When we move into a new home we think carefully about how to arrange furniture, plants and pictures. We think about colours, textures, light settings and angles – is this a nice spot for a reading chair, should the desk go there, do I like the view from here?
After all, our apartment is meant to be an intimate space and it inevitably reflects who we are. Remember that time when you were renting a holiday flat while the owners were away? How much can you tell about them by simply peeking inside their home? It’s just normal that people think twice about who they let into their homes.
A small space, carefully arranged.
While most people attach considerable importance to creating the living environment they’re comfortable with, that works for them and makes their everyday life easier I wonder why not more people adopt the same approach with their lives in general.
Why aren’t we curating our life the way we arrange our apartments? Every day, we open the door to unwanted guests. They arrive in the form of TV shows, gossip magazines, scheming colleagues or acquaintances, short: time suckers.
Time suckers are things we don’t need or want and which take space in our life. Some of them are necessary and unavoidable. We have to put out the garbage, after all. But then there are those things that we don’t enjoy, don’t have to do – and let into our life anyway. It’s not the commute (which is necessary) but a work environment we don’t like. It’s not the internet but the many hours of aimless browsing that leave us feel drained.
Declutter – and then enjoy life’s small pleasures!
Time suckers prevent us from growing, prevent us from maximising the use of our time, and they spoil the big picture that is our life in exactly the same way a mismatched carpet spoils our carefully arranged living room.
Most people would simply throw out the carpet. But not as many would make other changes even if something was disturbing them – every day.
What if we arranged and created our lives the way we arrange a new apartment? If we think carefully about all the elements that make up our apartment, why not do the same with our life? Decide who and what we let in and dedicate space to.
After all, our living room, like our life, isn’t infinite. Why give space to something that’s not fitting or matching?
For the coming months, my goal is to look at my daily habits and, like with a new apartment, consider carefully which elements should remain and which ones disturb the harmony of it all. In essence, it’s another way of practising minimalism.
How do you arrange the elements of your life to achieve a harmonious picture?
~ Andrea
Categories: Happiness, Inspiration, Yoga
Yoga & Joyful Living 
Reblogged this on schlaflosinwien.
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Whenever I feel confused or frustrated and I can’t find the answer to a problem I clean and tidy my apartment….tidy house, tidy mind 🙂 We are influenced by our environments whether we realise it or not.
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Indeed, I do curate my life as carefully as my house – I came to the understanding over time that my life is made up if all the tiny things that I do each day. Over the years I have stopped reading the newspaper, watching TV and reading gossip mags. I am deliberate about what I do and who I do it with. The things I do have to make me feel joyful, or useful or inspired.
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You’re so right, we need to fill our everyday with things that increase our joy and inspiration, not deplete us. I read an interesting article the other day about how every habit, object and undertaking in our life takes up a part of our energy – and there’s only so much energy available to us!
Thanks for your thoughts!
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This article also really speaks to me. I recently came home to NZ from a year in the UK and have found I no longer wanted certain people in my life (energy vampires, emotional abusers). This is also the same as the new material items I am purchasing to develop my new life/home. I’m buying items (all 2nd hand so far) that sing to me, that match my personality and my new strength within. Thanks!
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Energy vampires! Thanks – that’s the expression I was looking for, it describes it perfectly! And so true, a trip abroad can provide us with a completely new, fresh perspective on our “old” everyday life and our ingrained habits. All the best for setting up your new life in NZ!
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Funny when 3 blogs come along with similar themes. First, I read Seth Godins http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/04/five-steps-to-digital-hygiene.html
then I read yours, and then I posted mine 🙂
Whether our mind is a garden or an apartment, it really is so important what we allow in it.
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Since the beginning of the year, I felt this need to change something in my life but couldn’t quite put it in an organized thought or words the feeling of just what had to change. Reading this I realized “that’s it! I have to curate my life”
Thanks for the wonderful insight!!
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Haha, I felt the same at the beginning of the year, and it took me four months of pondering before I was able to put it into words 🙂
Thanks for reading!
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Oh, this speaks to me! I am a serial re-arranger of furniture, and reading this piece I see the link with the rest of my life. You are right about time-suckers, but sometimes stopping to smell the roses (as it were) online brings untold inspiration. Cheers, Andrea!
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Oh so true – something as sweet as smelling roses can’t e-v-e-r be a time-sucker 🙂
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