Butterfly Balance Wellness Center

Do Nothing

Feeling bombarded by messages to continually multi-task and do everything at once? I can relate to this at times.

I found this fascinating website which encourages you to do absolutely nothing for 2 minutes except listen to the waves. I clicked on it and closed my eyes, listening to the waves as a countdown timer on the screen counted down 2 minutes. I spent most of those 2 minutes with my mind racing, thinking about other things I "should" be doing, or would be doing as soon as my 2 minutes were up, and I managed to open my eyes at least 3 times to look at the clock before my 2 minutes were up.

Wow. That was eye-opening. And I'll bet I'm not alone.

Try it out for yourself at Do Nothing for 2 Minutes and then come back and tell me how it went for you.

I'm going to bookmark this site and practice doing nothing for a change. How about you?

 

 

Rules to Live By

Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Listen hard.
Practice wellness.
Play with abandon.
Laugh.
Choose with no regret.
Appreciate your friends.
Continue to learn.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.

Mary Anne Radmacher

 

I saw this inspirational message on a framed wall hanging in a catalog I just got in the mail from Femail Creations. It really jumped out at me, not as something to necessarily buy, but because of how each line touched me. It's almost like a blueprint to life - rules to live by - if one wants to live a life of joy and integrity and wellness.

I recommend meditating on each line and thinking about one step you can take to bring each one into your life, more so than you may already be doing. It may sound cliched, but I think the world would be a happier place. At least you would be.  :)

 

 

Simplifying: Far From Simple, Isn't it?

It seems that the more that I want to "simplify" my life, the less simple it gets. My home is a cluttered mess. I've been paying so much attention to taking care of myself personally through diet and exercise that I kinda forgot about the squalor surrounding me.

Clutter, while bad for many reasons, is also not good for energy purposes - it just bogs down the flow of good life energy through your home and through your life. Makes sense to say that you don't have the energy to clean sometimes. I think that to get rid of clutter also makes room for more good (non-material) stuff in our lives.

I found it interesting that as I sat here contemplating where to begin with this mess, that several friends started talking about decluttering and then I got two interesting emails (notification of new blog posts) that related to it as well. I think the Universe is trying to tell me something!  :)

Zen Habits is a blog that I try to read somewhat regularly. Look at this great description on its "About" page:

"Zen Habits is about finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness."

I try to read this regularly, but ironically, the emails get caught in the clutter of my inbox.  Cleaning 1,000+ emails from my inbox let me focus on these gems I wanted to share with you.

In the recent post How to Simplify When You Love Your Stuff, I love this section:

"But let’s be real here. In spite of embracing the concept of simplicity, most people really love their stuff, and they love acquiring more stuff. Like our attitudes about a healthy diet, our feelings about material things are complicated. We know what’s good for us, but we just don’t want to give up what we like. Our stuff makes us feel good.

Is it possible to live a simple life and still love stuff? How much letting go of stuff really counts toward simplifying anyway?"

You can read the answers to that here.

This post on The Clean-Slate Guide to Simplicity scared me! I am uncomfortable with the concept of feeling like I'm missing something, even if I'm not actually missing it. Probably has more to do with being somewhat of a control freak. :) I bet there's a Health Kinesiology correction I should do for that!

"Simplifying Backwards is Easier

If you’re having trouble deciding when to hold on to something and when to let it go, try doing things backward. Learn to add responsibly instead of subtracting."

He then shares several steps which, essentially, tell you to take all your clutter, get rid of it, and then as you find yourself missing something, go get it. You can read the post here.

If that makes absolute sense, why do I feel like I want to hyperventilate when I read that? :)

Do you deal with clutter/lack of simplicity in your life? Do either of these posts help at all? I'd love to hear your methods for simplifying in your own life.

Story of Bottled Water (and Stuff)

You may have seen the popular YouTube video a while back called The Story of Stuff. Here's a new, similar video about bottled water, how it allegedly differs from tap water, and the hazards of the plastic bottle industry on our health and environment. Don't let the cartoon look fool you - the message is very poignant.

 

If you missed the original Story of Stuff video, I highly recommend it:

 

I've been carrying my own non-plastic water bottles for quite some time now. If you're not, please consider it - both to help the environment and your own health. Not to mention all the money I've saved on buying bottled water!

 

Survivor's Guilt

I had no idea that one could have survivor's guilt for owning an air conditioner. But yes, it's possible. :)

Seattle is recovering from record high temperatures. It had never been over 100 degrees before last week, when it hit 103 (or 104, depending on who you ask) last Wednesday. And the temps were between 80 and 100 for a long period of time. That doesn't sound very bad, except for the fact that I read that 85% of Seattle residents don't own air conditioners. And most of our public transportation does not have it as well. That was driven home when I got stuck in afternoon Mariner game traffic for an hour on a bus with no a/c, the temp outside being over 100 degrees, and no breeze in the bus because it wasn't moving due to traffic. Not fun.

I would come into work each day, and all my coworkers were getting kinda crazy as the week went on. Nobody was sleeping, and were sharing war stories about what high temperature it was in their house, what tricks they had to staying cool (my favorite was the wet t-shirt in the freezer), and how sleep-deprived and miserable they were all. Then they'd turn to me and say "so, how are you holding up." That's when I would look down, as if ashamed, and admit that we have air conditioning. We were lucky that the house we rent happened to come with one unit in the livingroom and one in the bedroom. It's been a godsend, let me tell you. I didn't want to gloat about having a/c, and I tried to keep it to myself, because I felt so incredibly guilty.

It was funny, actually, how guilty one could make themselves feel for having an air conditioner while the rest of the city suffered. It was interesting to live such a simple life that week, though. Since so many restaurants didn't even have a/c, we became hermits. It was really too hot to go wandering the streets any long distance, so we stayed at home. Cancelled plans. Decided to actually eat food we had in the house instead of going out to eat or buying something more *fun*. And I realized that I liked living this slowed-down, simple life.

I want to incorporate more of that in my day-to-day living. Today I'm enjoying some below-normal temperatures. It's overcast and 66 right now and I'm loving every minute of it. Time to stop feeling guilty and get outside and seize the day!