Elise Hawthorne
‘It takes a community to change the world’, wise words that are part of the Conscious Club ethos. The Club was created by friends Tim Brown and Gary Gorrow in 2012 after they became bored with the same old same old that made up the pub and club social scene in Sydney. They both wanted to experience a deeper level of connection, consciousness if you will, with the people they met.
As their website states… they realised the effect of a standard night out was a feeling of being more unconscious, so they decided to create a club where you could have a fun night out and get highly conscious. So was born, the Conscious Club!
Gary sees the Conscious Club as a, “world movement that is much needed in our society; the Conscious Club is a place where guests will be entertained, hopefully find a level of enlightenment and meet like minded souls. Gary and Tim would love their idea to gather momentum and for the concept to take off around the world….well I would too.
The Conscious Club has expanded to hold events in Melbourne and Canberra and wants to replicate such events in the United Kingdom, the United States and beyond.
I’ve been to a few Conscious Club events and I was totally sold, it was one of the best night outs I’d had with a bunch of strangers in years. I heard engaging, thoughtful, interesting speakers; I was entertained by gifted musicians, ate delicious food and chatted to strangers about life, the universe and in one instance how cute Santa was……long story.
One of the highlights of each event is the Do Good Challenge, where one lucky audience member is selected to go out into the world and spend $500 that is given to them on a good deed or three and to report back at the next Conscious Club gathering on how they spent the money – how it may have changed them in some way.
Rikki Hodge was recently chosen to undertake thus challenge and undertook to buy groceries for complete strangers as “it was the only thing I could think of that would have truly made a difference to me when I was a kid.”
Rikki’s motivation was personal, “we weren’t down and out for long, and my experience was isolated, but it’s something I remembered my whole life and had been aware even at 8 that other families experience this every week, for years. My dad had worked months for a man who subsequently wouldn’t pay him. Three kids, rent and food – my parents mustn’t have slept that whole time. I remember having to do an IOU for bread at our local, bless them for accepting it too. Anyway, had someone back in 1993 been handed $500 to do something good and they had chosen to buy groceries for my family, I just know the effect that would have had. So, given the means by the Conscious Club, I just figured that even such a small gesture can have a run-on effect. It’s not about the food exactly, but that there are people doing random good deeds and maybe those who had their food paid for would do something kind for another person.”
Only the Good News will be contributing to this ‘enlighter-tainment’ by presenting an overview of good news from around the world at Conscious Club events. Only the Good News bloggers are thrilled to be able to be part of such a positive community.
Find out more about this uplifting movement, it may just change your life for the better and it will definitely put a smile on your face.
Rikki Hodge’s ‘Do Good Challenge’
Next Conscious Club event, Sydney, 10 April, 2014
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