Blog – Page 4 – Holistic Living

GRATITUDE + PURPOSE

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 2015 ON focusonsimple.co I have a great job. My coworkers are fantastic. My office looks like it's out of a movie (old building, brick walls, lots of light, miscellaneous team building games). I'm relatively good at what I do. I'm well liked (most of the time. I think.) I have a good relationship with my boss. We work regular hours, no over time is expected. There are the usual work-gripes, but overall everyone is happy. + yet. I really hope it's not what I do to the end of my days. I don't feel deeply fulfilled by it. I don't feel like I'm truly using my life for it's best purpose, like I do when I'm writing or spending time with my son, or when I'm outdoors.…

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GOALS ARE ACHIEVED ONE STEP AT A TIME

live with intention, live your purpose, Uncategorized

When I make a 'to-do' lists, they're always unreasonably long. + the more I add to the lists, the less gets done, because there are so many things I get overwhelmed, don't know where to start, + end up paralyzed into doing none of the things. So I'm starting to focus on one goal at a time. Instead of cleaning + purging my entire house in one go, I'm going to start with one bedroom. + I'm going to give myself a week. + each day I'm going to do 1 thing. Today I'm going to put up those curtains which have been sitting on the floor for a month (finally). Tomorrow I'll put away the random things that have migrated to our room for whatever reason. + so on. +…

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WORK HARD FRIEND, WORK HARD

live with intention, live your purpose

I wrote a post a long while back about a phrase my mother used to say; Do what you love + the money will follow. I took this as gospel + have spent much of my life since childhood trying to figure out what it is that I really love. The one thing I'll be able to spend my days doing in ease + joy...+ because I will love what I do, the joy will flow through + people will be drawn in + I will shine + be brilliant. Wait. What? That's not how it works. If I want to be successful at something I get to work hard at it. I may love what I do, but if I don't do the 'do' part I'm not really going to get anywhere in life with…

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WHAT IS PURPOSE + WHY DOES IT MATTER?

live your purpose

Why I want you to find your purpose : For so long I put off embracing a purposeful life because of what I felt I should do - the right, expected, + appropriate course of action. 'Right' as defined by others. People pleasing. Denying who I was. Please don’t do that. I deserve better + so do you. What is 'purpose' : It's all well + good to desire to live purposeful life, but what does that look like? For me, it's a life lived with meaning + intention. Day-to-day activities, the bold + the small, that let you live in a meaningful way. That will look different for everyone, but in general, a day spent living meaningfully is deeply satisfying + fulfilling. You feel as though you are honouring…

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DELVING INTO MINIMALISM

keep it simple

Traditionally a minimalist approach applied to art or design or theory. Today there is a growing movement towards minimalism as a lifestyle. Like most people, I have generally been influenced + driven by our consumerist culture, always feeling if I just was able to buy the perfect cushion, bed linens, art work, piece of clothing, dish set, + on + on, that I would finally feel content, be satisfied, be happy. of course, that never happens. Our place is filled with stuff. Even when we get rid of lots of stuff, it's filled with stuff. + all the stuff doesn't bring life satisfaction. In fact, it does the opposite. The desire to embrace a minimalist lifestyle has become my goal more specifically over the last few months, but the journey…

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WE HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF

keep it simple

It comes down to; if you don't use it, lose it. If you can't store it in an organized way, toss it. When my husband + I went on our honeymoon we stayed in a suite that had a very small living room, fold out table for a dining space, + a minuscule kitchen; 2 element stove top, bar fridge, microwave, single bowl sink, + an 18" dishwasher. Small. I thought we were going to go crazy trying to make do with such a small place. It was our honeymoon - I didn't want to feel like we were compromising on comfort. But it was enough. With some planning it was a cozy, romantic home for us. We didn't feel cramped or that we were missing anything. In fact, it…

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MAKE SPACE FOR YOU

grow heal love, keep it simple, live with intention, live your purpose

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 2015 ON focusonsimple.co 2015 is all about simplifying. Life got a lot overwhelming in 2014. Overwhelming to the point where you're holding on to your gratitude for your health, having food to eat, + the well-being of those you love, wondering what the next challenge is going to be, + not sure how much more capacity to deal you have. So by the end of the year I found myself yearning for some simplicity, some zen, some space to recharge + process the entirety of the previous year. + in simplifying, I'm focusing on the commitments I make. I tend to take on too many things - make too many commitments. I think that's an affliction most of us have. As a result I find that I do nothing really well. + I'm feeling…

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GRIEF + GRATITUDE

family, grow heal love

I was pregnant. Then, I had a miscarriage. Being pregnant was miraculous, given that we had done everything possible to NOT to be pregnant. I had two glorious days of familiar exhaustion + nausea, + the settling of a new presence fitting in with me. + then nothing. Absence. Emptiness. A return to feeling ‘normal’. On one hand, + I'm not sure why, I expected a miscarriage to happen. On the other, I really wanted a second child + happily continued to plan for a babe + start my countdown to the end of the first trimester. When it would be 'safe' to openly celebrate this pregnancy. Life continues. Until it doesn’t. The first signs of blood were, not necessarily a surprise, but heart wrenching all the same. My refrain; “No... No...…

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WOMEN + SUCCESS

feminism

I did an awful thing. I completely pre-judged Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. I've read + heard that she is a very successful women. She makes her family a priority + kicks ass in the office. But the mental image + personality traits that I automatically attributed to her, because of her success at home + at work, are nothing like the person speaking in the following TED talk. I assumed that because she is able to manage both a successful career + home life that she would be an incredibly disciplined (likely very true), take no-prisoners, put up with no BS, no nonsense type of person. I have no idea whether she is or is not any of these things. However, the mental image I conjured of this uber-successful woman…

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VALUING FAMILY

family, live with intention

ORIGINALLY POSTED IN 2012 ON focusonsimple.co I wouldn't class myself as a feminist, per se. However. There are some accepted imbalances that really piss me off. One of them, as previously posted, is the expectation that women give up their own name to take on their husband's. There is no logic for this choice at this point in history. really, there's none. Another is how difficult it is for women to become really + truly successful in the workplace + in their careers. A friend sent me a link to an interesting article, on why women can't have it all. It made so much sense to me, + validated a lot of what I feel is wrong with workplace culture + culture in general, + with society's placement of value on workplace vs. home +…