How to Fill My Space

Emptying My Space to Fill it With the Right Things

Lately I have been reading a book by influential writer Gretchen Rubin called Happier at Home, the follow-up up bestseller to her even more popular book The Happiness Project.  In Happier at Home, Gretchen reminds herself over and over that “the days are long, but the years are short”.  Love it!

She decides that one of the paradoxes of happiness is that sometimes you have to “spend out to become rich”.  This is something I have decided to do ever since my baby arrived.  By “spend out” the author is referring to using up disposable items like razors and toothbrushes, utilizing new purchases such as putting brand new clothing in the rotation, and to generally stop saving things for a special occasion.  

However, while I found the book’s explanation perfectly poignant, the content that grabbed me the most was this paragraph from Rubin’s blog: “And spend out applies to creativity as well as to possessions. I find myself thinking, ‘I should save that story…’ or ‘I don’t want to use all my best examples now…’ But pouring out ideas is better for creativity than doling them out by the teaspoon.”  WOW!!!  That fits me to a T!  That is part of why I have a stockpile of posts for my blog and little on the blog to show for it!  Starting today I aim to spend out more and more every day…to rid my life space and living space of the things I no longer want or need and fill it with only the things I do!     

Yesterday I made lemon-flavored instant pudding for my husband.  He loves lemony desserts and so I thought this would be a special treat for him (which it was)…that and the fact that I actually made him a dessert (which I never do).  The thing is, I bought the pudding mix forever ago [don’t worry, we checked the expiration date] and I was saving it to make at another date TBD.  Ironically, the brand of pudding was called “Always Save.”  

And that’s what I do.  I always save everything.  And I mean everything!  I have a bit of a problem.  Not that I’ll be featured on Hoarders any time soon, because it isn’t that out of control and I plan on nipping it in the bud today and every day.  I have a couple different theories on why I save or savor everything, but I am not focusing as much on the “why” right now.  I’ll tackle that another day.  As for today, I’ll spend out.  Thanks, Gretchen, for this and many other life lessons.

My Heart Space is Filled to the Brim!

WE WELCOMED OUR LITTLE BABY INTO OUR LIFE SPACE!

I'm BAAACCCK!!!  Did you miss me?  :)  Excitedly I share that my big surprise became a beautiful baby boy who was just born in April!!!!!  Now that I have had a chance to settle into life as a mommy, I am ready to resume my blog and share what I have been up to lately. :)  Of course I’ll have lots to share about my happy baby, but in the meantime… 

I experienced my first hot yoga (Vinyasa Flow) class today and—boy—they are not kidding when they say “hot!”  While I found many of the yoga instructor’s motivating phrases to be truly inspiring, a few of them stood out to me in particular.  The first phrase that struck me was an instruction to “create your space.”  Instantly I thought about my “life space” and my blog.  I have been thinking about resuming my blog for months but something [read: myself] was holding me back.  But why had I stopped writing about—frankly, creating—my life space?  I think it boils down to the issue of carving out time and acceptance of anything less than perfection.  Fascinating to find that…

The next was a poignant reminder of the passing of time: “If not now, then when?”  Right then and there I asked myself [despite the fact that I was taking my mind off of my practice], if I don’t resume my blog (and other writing) now, then when will I?  I just had a baby so I can’t expect anything to slow down!  My bundle of joy has filled my heart space and my life space!!  “If not now, then when?”  The answer is simple: “Now.”

Lastly, she closed the practice by encouraging us to be our “perfectly imperfect” selves.  And that is exactly what I aim to do here.  I started this blog with a resolution and now I resolve to not only keep writing and sharing, but to continue to be my perfectly imperfect self.