This client recently began working from a home office and although the design of the room and built in desk are beautiful there were some issues with the functionality. The clients punch list included one part design and remodel and one part organization and efficiency. At our first meeting I took an assessment that included the following: [Read more…]
Wednesday Wellness::Granting yourself permission
Do you really give yourself permission to do, be, feel who you are? As I’ve been traversing the path of the Mondo Beyondo Big Dreams course I wrote myself the following permission slips…personal get out of jail free cards. It’s liberating and maybe you would like to try it to?
I give myself permission to make mistakes.
I give myself permission to take it slow, take my time.
I give myself permission to be compassionate towards myself so I can do the same for others.
I give myself permission to accept my faults and be imperfect.
I give myself permission to be an explorer and try new things especially if I’m afraid.
I give myself permission to be sad and grieve.
I give myself permission to be self confident.
I give myself permission to be happy and silly and fun!
I give myself permission to love and be loved.
I give myself permission to listen to my intuition.
I give myself permission to follow my dreams even if they are not always clear.
“The gift of honor unwraps the gift of permission and together these two establish a place for you to stand in confidence in regards to the future unfolding before you.”- Andrea Scher and Jen Lemen (Mondo Beyondo)
Organizing a Painting Studio
It’s always a dream job to get to help with Organizing a Painting Studio. I was excited to begin working with this artist and be able to help get this beautiful new home studio space set up!
The artist was not yet using the studio space so the project began by sorting items into categories for use and designating spaces and systems for organizing and using the space and materials. I also helped with furniture placement, to make the space both comfortable and functional when in use and for relaxing and finding Inspiration. After all, when an artist isn’t working in their studio, they should still LOVE to be in their space, so creating a relaxing and inviting environment is very important to the process!
Making room for Dreams!
Wow, January went by fast! Instead of setting a bunch of goals and resolutions for myself I decided to take a different approach to preparing myself for the year to come. A big reason for our move to SC is to live the life we have DREAMED of living! So, I’ve spent the better part of the month digging deeper, visioning, exploring the possibilities and really allowing myself to dream of what my life can be if I get out of my own way!
I love what Kahlil Gibran writes about dreams in The Garden of the Prophet; “You grow in sleep, and live your fuller life in your dreaming.”
I am exercising my ability to open to my dreams is by taking the online Mondo Beyondo Dream Big in the New Year course. So far we are about half way through and the daily exercises have invited me to explore my hidden dreams. What I’ve come to realize is that sometime after graduation from college I kind of forgot how to dream! This may sound crazy but when I left school I had dreams of becoming a well known designer, designing my own line of products (or license designs) and traveling to exciting and inspiring locations. Part of this dream came true but I also let insecurity creep in and listened to the naysayers until I eventually buried my own dreams in the daily grind. It’s taken some coaxing but I’m slowly un burying those dreams, bringing them back to the surface, inviting the possibility of new dreams into my life and casting off the ones that I’ve decided I no longer need to hold onto.
Creating a vision board is one powerful way I’m expressing what I dream for my life. In the past I’ve done vision boards with images but this time I decided to stick with words, which were easier to find and I added my own where I could not find them in magazines etc. Words are very powerful and now I’ve got this vision board in a place where I can be reminded every day what I’m attracting into my life.
I am learning that allowing myself to dream involves faith and casting aside my worries. I took this literally and wrote each worry on a shell and cast them into the ocean. Now, each time a worry automatically creeps in and threatens those tender sprout’s of my dreams I remember that I’m no longer going to feed my worries, they are gone, out of my hands and cast to the sea.
As I’ve been exploring the possibilities of my dreams I’ve met some fantastic people including Business Coach, Mary Anna Lewis. During a Dreams and Visions strategy session with her I wrote out “my perfect day” which was a truly powerful exercise! I invite you go give it a try. You can use any format you like, I used a letter as if I was writing to a dear friend who I hadn’t spoken to in awhile, telling them all about my life in general and explaining in more detail about how I spend a typical day. I was asked to share this letter with the other participants that day and voicing it out loud gave it even more power! Eveyone in that room said they could see me living it!
Texture Tuesday-Kim Klassen “Confidence” texture (one of several layers)
Allowing yourself to really dream can be a scary proposition for some people. If you haven’t actively allowed yourself to dream for awhile it might take some practice to get back into that place where you can let go of your own limitations, worries and rules. When was the last time you sat down and wrote down some dreams? Isn’t it time you do so? Don’t let your life go by without really living the life you’ve dreamed of!
Unplug for wellness
This post was inspired by an interview I heard yesterday on NPR. I can’t find a link to it but there’s been plenty of research about the science and befit of unplugging. Certain college professors are challenging their students to hand in their cell phones and not check email or social media for a week and even some news broadcasters have taken the challenge (for news assignments or while on vacation). All these devices are meant to make our lives easier, not to make us slaves to them. Here are a few of the benefits of the practice, on a daily, weekly or monthly (just do it sometime!) basis. Some ideas to help Unplug for wellness…
- Give your brain a rest.
- Give your eyes a rest.
- Extra time, and who couldn’t use a bit of that!
- More productivity (less continuous distractions).
- More relaxed (De-stress).
- Better focus.
- My personal favorite~MORE CREATIVITY~ideas begin to flow more freely!
I do not personally have a smart phone (in 2012 no but now, yes!). I joke with friends and family that I have a stupid phone but secretly I’m glad to be able to have an excuse not to check social media even more frequently. There is a recent trend (2017) for phone manufactures making older models that don’t have as many “connections” (think flip phones and blackberries). It’s bad enough that society has now made it acceptable for individuals to expect to be able to reach one another instantly.
I have a pet peve; when I’m hanging out with friends or family and they instantly stop having a conversation with the people they are with to respond to someone elses text or call! I get that sometimes your expecting a call or need to respond to something urgent, if you do, please excuse yourself, otherwise chatting over the people you are with is pretty RUDE! Relating to the people you are with should come first, respond to others who are not physically present at a more appropriate time if possible. We need to give people our attention and be fully present, if only for a portion of our time together. If you really need to answer or respond, politely excuse yourself and return to the conversation after you are done. This goes for business situations as well as personal ones and if your company doesn’t have a policy of turning your ringers off in meetings maybe you should make it your personal policy and suggest it to co-workers. I’m not even going to mention laws about talking on the phone or texting while driving…Just. Don’t! Okay, rant’s over…sorry!
I sometimes forget to my phone with me and there have been a few times that this mistake caused others quite a bit of worry which I am truly sorry for but just 10 years ago if someone left to run errands and it took longer than expected people didn’t rush to the worst case scenario just because they couldn’t reach them instantly. We need to learn to trust one another’s boundaries and give people more space!
- Here are some of the ways I personally practice being unplugged for my own wellness.
- I try to go without news/media at least 3 days a week, that goes for radio, TV and internet.
- I try to go without my computer (checking email and social media) at least one day a week.
- I don’t use my phone every day for texts or calls. Some-days it can wait! Just ask friends or family who might have tried to reach me:)
- My cell phone is not in my bedroom at night, I have a separate battery powered (to minimize EMF’s) alarm clock.
- No texting while driving and because I lived in a state that talking on the phone was illegal without a hands free device, I’ve adopted that habit to.
Do you unplug? If so to what extreme, daily, weekly, part or totally unplugged? If not, maybe you should give it a try for a day…you may love it!
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