Wellness & Mindset-it's an inside job

Indoor Gardening for a Healthy Home

January 7, 2021 by Heather Filed Under: Home, Inspiration & Education, Wellness & Mindset

I absolutely love to garden and it brings me so much joy. As we go into the coldest seasons my craving for the garden moves Indoors. I garden for maintaining my well-being and that includes indoor plants. Today I’m specifically sharing tips for how indoor gardening can bring a sense of well-being into your home. Fresh air, lush greenery, beautiful flowers, and hands-on interaction with the texture and touch of the plants and soil are just some of why I love to garden and all of this can be done indoors or out.

I spend a bit of time tending towards my indoor garden each fall, bringing plants that have been outdoor for the summer in, pruning, fertilizing, and replacing any plants that need it. I “freshen up” my terrarium collection, cleaning the glass and replacing leggy or unwell plants so they can bring me joy all winter long, not to mention fresh air! In the spring, I do another freshen up, fertilizing, pruning, and preparing plants to spend the summer outdoors. When temperatures are about the same indoor and out and all chance of frost has passed (or as you get close to frost in the fall) is the perfect time to move plants in or out.

Many people don’t “think” they have a green thumb or that they can’t keep a houseplant alive. But there is no mistaking how popular indoor gardening has become again. Have you seen terrariums like the one above? I hope these tips will encourage you to try (or expand) your indoor garden which is especially nice to do after the holiday season is passed and before we open our homes again in the spring. It takes a little practice to find and maintain indoor plants in the ‘right spots’ but I hope you will keep trying. I’ve got a big leaf philodendron that’s over 20 years old! Here are some of the reasons to garden indoors.

Plants are natural air filters! They literally clean toxins like formaldehyde, benzene, xylene, toluene, and trichloroethylene (among other toxins) from the air. Certain plants do a great job with certain chemicals but about 1 plant per 100 sq’ has been proven to significantly purify the air.
Expressing personal style through plants and indoor gardening can add so much beauty to really round out your interior rooms.
The act of caring for and nurturing a plant can be a meditative and calming practice.
You are bringing a piece of nature’s beauty (and in some cases bounty) inside where you can appreciate it more often.

What can you grow successfully inside? Start by observing your surroundings and lifestyle habits since these are the two most important factors for plant selection. Determine which direction your house and windows face and have this information available when you go to select plants. Your success will be much enhanced by selecting the correct plant for your conditions.

Some factors to consider are light/exposure (N, S, E, or W windows?), humidity (you can always run a humidifier if needed), the time required for maintenance needs (watering, pruning, fertilizing, re-potting, etc), design style and colors in your home. Armed with this info you will be able to make the best selections for your space. If you have pets, check out the ASPCA list of pet-safe plants here. I find that my kitties love and find irresistible anything resembling grass, so pointed narrow leaves are especially attractive to them!

Do your research before you head out to buy anything, check out a variety of reputable local garden centers or floral shops (rather than big box shops), and talk to the people who work there. They can usually make excellent suggestions if you know the direction your windows face and the size and space you want to add plants too.

If you travel often and are super busy and have minimal light you will be making many different choices than someone who can spend a bit of time each day (5-10 mins) misting, watering, etc.

The little maidenhair fern above will dry out quickly and probably end up making you feel like a failure if you can’t give it daily attention. On the other hand, the ZZ Palm or Snake plant below both require low light and very little moisture to thrive. I love the website Gardenista for great images (those below), inspiration, and practical advice on the best houseplants for different settings (low light/low/maintenance, non-poisonous, you name it!).

The ZZ Palm above is great for low light: image via James Saper

Sansevieria or snake plant image via Gardenista

The biggest mistake people make with houseplants is overwatering (I worked in the tropical greenhouse of a local garden center). Let plants dry out completely before watering again deeply (there are some exceptions, like ferns). Potted plants are more quickly depleted of nutrients, so I generally re-pot every 2 years and the potting mix I use has a slow-release fertilizer in it or sprinkle a little slow-release once or twice a year (see package for the rate of use).

There literally is an indoor plant for just about every situation. Again though taking the specific factors of your situation into account will lead you to much more success. It’s also important to buy plants from reputable sources that are knowledgeable about both the plants they stock and helping you decide what’s best for your situation. A good source will help you select things given the information you provide and should tell you the proper name (both common and botanical), maintenance requirements, and any other information you might need. Ask questions and do a little homework before you head out shopping so you can make the best choice for yourself. Hopefully, the plants that you live with will bring you joy, a sense of calm and beauty, and even a bit of cleaner air to breathe.

Do you have an indoor garden? Are you trying something new or have you had some complete failures (we all have!)? I’d love to hear about your indoor gardening experiences.

Pause for the Greatest Gift of the Season

December 21, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Art & Design, Inspiration & Education, Photography, Wellness & Mindset 5 Comments

I want to take a moment to recognize the greatest gift of the season, in fact, any Season. Today, as we turn the corner into the darkest time of the year, I would like to celebrate the gifts that you bring and share with the world.

Our self-acceptance is the greatest gift of this and any season!

Wherever we are, whatever we have accomplished, the changes we have made, the relationships we have worked to improve or let go of, the projects we have started, the dreams we have released, the lessons we have learned…THESE are our greatest gifts!

The illusions of what we haven’t yet done or what we have lost are magnified when we give them our attention. So for just the next few minutes, hours, days, or weeks can you give yourself the Greatest Gift of Self-Acceptance? Thank you for being imperfectly, beautifully yourself!

I hope this little reminder will encourage you to take time to pause, reflect, illuminate, and accept yourself and all your wonderful gifts, with Gratitude for all you do and who you are!

Wishing you a peaceful holiday, whether you celebrate the darkness of solstice, the Advent and Christmas season, Hanukkah, or just taking quiet time to reflect. Celebrate your greatest gifts and celebrate the greatest gifts of those you love.

Happy Holidays with deep appreciation to you for who you are! Thank you for sharing a small part of your journey with me!

Got a Vision?

December 16, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Art & Design, Creative process, Inspiration & Education, Planning & Goals, Productivity, Wellness & Mindset Leave a Comment

It’s been a challenging year and allowing ourselves to plan for the future still doesn’t quite feel natural. So for those of us use to planning, this state of uncertainty feels uncomfortable and possibly even scary. Yet, there are a lot of different ways to plan for the unknown. One way is to envision where you are headed. This type of planning is less rigid than sitting down with a calendar and deciding on goals, penciling in when you want to achieve them, and mapping out how to get there. A vision board is a wholly different kind of map.

Over the past five years, I’ve led quite a few vision board workshops at conferences, meetings, and art studio’s, one thing they always have in common, they are so much fun and unexpectedly powerful! Everyone from Oprah and Ellen to life coaches and artists uses vision boards as a creative tool to help gain clarity on setting intentions and goals. Have you created a vision board before?

When I create a vision board and lead a workshop I begin with helping you get clear about what you want to see happen in your life. Our imagination gets lazy and when that happens we sell our-self short of amazing possibilities! Imagine bigger, brighter, easier outcomes that are more joyful! Imagination is a muscle that requires regular exercise.

Think of making a vision board as a fun workout for your imagination!

The process of creating a vision board is a powerful tool for setting our intention and creatively visualizing that outcome. For some of us, these might be “goals.” For others, it might be an “intention” or a “feeling.” Through words and images, we can map our vision. This process helps us find clarity about what we are creating in our day-to-day lives through the choices we make. Our vision boards become a powerful touchstone to bring us back to our intentions when we feel we are off course or unclear.

When we get stuck or overwhelmed in the process of working through change in our lives, it can be refreshing to get out of our thinking mind and into our creative body. By asking ourselves what we want things to look like and how we want to feel, we embrace and tap into our creative connection with the universe, god, whatever that might mean to each of us.

So I am offering an online vision board workshop on Sunday, December 27th from 1-5 pm EST. It’s a pay what you can and I am inviting the first 12 people who sign up (here) to join me. If you can pay something (suggested $26), great but it’s not required. I want to see more powerful positivity manifested in 2021, this is my small contribution.

Even if you can’t join this time, I will offer the workshop again online soon. For those of you who want to do this on your own, the following instructions will get you going!

STEP 1: Gather : Flip through magazines and cut images and words that “speak to you”. Collect anything that delights or calls to you and have fun with the process.

STEP 2: Sort : If you run out of magazines or feel like you have “enough” begin to sort through setting things aside into three piles:

KEEP/LOVE!-These images and words feel right, bring you joy, you feel connected and they make your “heart sing”- trust your intuition.

MAYBE-These have an element that has attracted you but don’t quite excite you as others.

DISCARD- on second thought, something doesn’t feel quite right about these, it’s okay to put them away for later.

STEP 3: Arrange : Group images and words together as you begin to place them on your board. As you do this, you’ll get a sense of how the board should be laid out. You can follow a more aesthetic look or go about this in a random manner, there’s no right or wrong!

STEP 4: Attach : After you’ve arranged all the items in a way that works for you, paste everything onto the board. Take your time, attach smaller pieces to larger, think in layers.

STEP 5: Display : Hang your Vision Board in a prominent place where you’ll see it regularly, like the laundry room a closet, or inside a door.

The vision board process can help us find clarity and communicate our ideas in an effortless and creative way by tapping into our intentiohns, dreams, and envisioning them. The process doesn’t have to be exact or precise to work either! We can manifest how we want to feel, where we want to live or what we want our days to include. Vision boards can work in many areas of our life. I keep a small sketchbook that I create two-page spreads based on categories I dream about such as love relationships, home, travel (on hold for now;) and more.

Please give this a try and share your results with me if you like! Email me photo’s of your vision board or share via social media with #hkpscreativevisioning

Great acts of Kindness

October 2, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Inspiration & Education, Wellness & Mindset 1 Comment

Kindness towards others should be second only to Self-Kindness.

Acts of kindness directly impact our wellness and once we are kind to ourselves other acts of kindness follow.

An honest approach toward facing our fears can be one of our highest acts of self-kindness. What other actions define kindness for you? One way I’ve experimented is through cultivating the art of boredom as an act of self-kindness because I don’t usually allow myself time to “be lazy” or JUST BE. Freedom is kindness. To sit in a chair or lay on the ground and daydream, watch the birds, observe the world as it “passes by”! During this time of COVID, I’ve allowed myself space and time to cultivate this with less guilt. Non-Judgement is Kindness. The world is not really passing, I’m just playing the observer role, which removes me from having to judge, think, solve problems, or change anything…I get to be and that is one of the greatest acts of self-kindness we can gift ourselves, especially right now. When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace.- Dalai Lama

Many a movie and catchphrase have been coined around the idea that Kindness counts, but especially lately, I think we are jaded and might consider these phrases cliche-which of course they are-while they also remain true. I’ve been thinking a lot about what kindness and happiness mean and how they are different from culture to culture.

For some cynics, the pursuit of happiness or random acts of kindness don’t really mean anything or make a big difference to the world. I would argue that the butterfly effect* of our actions ripples out from one person to an unknown degree. Our definitions of kindness don’t have to be in lockstep for us to agree that kindness counts.

I love how writer Savala Trepczysnki (she/her) invites us to create what she calls a ‘dignity practice‘, which she describes as a process of setting boundaries around certain behaviors or actions as a way of honoring ourselves and our boundaries. Boundaries are kindness. This practice is a courageous act of self-kindness, one we should not take lightly or sugar coat!

Kindness can sometimes be a hard choice to make! But never forget, it is always our choice to be kind.

Haven’t you ever had a really crappy day and someone just gave you the most genuine smile, held a door for you, or gave you a small compliment that really changed your attitude for a moment or even for the rest of the day?

We have all experienced the power of kindness to uplift, make us feel calmer, less anxious, happier, and more loving.

I hope you will consider how you can cultivate kind actions to uplift your wellness and that of others.

What is one of your latest random acts of kindness?

*I’m endlessly coming across chaos theory and wonder if this has something to do with my need to find order in the chaos of the world.

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Envision Epic Achievements

February 8, 2020 by Heather Filed Under: Art & Design, Inspiration & Education, Organize, Organizing Projects, Wellness & Mindset

As we embark on a month focused on Self Care I want to share a fun tool I use to set my intention and get going on the right footing for the new year (or at the start of new projects) to help me envision epic achievements! Anytime I get to pull out scissors, magazines etc it takes me back to my days as a designer. In both my Art classes and in my industry job I often found it helpful if not essential to create “mood boards” or gather creative ideas on paper (sketchbook or boards). If you’ve never done this, don’t worry…there is no wrong time or wrong way to create a vision board!

As we head into the next month, I will be shifting focus towards spring cleaning, purging, de-cluttering, simplifying. This can be a great time to create a vision board for how you want your home to look and feel. You might consider giving your vision board a boost by working with a word of the year. It’s not essential to the process of creating a vision board but it can give you some guidance and focus. Your vision board can be as broad or as specific as you like.

Creating an Vision Board is something I started doing back in 2011. It’s one of the annual planning tools I have the most fun with! Some people call these Vision Boards others call them Action boards (for those that feel the word “Vision” is to woo-woo).

Some people like to do a digital vision board, others prefer to use all images but I love to sit down with all these fonts, colors, words and phrases and just start allowing them to come together and create a flow of juxtaposition. So much magic happens when I sit down to create my vision board…and the magic just keeps happening throughout the year.

Vision boards can take a good bit of time. Give yourself a total of 3-8 hours to complete yours, from gathering ideas and supplies to getting everything in place. How much time it takes you will depend on how large your board is and how detailed you want to be.

Select a type of vision board (personal, creative, images, words, a hybrid of both) that will be a touchstone and inspiration for creative progress throughout 2017. Your focus can be on home life, creative life, career, pets, family etc-whatever is important to you and where you may want more guidance and support.
Gather a supply of magazines/resources to select from to embody your personal expression. This can include books, printed images, catalogs, scraps of paper or fabric, stickers, embellishments or anything else you like.
Gather other supplies, including poster board or foam core (my personal favorite is the kind with one sticky side!), scissors, a glue stick and tape. You may also want markers.
Set your intention for this board, you’ve decided on your “type” and your intention is a more focused way of deciding what you want to include or not. You may want to list words or images you would like to include.
Flip through your resources and tear or cut out images and words. You can do this while listening to music, watching movies, listening to podcasts, anytime really. At this stage you are looking for words and images that capture how you want to feel.
Start to lay out your images and words on your board. There’s no right way here but I’ve found that starting with the larger elements first can help. As you sort through everything you have cut out, be sure to include your most important ideas, set them aside and allow other ideas that don’t seem to fit to fall away. Deciding what NOT to include can be just as important as what you add.
Once you are happy with your arrangement overall (still not glued down-just loose), snap a picture with your phone and then start to remove each area and glue things down. You can work one area at a time or in layers. Having a picture to refer back to can be fun because it’s never going to be exactly the same but it give you a little “map” to follow for your puzzle.

There is really something incredibly powerful about “visioning” a rich and creative year (or anything) to come! It can be fun to do a quick vision on a small sheet to brainstorm smaller projects or time frames too!

Finally, you may be asking how does this help you get organized? If you feel there are areas in which you would like a different outcome in your life try creating a vision board to activate and attract what you want to accomplish and how you envision it in your ideal reality. Use images and words that feel the way you want to feel about your space and your life.

However you want to create your board and whatever you call it, just know that by being very clear about what you want to manifest in your life and putting it down in a concrete way you are more likely to draw attention to theses aspects of yourself (actions, thoughts, etc). It’s all about the law of attraction. When I look back at the last years vision boards I’m truly amazed at the ways in which the specific wishes, desires, dreams and actions have been attracted into my life!

How do you envision the next quarter, year, project, career or home? What do you want to attract and are you creating any type of vision board to activate the process? If so, please please share it with me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook with the hashtag #powervision17!