24/07/2026
In a letter to his friend Gertrude Tennant, 19th century French novelist Gustave Flaubert wrote:
“Soyez réglé dans votre vie et ordinaire comme un bourgeois, afin d’être violent et original dans vos œuvres.”
One frequently cited English translation of this quote has adorned the opening page of many of my notebooks over the years:
“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work”.
For a long time, it was aspirational. These days, I know what it is to live it.
In 2021, despite being an already highly productive and organised person, George Kao and his productivity teachings gave me my first experience (and this very particular moment is etched in my memory - it’s so freaking transcendent) of ending a day…calmly…joyfully…peacefully.
I closed my notebooks and shut down my computer and had this beautiful relaxed feeling in my body along with a relaxed quiet mind.
I knew I had done enough.
I felt I had done enough.
And I knew what to do and where to start when I would come back to my desk the following day.
No chaotic panic, just clarified purpose. It’s one of the things that supported me in building my beautiful business these past 5 years.
“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work”.
A while back, in the peak of perimenopause, buying and moving a house, completing my practicum and my master’s degree while maintaining my business duties and a full private practice caseload, I lost it for a while. I fell off the “working lightly” (George’s catch phrase) wagon. While I remained productive, I got quite disorganised and close to burn out.
Among many reasons for this, one of them was losing touch with my own daily somatic practice. I found myself pushing instead of holding myself through hard things. I started rushing instead of rolling through my days and I began stomping heavily rather than walking lightly through all my many competing obligations.
The second was that as a group ju**ie - I know that I can never do these things alone, it's just not how my brain works. George had begun to slow down and I simply couldn’t access his live sessions due to time zone clashes. I lost my community support structure.
I knew I had to find a way to weave his teachings with my (renewed) somatic practices and live sessions in my time zone back together. It’s what allows me to stay in service, in my work, my home, my life.
Voila Embodied Joyful Productivity 🙂 Weekly teaching and practice sessions to work lightly. I’ll teach and we’ll all implement, in real time, together. George will pop in monthly to hold deep dives and Q n A’s.
In this small clip from our longer chat about why we want to do this collaboration, George and I are discussing the power of regular somatic practice woven into work and productivity.
The founding round starts Friday July 31st, doors close Wednesday July 29th.
Find out more here: https://www.mirarao.com.au/embodied-joyful-productivity
