FEATURES
NEW YEAR NEW YOU With the New Year we all start with plans to conquer new goals and create grand resolutions for the coming twelve months. More than often the year flies by and we haven’t checked these goals off and they roll over to the following year with only a few modifications. It is important to have ambitions and a desire to want to become healthier, a better person, happier - but realistic changes that match your ability to commit are most important. There’s no point making grand plans if you’re not going to stick to them.
AT HOME
A
different approach to creating a long list of objectives over the next year is simply to look at your current circumstances and to see how to spark more joy in your life. This idea comes from a Japanese theory by Marie Kondo on creating space and decluttering your environment - primarily referring to your living space. Once we have learnt how to declutter our living areas it can be wider applied to our general life principals. “Life truly only begins once we have our home in order”. When we look around our home often we have hoarded years and years of collectibles that we just stuff and store somewhere that we more than likely won’t even look at or touch over the next year. This includes our wardrobe, books, photographs, stored boxes in the garage. It can be a daunting task that seems impossible to tackle especially as we all have an emotional attachment to many of our belongings, but once your life is more organised and you have created space it flows onto making your life easier. It is suggested that the decluttering process works through stages and starts with your wardrobe as this has the least emotional attachment when culling. All your clothes need to be pulled out and while deciding on what to keep you ask the question of whether each item sparks joy? If you haven’t worn it in the past twelve months you are probably unlikely to wear it for the next twelve months. It can also create potential for someone else to make use and find happiness from what you are no longer benefiting from. Once you have mastered the decluttering process and worked your way through your home from kitchen, bathroom to office, (including all your drawers) creating an environment where the things you cherish and use are accessible and also visible your life becomes more simple and organised. It is important to respect the belongings you have and when hidden, bundled or boxed they are not creating any joy in your life. Tidying doesn’t mean getting rid of everything, just keeping what makes you happy.
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