A Minimalist Mindset

"Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have. …

Shall we always study to obtain more, and not sometimes be content with less?" ― Henry David Thoreau



While most people are in search for more and more stuff, there are some of us who crave to have less.

It takes a brave soul to embark upon sizing down, and streamlining their lives.  The rewards of a minimalist mindset however are great.

I am a passionate following of Small Homes, Tiny Homes and owner build homes and spaces.  I love to see the result of a space that the owners have created to fit a lifestyle, rather than the reverse which is often true.

I have been a renter for most of my life.  In many cases, the homes that we live in shape our lives.  I know a few people who cannot hang a shirt in their back yard.  Some are unable to have a home vegetable garden. Many people live in environments which are not sustainable.  Many of us live in homes that do not embrace. enrich or nourish, but instead, warp and demand.  Bottom line; most homes are expensive and they are work.  A lot of work.

To live small requires the minimalist mindset; to be able to reduce one's possessions to be exactly what is currently needed; no more, no less.  I have been looking at design and the design of spaces for decades. The spaces that appeal to me visually are the ones that understand function and aesthetic; the perfect balance of function and beauty.

Clutter does not work in a small living or working space.  The 'eye' searches for clean lines, and order; areas that invite with purpose and intention.

Click here to see here to see a few of my favourite spaces....and also here and also here.

Those of us in small spaces value their personal time and are mindful of how they use personal time.  One young home builder says "a small space allows for cooking food, hygiene and intellectual pursuits".  I think it also creates intimacy, with oneself and one's companions.

So the criteria is not 'how small', but 'how authentic.

Keep well
Nelda

Love of Small Spaces

I love small spaces.  I love the challenges.  I love to see the possibilities come to form.  I love organization.  I love to create aesthetic.  I am a minimalist by nature.

My Facebook friends notice that I frequently post design ideas and 'tiny homes' articles.  I love it when people think outside the box.

Here are some pictures from my former down town office.  I really wanted to put French doors here, but unfortunately this was a weight bearing wall.  In fact this was the original brick exterior wall, before an addition was put on.  The compromise was to create a long window and to have a glass panel put in.  Landlord Kurt Halmer and Phil Sommer of Sommer Design Studio both helped me here.


The window was limited to the height of the textured glass available.  Hence the small window on top of the side panel.  We took out the wood insets in the old doors and replaced them with the textured textured glass.

Inside my office was a door leading to the outside.  We added inserts of the glass there too, as well as replacing the glass on the long side window that opened to allow ventilation.








This textured wall was done by taking long pieces of grass and painting over them like mad, using a roller.  The trick was to start in one corner and continue around the room so it would look like the wind was blowing from the same direction.

Here is a 'Sommer Design' indoor water fountain.





The Ikea baskets house my hanging file frames.  Much nicer than a metal file cabinet and more compact as well. With the help of a couple of skilled friends and a free weekend we created built in furniture and a framework around the whole room.

This was my version of a Japanese garden.   The bamboo frame gave the plants a place to live and because the frame was free standing  eight inches from the wall, it made the room feel airy and larger. I bought lengths of bamboo in bulk, wired the joins together through drilled holes and covered the wire with rattan ribbon.

Wood from old utility shelving was salvaged to create cheap custom made furniture to fit the space.  Having shelves mounted on the wall left uncluttered floor space and still allowed that everything I needed was at hand.

The whole idea is that if I have to spend eight working hours a day in a small 8' by 10' room without going bonkers, I need natural light, beauty, and a feeling of open space. The challenge with small spaces is to create visual space.  No clutter, no excessive furniture or knick knacks.

I presently work and live in the same building; a century old  Victorian that my landlords duplexed.  I love it.  This is the room where I work.

The biggest challenge was how to downsize my personal living space to 250 square feet. The rest of the studio flat is a spacious uncluttered open reception area and my office itself. My landlords blessed me by installing natural bamboo flooring. The continuous natural floor gives the eye the impression of more space.





You can get a sense of how narrow my kitchen is by this photo.

The fridge on the right is the kitchen boundary and beyond is the sitting area.  When this was a single family home, this room was a child's bedroom, probably the nursery, with no closets.

Underneath the counter is the washing machine.  I have since replaced this appliance with an apartment sized front loading model that fits the counter top exactly. The kitchen cabinets and counter are on the left against the wall.



The advantage here is triangulation; there is only three steps from the sink to the fridge.  Only about three steps anywhere really.

Here is the view of the sink and cabinets.  I took off the upper doors to enjoy seeing my beautiful pottery.  The great thing about organizing small spaces is that if you don't see it, you probably don't have it.

The pantry cabinet in the photo below occupies the 'dead space' behind the door.  Broom and mop hide behind here too.  A clothes rack is also attached to the back of the door. Pots and pans are hung on a rack on the wall above.




When you have tall ceilings, shelving and cupboards can be mounted on the walls.

 The kitchen island is actually two 'assembly required' dressers from Canadian Tire.  I bolted them together and created an impervious work surface by tacking a piece of robust fake-wood flooring on top.

The wicker drawers provide great storage when every inch counts.  The only caution is to be careful of the weight.  Great for spices, Tupperware, pasta, linens, cooking tools, bits and hand blender.  Everything is at hand.


I chose not to make space for a range.  Instead I have two counter top induction cookers, a hot plate and a smaller wall mounted oven.  I have a rice cooker, a slow cooker, a counter top grill, and a warming plate.  These appliances can move around depending on what I am doing.  I can morph what space I need free and how my work is going to flow.

Here you can see the fridge and the sitting room beyond.  I used a canvas and frame screen taped to the right of the fridge to create a 'room' divider. I painted it to match the walls.






I appreciate that I am able to cook and visit with my friends at the same time.I am a vegan cook and on occasion I cater from this tiny kitchen.  I don't entertain chaos, so sometimes I really need to think through my battle-plan before I start.  Still, the space works.

I am not formally trained in design, however I have consulted for businesses and residential homes. I specialize in how to make something out of nothing, in little space and on a shoe string budget.

For this service, I charge my usual hourly rate.

Take time to enjoy your nests and have a wonderful holiday season
_ Nelda

When God Speaks You'd Better Listen

I seldom get a chance to watch television programming.  I haven’t owned a television for over 26 years. This was one of the choices I made to allow myself to become less affected by the outer world and become more connected to my core inner-life.   

One of the advantages of this self-imposed Media-fast is the enjoyment of some quality DVD collections from the TV world of the past.   

One of the programs in the ‘better late than never’ department is the show Joan of Arcadia. What a brilliant program.  It has all of the 5 major emotional flavours; deep and profound, light and funny, silly and touching.  Sometimes it is dark, real and gutsy.  The program's theme song is aptly, What if God Were One of Us.   

The premise of this series is that an adolescent girl while on her way to school is approached by God (who looks like a (hot) guy).  First of all God has to prove he is well….God.  God then asks her to do a task; something that she can’t perceive as making any sense.   

Even though she resists complying in a charmingly human way, she eventually does follow through.  We as the audience then get to enjoy how her choices play out in her family, school and community life.  At any point in the episode, God may pop up in the guise of anyone; someone normal (or not quite so normal).

Somehow, for me this God talking to us stuff all feels true.

God talked to me. 

On one occasion I was asleep at night and I heard a voice call my name.  I opened my eyes and all I could see was a brown fog.  I made my way downstairs to my roommate’s room and woke her up.  I continued through the house until I reached the hallway to the bathroom.  Just then the carpet burst into flame.  The brown fog was the smoke that had been generated from the smoldering of the carpet. We put out the fire, and then went ‘Whoa’!  Divine Intervention! 

There was another occasion when I again heard a voice call my name.  My family was traveling late at night from the Tobermory ferry to our home in Wingham.  I said “What?” The voice said "Open Your Eyes".  I did, just as the car was approaching a sharp curve in the highway.  I was behind the wheel and I had fallen asleep.

Do I believe in God?  You bet.  Do I believe in Guardian Angels?  Yes, I do without a doubt.  In the Bible, Angels usually say ‘Hark’ and ‘Fear Not’.  That’s like saying ‘Hey You’ or ‘Listen Up and Don’t Freak Out’.

Most of the time, this voice is still and small, and says less obviously remarkable things.  These things are no less compelling.  "Don't do that" or "Do this' or  "Quit wasting time; you know what the answer is" or "Hold this truth for now, this isn't the time". 

I still trust this voice. 

The question is, as with Joan's dilemma, is do we follow this advice in faith.  We can't fully comprehend what the outcomes will be, or know if there will be personal suffering.  According to the writers of Joan of Arcadia, God has made a perfect system. 

I don’t know why we weren’t killed in a house fire, or left wheels up in a ditch, but I trust that if I do wake up dead, it really will be my time.  I simply trust that God speaks to me.

And then there was the time my heart stopped beating while I was on the operating table during an emergency surgery….but that is a story for another time.

Keep well_ Nelda

Commit to the Inspired Life

Writers Block!  This is the worst of all possible states of being for a budding writer.  Nothing great to say, no good advice or interesting thoughts; the pressure is on, commitments to be met.  Yet I come up empty.  This is so scary.  I ask myself, ‘is this it? Am I dried up?’ 

 

When I started my blog I made a deal with myself.  I was only going to produce from an inspired state.  No expectations, demands or deadlines.  I would work from an inspired state, period.   

Right now I am definitely not inspired.

Most of my articles come to me at night.  I make some notes to help me remember so I can take a run at it in daylight.  Sometimes, an article writes itself, and I get up and stick with it until it is polished and ready to post.  In truth, they write themselves.  This is really great until one hits a dry spell.  Then faith and trust kick in.

This past summer I took an official holiday.  My sister moved to Prince Edward Island, 'for the adventure’ she says.  What a great opportunity for me to spend some time with her and to see more of the country. 

 

I hopped on a plane and I took an unheard of two whole weeks of doing nothing, other than playing with my sister’s dogs, driving around looking at surreal pink dirt, smelling sea air, and of course, critiquing places to eat. 

 

(Just in case you visit PEI in the future, the winner was Landmark Café, in Victoria by the Sea.)

This village was most like how I remember my mothers home village of Providence Bay on the Manitoulin Island, sans the salt.  

Most of all I was in awe of pink dirt!  

Oh yeah, and the endless seafood.  Yummmm!

When I came back home and settled in, I worked for two weeks straight.  As well as my usual client load, I was writing information packages and re-designing internal systems for my practice.  I also created a huge body of general information files for client follow up.  The keyboard was ‘smoking’.  I was inspired!  It felt like no work at all.  Ah, this is why employers pay people to go away! 

I began to ponder the inspired state.  It got me wondering if this is what our lives could be like and should be like, all the time.  As a society, we tend to be highly production oriented.  We even brag to one another about how fatigued we are while keeping up our end of the ‘Gross National Profit’.

Farmers of yesteryear followed a guideline of planting for 6 years and then letting the field go fallow for the seventh year.  This allowed the land to refresh and repair itself for another productive phase. 

I think the same good advice goes for any endeavour.  Creativity comes from that still place; the hands empty phase.  Yet it is hard to go fallow.  Unless one has complete trust and faith, the non-productive phase is hard to go though.  

The chunking out the data part of my brain seems to be on holiday. If I am true to myself, right now, I have to say that I want all aspects of my life to be ‘inspired’.  No pushing for productivity. No guilt about what I should be accomplishing.  I am giving in to the fallow-phase.  This is the playing, reading and resting phase. 

The higher part of me trusts that in a little while, I’ll be the conduit for ‘the flow of information’ again. 

Some Earthly Good

I eat books.  Some are consumed at one sitting, rather like enjoying a morning coffee that is good to the last drop.  Some are savored like a dessert; be careful that you don’t eat to fast because when it’s gone, it’s gone.  Action adventure books are like chips, taste one page and you have to eat the whole thing! 

Sometimes I read a whole book for one single line, phrase, or one paragraph that contains a message for me.  I just finished ‘Eat Love Pray’.  It was a sweet little read for sure.  But there was one paragraph that jumped out at me.  The author realized how she would repeatedly fall in love with other people’s potential.  This really got me to thinking.

When we are gifted, unusually attractive, exceptionally musical, remarkably fleet of foot or blessed with the gift of gab; these are not of our own doing.  These abilities are the potential we are born with. What is left for us to do in our life time is to harness and develop these gifts and use them to do some good on the earth.

When people praise my gifts, my creativity, or my intuition, (this is where the pictures in my head are directly attached to my tongue), this is rather like praising the nose on my face.  I can’t help it.  It’s not of my doing; it’s the way I was made.

What I am developing in this lifetime is wisdom and a strong knowledge base for these other talents to play in.  This is when intention, self-discipline and drive come in. Although I was raised in a family who esteemed wit and sarcasm, I have chosen to be kind and temper my tongue.  Responsibility is not just for driving the roads.  The tongue is a power- tool and words of power can be used to ignite and bless the lives of others.

Every one of us has a gift that we are born with.  This, on its own does not give us strength of character, or automatically endow us with admirable qualities such as honesty, loyalty, discernment or solicitude. We are not automatically trustworthy. 

In many cases, these gifts are used for selfish purposes.  This is sad really.  I view this as a form of cancer in society.  Gifts that are used to take advantage or consume others have containment and a limited scope of influence. These people, while they may have some degree of success in their lives, will never really shine in the way that their Creator intended.

I believe we have a responsibility to realize our own potential in our own lifetime.  We also have responsibility to protect, nurture and champion the gifts in others. 

I think that the real joys in life come from when we freely and openly share who we are with others, gifts and all.

Mental Convoy Stalls

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A friend said something to me this morning that brought the convoy in my brain to a complete and utter halt. She said,

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“Serenity is a natural state of mind.”

Often we think that if we work our way through all our problems, we will finally find ourselves serene. This doesn’t work because there is always a litany of problems lining up. We will never be problem free on this earth.

Granted, the world is a curious and strange place. But what if worry was a learned perception? What if anxieties were subtlety rewarded over time by our families and teachers. Wouldn’t we think worry was normal? Mightn’t we feel kind of empty without it?

Our society seems to be a worry machine. Our worth is measured by the sweat on our brow; we are esteemed by our struggles. We have conversations that go like this; “oh yeah, well my worry is bigger than your worry”.

Worry, fear and anxiety are big business. On the news I am given at least 10 new things to fret about every day. We are out to prove that mental gymnastics will keep the chaos at bay and our world in some kind of order. Advertising probes the place of our insecurities. It’s clear how we don’t measure up and what we don’t have. For example, ‘If I just had the car, I’d have it made’ (read stress-free).

If our default mental outlook is set on anxiety, what then? It would be natural to assume that our mental axe would go on looking for something/anything to grind itself on. When I reflect back over my past five decades, what I notice is that most problems resolved themselves over time. Maybe its divine timing or maybe because people just figured something out, or somebody turned up out of the blue. I will guarantee that the world is not running smoother today because of my heavy emotional investment.

The point is, the world never sits up and flies right just because my mental monkeys hashed it over for a week. My mind may create strategies when it behaves itself, but it life never works just because of the worry I’ve invested into it. To be honest, most times when I finally gave up and said “uncle” the situation remarkably improved.

If we set working toward peace-of-mind as our highest goal, and we were to diligently align our thoughts to that focus, then perhaps life’s challenges would assume a manageable proportion.

Maybe we would find that serenity is a natural state of mind.

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The Internal Romance

When I put on make up, fuss a bit with my hair and dress up a little, people wonder if I am trying to attract a man. When I don’t get all gussied up, people wonder if I’m letting myself go.

The point is, what I do, I do for me. I have a love affair with life, and in this life I am the leading lady. Do I cast myself as the cleaning drudge or the hard done by divorcé, or even the less favoured sibling? Are any of these a true reflection of who I am?

I get to decide. They are only true if I say they are. I get to decide what my story is all about; is it a tragedy, a comedy, an adventure story? Ahead of me, all blank pages. The pages to the left have been written in already, but I am also editor of my story. I can go back with my magic red pen and change the flavour, point or purpose of the story. It’s my story.

The 'manure' for a good story is always just about the same. There are interesting characters that are facing times of testing, and rising to the challenges. As the story resolves we see our characters gaining wisdom, growing in perspective and maturing. Their experience has such potency when they are sharing their story with others.

So what’s with the romance thing? In my world, a story about a dog or a horse is a romance story. A story about children, or estranged families reconciling, or even stories about finding our ancestors. These things are the very essence of romance; anything about relationships, interactions, impressions, perceptions. Romance is who we are, where we are and how we are and with who.

Film Shot: Put a man standing alone looking out toward a mountain sunset and - Yup! – We’ve got ourselves a romance story.

A line in a Sarah McLaughlin song says “In a world created for romance”. Think Maui, The Grand Canyon, the Sahara or Niagara Falls! To me, this world that we live in, the backdrop to our lives, is created for romance.

What excites me in the very core of my being, is when my experience connects me with the Creator who created me. I understand more about Divine nature by what my own heart responds to: Romance, adventure, excitement, adversity, mystery; a story with great characters and timeless themes.

The stories that we love, and flock to the theatres to see, are romance stories through and through. The Titanic grossed millions. Think of some other timeless classics: Gone with the Wind, Gladiator, Old Yeller, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Lawrence of Arabia or Last of the Mohicans.

It is always marvellous to see ordinary people living extraordinary lives, or even people living ordinary lives in an extraordinary way. This world we are in is created for Romance.

Changing the Filters of Our Perception and the Yoga Connection

I remember reading a story about a woman who was walking outdoors with her two year old. She was totally absorbed with her own thoughts and was really not paying attention to anything else. She finally noticed that she was getting some very long and fixed stares from passers by. When she looked down she realized that her toddler had picked a lit cigarette up off the pavement and was happily smoking it as they walked along.

“Everything depends on your mental outlook…All of your experience is filtered through the creativity and appraisal of your mind. Happy and unhappy belong to your mind, not to the world.” _Yogi Bhajan

We don’t often consider the need to do ‘mental housecleaning’. Unless we can cut through the old clutter, how can we live in the present moment? How can we experience the fully human qualities of clarity, creativity, wisdom, joy, compassion and love on a day to day basis?

I recently had the opportunity to spend a weekend in Michigan, personally experiencing a whole day of meditations designed to balance the mind, from a Kundalini Yoga perspective. Fascinating! Since then I have been studying a compilation of lectures given over a 10 year period by Yogi Bhajan, the teacher who brought Yoga from India to North America in the 1960’s. The subject of these talks is The Mind.

At one point he says “If you go along with your mental intrigues, you will not get spiritual and have worldly success or happiness. You cannot reach that happiness and contentment no matter how many sophisticated intrigues your mind creates.”

Busted! Oh the mind just loves those games, and will do almost anything to keep them going. He says “We go temporarily blind and temporarily deaf. We become temporarily unintelligent. We cut ourselves off from our reality and our creativity and live the non-reality of a dream world created with our fears.”

I think we all know what it is like to be all fixated about some thought, problem or tangle in our own minds until our heads feel ready to burst. Habitual toxic thinking evokes habitual toxic emotions. Often we don’t consider the bombardment of stress our physical body experiences day after day just coping with this. Most importantly, by living reactively to the artificial and stressful environment created by our minds, we lose all chance of happiness.

Healthy thoughts create a healthy experience. All of our life experience is filtered through our own minds.

Why Pay When You Can See a Doctor For Free?

In 1984 my daughter was unwell with something inexplicable. Weeks and weeks went by and she just wasn't pulling out of it. I was getting desperate. Within a three month period I took my daughter to 13 different Physicians. I became very frustrated trying to integrate the 13 radically different opinions given. 

It finally dawned on me that conventional medicine alone wasn't going to take my family's health where it needed to go. The only solution was that I had to roll up my sleeves and take up the challenge my self.  Health very quickly became my priority. Over the next decade, Holistic Health became my career.

Neither Well or Ill

A client recently said to me that she felt unsupported with conventional health care. She “wasn't ill enough to get her Doctor’s attention and yet not well enough to be happy with her life”. Like most ‘Baby Boomers’, she had much higher expectations for herself, and wasn't prepared to lower the bar to the point where she had to accept that her concerns where all due to ‘old age’.

Is Free Really Free

Many people in Canada where I live, assume that medical health care is free.  It does appear to be free. Years ago, Dr. Jane Fulton, Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa, came to speak in my home town in rural Ontario. (At that time she had been meeting with First Lady Hillary Clinton, to discuss the development of Medicare in the US.)

Dr. Fulton very clearly showed the residents of Huron County, that Medicare wasn’t for free. In fact, my baby-boomer generation is paying the interest on the loan that financed my mother’s health care in her declining years. My daughter’s generation will have to foot the bill.

Ontario residents are now seeing a reductions of insured services. Many preventative services are now being categorized by OHIP as non-essential. There are discussions about a multi-tiered Health Care System where the better service will only be available to those who can pay from their own pocket.

Put Yourself in the Center

I encourage people to command the central and pivotal role in their health care.  Find the health care providers of all and any persuasion that fit perfectly into your team. As well, take the time to do your own research. Make this journey your own.

Making health and wellness a priority means we need to be pro-active in our own healthcare. We create health by making the commitment to care for ourselves every day; physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

The bottom line is: without the foundation of good health, we don’t have a future.

Food for Thought
_Nelda