The North Sense has sold out. This small silicone device is attached to the chest by means of a piercing-like anchoring system and vibrates whenever the person wearing it faces north.

It costs 425$. Apart from situations in which you would use a compass, what benefits would one reap from this investment? “Orientation” can mean more than knowing our topographic position and refer to our finding our way around to manifest our nature. Given that the Earth is a magnetic field, our position can affect the way everything flows or doesn’t in our organism, so there’s a relationship between both aspects.

We could use a gadget to optimize our position. Or, if I believe that some positions are more favourable than others, I could also learn to sense when everything’s flowing and use that as a touchstone to know if I’m aligned. Of course, it takes time and dedication to develop that awareness. However, developing this awareness might come in handy anyway, to know in which direction I actually want to go in. Just going North all the time will only bring me round and round in circles! Following a course is a much more subtle affair requiring an ongoing dialogue between action and terrain. That is why Gestalt therapy has no one-size-fits-all solutions and is rather an accompaniment for a personal process.

Inspiring questions to begin the year with! Where am I? Where am I going? Where do I want to go? How can I get there? The path is not always a straight line and sometimes stopping is the way to go on. Only you can know what your “true north” is, if you feel into it.