A Balanced Approach to Wellness!

Posts tagged ‘home’

Too much stuff

too much stuff

Stuff. Too much stuff. Yes, most of us have too much stuff.

The stuff seems necessary at first, but then it controls. The stuff controls our living because it requires the time spent thinking about each item and storage of each item for use or for keeping out of sight and the time spent deciding whether to keep each item or to dispose of it and cleaning each item and additional evaluation of each item’s stay in our possession.

The more stuff we have, the more space we need to display, organize, store, and control. Or if we can’t add more space, then the stuff fills in more and more of the empty space in our homes til we can no longer control the accumulating forest of stuff.

Emotional and sentimental feelings often cause us to keep things we don’t need or like. Societal pressure often causes us to accumulate things we don’t need or want. Feelings of deservedness often cause us to accumulate without need. Feelings of emptiness push towards buying too much to fill the unfulfilled need to belong. Each of these causes pushes towards a home that is too different from the true essence of each of the residents.

Filling our homes with things we cherish is the way to bring harmony into our living space. Even useful utensils can be cherished for their helpfulness. Keeping stuff that truly entertains or uplifts is the way to infuse our homes with balance and peacefulness. Removing the excess can bring joy!

Category:

Focused living

Tagged with:

Apartment/Flat living

People

(Before I start writing this post, I want to answer a question that many people ask me about the authorship of the posts. All of the information in this website, each and every word, is received from Spiritual Presence. I ask the questions that lead to the information, but the information is not from me nor from my intuition. People who know me will agree that the wisdom presented in this post is definitely not from me. I was raised to appreciate houses and not apartments. I am learning from this post just like other readers.)

In the past societies, people lived in separate homes. Depending upon population sizes, the homes were close enough for people to connect with one another when help was needed or to build communal relationships. Living was based in the homes, but environmental conditions and societal norms brought people together often. Neighbors knew one another and knew enough about each other’s lives to offer assistance. Modern living creates very different societal arrangements.

Because of air conditioning and heating, technological advances in storing and maintaining food and information (computers, TV, sound systems, etc.), and individualized and isolating transportation (private cars and vehicles), people are insulated from each other. Opportunities to connect with neighbors and nearby dwellers are few. The connections that once were easy to make are less likely to occur. Each family or individual or group of individuals is separated in a single dwelling. Connection requires special circumstances and effort. Many people never meet their neighbors and have no sense of a community. This situation is unbalancing.

Apartments/flats in a building that houses people with doorways facing each other present the opportunity to connect. Communal gardens, stairwells, halls, and other features create opportunities for meeting. Communal ownership of building resources forces communal communication. When the dwellers are the owners or are long-term renters, they tend to care more about their neighbors.

Apartment/flat dwelling is generally easier on the environment. Living alongside other people is less taxing on resources and upkeep. Combined efforts reduce time spent on decorative aspects of home ownership.

When children are raised in apartment/flat settings, there is “it takes a village to raise a child” mentality among the neighbors. If the adults are aware of their responsibility to oversee other children and the parents are aware of the great impact that interaction with other adults can have on their children, then the child-rearing can be easier on the parents, can add to the children’s sense of security, and can enrich the lives of the people not raising children themselves.

Communal interactions do not necessarily occur if the people living in apartments/flats are determined to separate themselves. The accoutrements of modern living enable people to live separately without building connections and without opening to the benefits of connected living. Awareness of the importance of involvement in the lives of neighbors can overcome the attraction of anonymous living.

Environmental conditions and societal norms no longer bring people together. Living in closer physical proximity does not bring people together; however, apartment/flat living can contribute to the sense of connected existence. For people who do not live apartmentally, extra effort must be made to connect to neighbors and community members.

People are meant to help one another and to receive from one another information, companionship, and entertainment. Interactions in person are the best forms of people-connecting. Modern living can deter in-person interactions, and determined efforts are needed to counter this effect. Living in grouped arrangements, like apartments/flats that face one another is one solution.

Category:

Connections

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Things to beautify

(taken from my article “The Pursuit of Beauty: Things to Beautify” on HealingAnswers.com)

Hair

(a picture of hair sent to Locks for Love)

 “Beauty for people is an overpowering stimulant. Whether the beauty comes from natural sources or from people’s hands, no matter, the effects on one’s senses is intoxicating. The drive to build useable objects such as highways, buildings, and smaller, practical objects is partnered with the desire to build them aesthetically. When objects are built for usability only, they are valued less than when built for admiration. Sometimes the pursuit of beauty is placed on the wrong objects. For example, trying to change the natural aging of the body in order to pursue an unnatural expectation is foolish. One’s efforts should be placed on beautifying one’s surroundings.”

–          from the chapter “Personal Endeavors” in “The Gift of Intuitive, Dedicated Comfort”.

This blog post lists the effort-worthy things that should occupy people’s drive for beauty.

Community

People live in more than a home; they live in a community. Some people think they have responsibility only for the actual place in which they live. That is not true. They have responsibility for the appearance of the area in which they live.

This fact even applies to temporary dwellers.  Temporary dwellers are in a state of flux geographically, but their need for beauty does not change. As a matter of fact, they might need it more because of the transient nature of their current situation.

People should do whatever they can to beautify their community, be it through planting trees, flowers and plants, contributing to community efforts to maintain the community, cleaning as needed (picking up trash, cleaning up after one’s pet, and moving obstructions), and taking interest in the happenings of the community that affect its appearance.

Garden

Connecting with nature is vitally necessary for people’s health. Taking the time to beautify a garden or a windowsill or a path at one’s home is important. Important for a person’s sense of aesthetics, important for a person’s connection to nature.

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Home

Taking the time to beautify one’s home is time elevated. People require beauty around them, and their home is the main surrounding environment. Beautifying one’s home includes spending time understanding the furnishings and decorative items that make the person happy, not just buying what is in fashion. Even temporary dwellers should make efforts to beautify their temporary dwelling.

One’s countenance

Countenance means the expression on one’s face, but it also means the presence a person emits as they go through life. A smile on the face that is sincere is beautiful. Wearing clothes that make the wearer feel a smile inside their body is beautiful.

Feeling a sense of importance is beautiful—not that the person is an ambassador or a well-paid executive—no! The sense of importance comes from knowing that one’s being is important—the importance that is naturally infused in people when they are born and stays if they are not damaged too much by circumstances or people. Knowing that the life inside is worthy of viewing as beautiful.

Maintaining a beautiful countenance requires caring properly for the body, participating in activities that bring uplifting feelings, and awareness of one’s abilities and accomplishments.

Atmosphere in one’s home, one’s place of work, and one’s selected activities

Having beautiful objects in one’s home is not enough. If there is anger or hurt in the air, the beautiful objects are tarnished. People’s feelings are more important than the inanimate objects.

Efforts should be made to beautify a workplace. The most important way to beautify a workplace is by bringing in plants and planted flowers. Inanimate plants and flowers don’t count. People should take the time to care for plants in their workplace because the plants give more than people realize. The atmosphere at the workplace should also be kept beautiful: building confidence rather than being hurtful, lending a hand rather than brushing off, speaking kindly rather than attacking, and so on.

The atmosphere at activities can also be beautified when people work together, encourage each other, and smile at one another.

Conclusion

Beauty is found everywhere and in tangible and intangible things. To live beauty is to live with openness, kindness, and curiosity. To be beautiful is to live in acceptance and awe of oneself and one’s life.

Category:

Focused living

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Flower arrangements and other once-living lovely things

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Flowers have magical properties. They entrance us with their beauty. They captivate us with their smells. They take the focus from surrounding plants and they lure us to the green places to see them.

The magic of life is screened on flowers. Watching a flower grow is like watching a fascinating art movie. From the moment a bud starts to form til the moment the withered flower falls, interest never wanes. At each stage, the flower entrances, captivates, and holds power over us.

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So much so, that we must have them close at hand—in our homes, in our celebrations, in our personal expressions of love, and in our religious institutions.

But close at hand is not the same as being in a field. The magic begins to fade the moment the flower is cut from its stem because life is no longer flowing. The loss of magic is slow though, which is why we can enjoy them so much when they are close at hand. But their ”dying” in the vase is different from the dying on the vine. Not so captivating, not so enjoyed.

The flowers that grow in the wild provide their magical smells. The flowers grown for arrangements are grown for visual beauty, for extended life, and for more color variety. Natural flower smell is of lesser importance. Smelling flowers that have been grown for floral arrangements leaves the nose and the olfactory receptors in a state of confusion.

Dried flower arrangements are more desirable than artificial flower arrangements because the dried flowers were once alive and they maintain a sense of the live flower.

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Advice for flowers in the home

Flowers are a wonderful addition to the home. Here is the hierarchy for bringing “flower power” into your everyday life:

  1. Potted flowering plants
  2. Potted flowers
  3. Dried flower arrangements
  4. Cut flower arrangements

Enjoy the magic of flowers!

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Category:

Flora and fauna

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