• Here are some questions you can ask yourself to get a sense of your needs, and we offer this list as something that you can keep coming back to over time, as needs might shift over time as you experience and learn new things!

• We'd suggest that you only pick one or two dimensions to reflect on at a time, depending on what questions resonate with you at the present moment, and that you give yourself 10-15 minutes at least to think through your answers to the questions.

• You may also want to ask a friend to do this together with you, as a quiz, so that you can hear someone else's responses and/or have some support to articulate and clarify your answer, and/or to write your answers so that you can easily return to them at a future point in time (:

• Another point to note is that your needs may be different from context to context - 'do I have a budget?' as a person for instance is slightly different from 'do I have a budget?' as an arts practitioner / in my practice. Depending on your interest and capacity, it could be helpful to respond to these questions both in general as well as in 1 or max 2 other specific contexts.

Which dimensions below are more important to you? (The different dimensions don’t need to be all equally important!)

• 🏃 Physical

  • Do I try to maintain a somewhat balanced diet?

  • Do I go for regular health check ups?

  • Am I aware of my sexual health and wellbeing?

• 💕 Emotional

  • Do I know if I have high or low self-esteem? How?

  • Am I able to feel and express a range of feelings with nuance? How do I know this?

• 👥 Social

  • Do I find many of my interpersonal relationships draining or tiring?

  • Do I know who to look for support when I need it?

  • Am I aware and curious of what others are feeling?

• 💰 Financial

  • Do I have an approximate budget for most things that I spend on?

  • Do I often overspend beyond my means?

• 🧠 Intellectual

  • Am I able to continually learn new things?

  • Are my ideas respected and listened to, or often dismissed by others?

• 👷 Career

  • How does my work enrich my person and my life?

  • Do I enjoy work on most days?

  • Do I have a manageable workload?

  • Do I feel like I can speak openly with my supervisor and colleagues?

  • Do I have career goals?

• 🙏 Spiritual

  • Do I know my core values and are my actions aligned with them?

  • Am I able to respect others’ core values if they are different from me?

• 🎉 Cultural

  • Am I actively cultivating curiosity and learning about other cultures?

  • Am I aware of historical and cultural power differences between different communities and how they affect people’s day-to-day lives?

  • Do I ask others questions about their culture and practices in a thoughtful way?

• 🌱 Environmental

  • Am I able to appreciate how humans and nature are interconnected and affect each other?

  • Do I contribute to maintaining the wellbeing of the planet, which is also related to my own wellbeing?

We use 'facilitator' here in quite a loose way - it can refer to being formally hired or acknowledged as a facilitator in a project, or it can refer to being informally someone who is trying to move things along in a group context. Within an arts collective for instance, where there is likely no clear 'leader' or 'head', everyone is probably facilitating the collective's conversation to some degree.

As noted in the earlier section, your values may be different from context to context, so it can be worth taking some time to reflect on your needs as a facilitator. Apart from applying this lens to the questions above, here are some additional questions that you might find helpful to reflect on the purpose and scope of the gathering/group .

These questions can also be used in a group setting (e.g. as an activity) for everyone to get on the same page regarding the purpose and scope of the gathering.

• Why

  • • Why are we having this gathering?

    • Why is this conversation needed now?

    • Why are we the right people to have this conversation/gathering?

    • Why does it matter? Why is this relevant?

• Who

  • • Who are we accountable to?

    • Who has the skills we need?

    • Who wants to play what role?

• How

  • • How will this have an impact?

    • How can we embody our values?

• When

  • • When is this work needed?

    • When can we start?

    • When will we be finished?

• What

  • • What can we do together?

    • What are the needs of each individual and of the group?

    • What is at the root of our work?