The newest installment (v18) of the “What’s Interesting?” feature is here with my latest discoveries that inform, educate, and relate to organizing and life balance. I’ve included unique and inspiring letting go-related finds, which reflect this month’s blog theme. You are such an incredibly engaged group and I am so grateful for you. I look forward to your participation and additions to the collection I’ve sourced. What do you find interesting?

What’s Interesting? . . .

1. Interesting Read – Letting Go Habits

We live packed, fast-paced lives with full schedules, lots of possessions and many distractions. In The Power of Less – The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential . . . in Business and in Life, Leo Babauta, writer and blogger at Zen Habits, encourages readers to simplify all aspects of your life.  Babauta says, “Simplicity boils down to two steps: 1. Identify the essential. 2. Eliminate the rest.” He shares principles such as setting limits, changing habits and adjusting focus for letting go of our needing more mindset. Practical strategies for applying these principles to goal setting, time management, decluttering and other areas are also discussed. There are some gems throughout, but I especially appreciate the overall focus on moving towards less. Babauta says, “Focus on the essential and allow everything else to drop away. It’ll make you much happier, less stressed, and perhaps surprisingly, more productive.”

2. Interesting Research  –Letting Go Psychology

Some of the reasons why letting go becomes challenging is that we get attached to or have an exaggerated sense of responsibility towards our belongings. In this short TED-Ed video by Christian Jarrett, “Why are we so attached to our things?” he explains some of the research and psychology behind our attachments. For example, Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist who pioneered work in child development, identified the “endowment effect.” Early in life a sense of ownership emerges where we value something more highly as soon as we own it. This can make letting go more difficult. Understanding more about our attachments can be the opening you need to start letting go.

3. Interesting Trend – Letting Go Motivation

Margareta Magnusson

Recently, I came across a phrase that made me curious. It was “Swedish death cleaning.” Have you heard of it? Margareta Magnusson, a Swedish artist and author of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning – How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter,”uses the inevitability of death as the motivation to let go of your unnecessary possessions. The idea behind death cleaning is to reduce the amount of stuff that you leave behind for others to deal with. As someone that has helped many clients to downsize, de-possess or let go of their deceased loved ones things, I understand the value in taking personal responsibility for your own things so that others won’t have to. Reframing the idea of letting go, as a gift to our loved ones could be just the motivation needed to get you through.  

4. Interesting Product – Letting Go Flash Cards

One of the most innovative thinkers and authors in the organizing industry is my friend and colleague, Judith Kolberg. True to her creative process, she developed the “Get Rid of Your Stuff” flash cards. If you’re feeling stuck with what to do with your excess things, you’ll want these cards. There are a dozen different options for letting things go, like donating or selling them, along with tips for each category. Supercharge your decision-making and letting go skills with this well thought out product.

5. Interesting Thought – Letting Go Breath

Have you ever noticed when you hold on too tightly your body tenses up? Your breathing becomes shallow or you might even hold your breath. Holding on requires energy. When we hold on to things, people and places that no longer support us, we’re expending energy and effort that could be released or used in other ways. Let go and release your grip. Take a deep breath in. Let a big exhale out. Repeat as needed. Let go of what’s holding you back.

What are your interesting finds? Which of these resonate with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

Does this sound familiar? You’re ready to start your day. You’ve already dressed, showered, and had your breakfast. For all intensive purposes, you want to get going. However, you’re not quite settled or ready to begin. You might be feeling unsure of which project or task to start next. Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed with the enormity of your to do list. You might be feeling uncomfortable, unsettled or anxious.

This is the perfect opportunity to introduce some mindfulness to help you find your next step.

5 Mindful Ways to Discover Your Next Step

Start With Your Breath

Using an anchor helps us to notice where we are. Your breath works beautifully as a place to focus. You can access it anywhere at anytime. Take a comfortable position sitting in a chair, standing, or even lying down. If it helps, you can close your eyes. Focus on your breathing. Don’t force it. Take a few minutes to notice your natural patterns of breathing in and breathing out. Let your attention focus solely on your breath. If your mind begins to wander, as minds will do, just bring your attention back to your breath. Breathing in…breathing out. The act of shifting your focus to your breath will help you think more clearly and calmly and make room for your next step.

Add a Dose of Gratitude

Before deep diving into figuring out next, take a few minutes to express gratitude. This can be done as informally or formally as you’d like. You can simply think the thoughts or write them down. There are no rules here. You can think about just one thing or person that you are grateful for, or you can generate a longer list. Take a few mindful minutes to focus your energy in this positive way. Expressing gratitude is another way of anchoring you and making you more open and available for next.

Secure What You Need

When we’re about to embark on a project or new task, it’s challenging to do that if we haven’t taken care of our needs. Ignoring them can leave us antsy. Take a few more minutes to notice what you need to feel settled. For example, before sitting down to write, I like to make a nice, big mug of tea that I can sip between thoughts. I make sure I’ve used the bathroom. I minimize distractions like closing out open windows on my desktop. Taking care of my basic needs, helps me to better focus on what comes next. We often ignore our needs. Slowing down long enough to be mindful of where we are and what we need is essential.

Make the Selection

Have you got a to do list? Is it floating around your head or written down? While I prefer a written list for myself, there’s no right or wrong here. However, for the selection part, I highly recommend capturing the options in some written form so that you can review them. It doesn’t have to be fancy or official. Keep in mind that most of us have many things to do in our lifetime. None of those things get done in a single day. Instead we make choices each day to do or not do what we need and want to do. With that in mind, and in order to keep overwhelm at bay, create a list of no more than three things. Don’t worry. If you complete those things, you can add more. And also remember that tomorrow is another day. But for today, for this next, just write a list of three. Now it’s time to choose. To help you decide think about things like:

• Do I have time today to work on this?

• Do I have the energy needed to focus?

• Would this step be better accomplished at another time or day?

• Does this have a deadline?

• Is this a priority?

• If I didn’t accomplish this, would it matter?

• Can I remove this from my list altogether?

• Can this be delegated to someone else?

• Do I want to get some quick and easy things accomplished quickly to get my motor going?

Remember, there’s no wrong choice. Remove judgment. Maybe next will be organizing the junk drawer, removing the extra hangers from your closet, or making plans for that upcoming party. You’re simply working on that next step. Build from there.

Take Your Next Step

Congratulations! You’ve anchored yourself with breathing and gratitude, taken care of your basic needs, and selected what you’d like to do next. You’re ready for action. Remember that next involves actually doing something. You’ve used some simple mindfulness strategies to arrive at this point. As you experience next, stay in the moment. Whatever you’ve chosen, allow yourself to be there with it. Focus on what you’re doing as you’re doing it- one movement, one step, and one action at a time.

What helps you figure out next? Have you used mindfulness in the process? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

Life is full of distractions. These distractions often have noise components that come from external and internal sources. With all of the noise and distractions, it can be especially challenging to focus on what’s most important. Noise in our environment can be overpowering. It’s essential to make time for quiet and stillness. By doing this, we create white space and breathing room. From this quiet we connect with our minds, bodies and others and ready ourselves for creativity, learning, and a fresh start. The start can be for the next moment, day, month, project or interaction.

There are many ways to bring quiet into your days. Some of us need more quiet than others. I’ve noticed that as I’ve aged, my need for quiet has increased. What have you noticed?

Mindfulness practices including meditation or integrating mindful living are ways of finding those quiet puntuations during your day. Another path to quiet is spending time with nature. You can be an observer and just sit, watch or listen. You can surround your being by taking a walk outdoors. You can set aside some time to be still and focus on the in and out movement of your breath.

All of these practices will quiet your mind, quiet your being, and give you some pause from the daily noise and distractions.

Enjoy this quiet moment . . .

How do you find quiet? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

Our lives are full. We are human beings busy doing. There’s nothing wrong with doing. After all, there are always things that are next on our to-do list. There are always those next goals that we want to accomplish, places we need to get to, or people we want to connect with. However, sometimes we can get so caught up in the doing, that we don’t take time for just being.

Embracing the gift that awareness of the moment can bring is so valuable. It can give you that much needed pause between activities. It can give your mind a break from the barrage of thoughts and distractions. Awareness can connect you to and help you appreciate the present moment. Mindful living can be done anywhere at anytime. All that’s needed is your willingness to be aware of and embrace your present experience.

To further expand on how it's possible to introduce mindfulness as your next step, I’ll share a recent moment that I wrote about in my personal journal . . .

I have so missed the sun. I am here now sitting, basking in the warmth of the sun. On this unusually warm, winter day, I find myself seated by a window of a café as the sun streams in. It warms my left arm, face and body in the most joyful, enveloping way. The surrounding furniture is bathed in the strong light and shadows cast by the sun. Calm, peaceful, and grateful feelings within accompany this unexpected, seasonal gift.

Sipping my cool iced tea, I notice the contrast of the chilled liquid entering my mouth and throat as the sun warms my outer being.

There’s more to do today. Yet, I am feeling so content just sitting and being with this moment.

How does mindfulness show up for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!