
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A New Facilitator Joins the Team
I’m thrilled to share that we’ve welcomed a new facilitator, Cassandra, into the Nurture Map team. It feels really affirming to grow this vision in a way that doesn’t rely on hierarchy, but on shared values and mutual trust.
Cassandra is a most recent graduate of the Nurture Map Academy and undertook the 12 month facilitator course. She is passionate about education and bringing entrepreneurship to young people. You can find out more about her work by following @insightedcat on most social media platforms.
Expanding the team isn’t about scaling for the sake of it. It’s about growing capacity for care, holding more space, and co-creating the kind of support that meets people where they are.
We’re building this slowly and intentionally, with facilitators who bring their own lived experience, wisdom, and nurturing presence to the work. It’s about creating a web of support, not a brand, but a movement.
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Substack Becomes Our New Home for Media
We’ve quietly been setting up our new Substack, which is now the online home for the Nurture Map Magazine, our free digital magazine that brings together reflections, stories, and resources on wellbeing, community care, and radical rest.
We’ve also started using it to share our podcasts, conversations, and slow-read book club updates.
It’s part of the bigger dream: to build a media space rooted in values, not algorithms. A place to share nourishing words and new narratives, freely and accessibly. If you haven’t already, you can follow us there and stay updated with all we’re creating. It's also where you can connect with the Nurture Map Community.
You can explore the full archive or subscribe at https://www.substack.com/@chrisbowness if this was forwarded to you.
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What’s Coming Up: The Compass Workshop Series
This August, we’re launching The Compass, a 10-part video workshop series that offers a gentle, empowering introduction to the Nurture Map.
It’s designed to support people in realigning with themselves, their needs, their values, and their direction, especially if you’ve been feeling pulled in a million directions or disconnected from your inner voice.
The Compass is light-touch, reflective, and spacious. It’s not another thing on your to-do list, but something to return to when you need to re-centre. And it’s open to anyone who’s curious about the Nurture Map and wants a grounded way to explore it.
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The Next Evolution of the Nurture Map Academy
We’re also preparing for the next launch of the Nurture Map Academy, and with it, a beautiful evolution of what this training space is becoming.
It’s not your typical academic course. It’s not about information downloads or rigid modules. It’s an evergreen, evolving space for facilitators, guides, and visionary change-makers who want to support others through the lens of Social Mental Wealth, with care, somatic awareness, cultural sensitivity, and imagination.
We're training people who don’t fit traditional moulds. People who are reimagining wellbeing and building the kind of spaces they wish they’d had. This next round will go deeper, hold more spaciousness, and invite new ways of being in community with each other.
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An Invitation to Support This Work
If you believe in what we’re building, if you see the value in a world where wellbeing isn’t commodified, where support isn’t transactional, and where community care leads the way, there are many ways to support this work.
You can share this newsletter, attend a workshop, become a paying subscriber on Substack, or contribute through our Social Mental Wealth support models like gifting, pledging, or offering resources. Every gesture, large or small, helps us grow this movement with integrity and care.
It’s not about charity or hustle. It’s about co-creating a culture that nurtures all of us. You can also simply reply to this update and let me know how this work has landed with you, your words often fuel me more than you realise. Find out all the ways you can support our work here.
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Looking Ahead — And Staying Connected
If the last six months have taught me anything, it’s that slow, grounded progress is still progress. That building something aligned takes time. That honouring the quiet seasons, where the seeds are still underground, matters just as much as celebrating the blooms.
I’m so grateful to each of you who’s been walking this journey with me, whether you’ve been reading silently, joining workshops, supporting the vision, or simply cheering us on from afar.
There’s so much more to come, and I’ll be sharing more regular updates from now on through this space.
If there is anything you'd like to follow up in this newsletter, please leave a comment below, or if you're reading via the via email you can reply directly.
Let’s keep creating new maps. Let’s keep choosing nurture.
With care,
Chris Bowness
Nurture Map Creator