Let’s say you want to let go of something, like leaving your job or leaving a relationship that’s not working, but you feel scared or sad about it – anything but happy. Should you stay because you don’t want to experience anxious or sad feelings? I talked about this in my last two posts on getting rid of stuff – asking, should you hang on to a certain item that’s clearly not serving you – but you feel too much sadness to let it go? But what about those huge issues – jobs, relationships, places to live and so on? Should your level of anxiety and sadness make your decisions for you? What if you’ve put a lot of thought into leaving your job because the negatives are outweighing the positives in a big way, but you’re scared? You’re scared that you won’t find another job you like, or that you […]
A simple, easy way to de-stress
Are you feeling stressed right now? Of course I’ve felt it too – plenty of times. Nobody gets to escape stress in our world! I learned about a very simple, and very effective method to calm my stress from a company called HeartMath. I’ll tell you how to use their method, and then I’ll tell you about them. Even though I meditate pretty regularly, and even though I’m pretty aware and mindful – sometimes stress piles up inside of me and my usual methods don’t work. So I turn to HeartMath. HOW TO EASILY CALM YOUR STRESS Here’s how you can use their method: Sit down somewhere comfortable and close your eyes. Start breathing deeply and slowly through your nose. Now visualize your heart and the whole area around your heart – visualize the whole 360 degrees around your heart, including the back of your heart – all the way around. […]
HELP! My partner is a hoarder! What can I do?
Q. How does one declutter and simplify when they live with someone who is panicked by the mere thought of removing something of questionably dubious value that might be needed thirty years from now? A. This is a really tough question because it sounds like the person you are dealing with is a hoarder. Hoarders are very different from your average person who is messy, or has some clutter. A hoarder has deep-rooted, psychological reasons for hoarding, and they experience the kind of panic that you describe, when faced with getting rid of stuff. So I suggest this approach when dealing with a hoarder. First – understand that hoarding is a serious disorder. You will need to find it within yourself to develop both compassion and patience for your hoarding partner. I acknowledge that this won’t be easy, but it’s the only way through your situation. Second – educate yourself about […]
Why We Love Community
One of the things we love about simplicity is its focus on community – people getting together, helping each other, planning events together, and so on. And we also love the way the Internet has leveled the playing field – allowing people a voice, a way to connect, and chance to make things happen. We love a lot of the startups and older Internet businesses making it happen. One of those companies is called Eventbrite, and they recently contacted us to see if we wanted to contribute to their Hometown Hunt project by shining a light on a favorite, local spot that puts on great events. So we thought, why not? As for our local pick, we chose a Seattle place in the Queen Anne neighborhood called LloydMartin. We’d love to hear about your favorites – places that make a community come alive. LloydMartin meets our community criteria because they work […]