Out with noise, in with beauty
Not everything needs structure. DO NOTHING - THANK ME LATER.
🎨 This week on connection: Art, nature, and education. Founders x sports = community. When a hotel strips away the noise and embraces beauty.
Madrid: Domingazo is back May 25th. Mark your calendars and RSVP here.
Dare to connect,
Andy
NEW HERE? WE’VE BEEN EXPECTING YOU
Welcome to Casa Cinco, a home for people reimagining connection to ourselves, others, and the planet. It starts with our weekly curation of resources, events, and reflections. But it doesn’t end there...
💌 GOING ON AT CASA CINCO
I’ve been thinking lately about the sympathetic “crisis” we’re in. And no, this isn’t about being too nice (I wish!). It’s about our sympathetic nervous system - the part of us wired for “fight or flight,” which seems to have become our default state.
Emails. Notifications. Deadlines. Noise. Even wellness, now served in 15-minute optimized chunks. It all keeps us “on.”
Cortisol? Up.
Shoulders? Tight.
Breath? Shallow.
The antidote? What used to come naturally: activating our parasympathetic nervous system - aka, our “rest and digest” mode. The one that brings us back to presence, calm, and connection.
Research shows that even brief moments of parasympathetic activity - slow breathing, gentle movement, eye contact, time in nature - can reduce inflammation, ease anxiety, and improve overall wellbeing.
But this isn’t a call for more biohacking or yet another task. It’s a gentle nudge to slow down - not just for yourself, but for those around you.
How? Host an impromptu arts and crafts night for friends at home. Text a group chat with a time and place for a picnic, with no special occasion. At the very least, block off time in your calendar to do nothing. Mine is Fridays, 11am–1pm. Baby steps.
What has surprised me most about this is how the more unstructured time I give myself, the more alive my structured time becomes.
Remember: not everything needs structure. Sometimes, it just needs space.
And, ideally, good company.
🌍 CURATING CONNECTION
Opening May 31, 2025: The Goodwood Art Foundation, built on the pillars of timeless wellbeing discussed here in the past, aims to foster physical and mental wellbeing through inspirational experiences at the intersection of art, nature, and education. I would love to visit this one.
Founder Sports Club: A community of online business owners “building cool shit and keeping active at the same time”. According to the website, the club has 4,500+ active members… and counting. Despite sounding niche, the platform is living proof of the growing demand for i) nicher offerings (isn’t that what like-minded is, after all?), and ii) connective activities (> networking). Thanks to OD for sharing!
My husband and I did a few very intentional things at our wedding, one of which was family-style starters. My hypothesis was that this would help “break the ice” (preferred: start the fire) and get people naturally talking to each other - even if only to “pass the salad, please”. The result: ice was broken. People got talking. Friends from childhood bonded with friends from college, and so on. Food has always been a natural connector, and NatGeo knows why. Turns out that sharing a table is as vital to connection as conversation and food itself.
What do you get when you strip away TVs, dress codes, branded shampoos, tasting menus, and shiny objects from a hotel? What everybody is actually looking for: a space to reconnect. Set in the Spanish countryside, La Donaira is establishing a new standard for luxury hospitality - a quieter, more natural, more human one. What I love about this project is how it resembles Picasso’s quote around craft (“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”) - only true mastery strips away the noise to embrace real beauty. Related to today’s reflection: not everything needs structure.
Madrid has a lovely tradition of terraces - one that London is hoping to embrace. Mayor Sadiq Khan just launched a £300,000 “Summer Streets” fund to boost outdoor dining and late-night openings as part of the city’s growing “hospitality economy”. Given how sunny London has been recently, it seems like the perfect time to launch this initiative and get people out out.
💡 YOU’RE INVITED
Did today’s reflection resonate with you? I invite you to send yourself a recurring calendar invite titled DO NOTHING - THANK ME LATER (even better if you make the title personal!).
Idenfiy the next available hour in your calendar between today and Friday, create the event, set the ‘meeting’ to repeat weekly, and give it a try. No guilt-trippin’, just try it.
THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE
Are you a founder or investor in social wellbeing? Interested in sponsoring Casa Cinco? Reply to this email and let’s connect.
Want to build a more connected world?
“The food, the service, and the design are simply ingredients in the recipe for human connection”
Will Guidara