A mindful home – 10 tips

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Mindful HomeHappy New Year to all of you! I hope that you begin 2015 with a fresh look and some new energy…

Today, while reading some articles on the net, I came across Karen Maezen Miller’s blog post about a mindful home. I find it very beautiful, especially when taken figuratively and I think that we can all learn something from it. It sometimes takes a lot of willpower to build new habits!  I hence wanted to share Karen’s 10 tips here with you:

  1. Wake with the sun: there is no purer light than what we see when we open our eyes first thing in the morning.
  2. Sit: mindfulness without meditation is just a word.
  3. Make your bed: the state of your bed is the state of your head. Enfold your day in dignity.
  4. Empty the hampers:do the laundry without resentment or commentary and have an intimate encounter with the very fabric of life.
  5. Wash your bowl: rinse away self-importance and clean up your own mess. If you leave it undone, it will get sticky.
  6. Set a timer: if you’re distracted by the weight of what’s undone, set a kitchen timer and, like a monk in a monastery, devote yourself wholeheartedly to the task at hand before the bell rings.
  7. Rake the leaves: rake, weed, or sweep. You’ll never finish for good, but you’ll learn the point of pointlessness.
  8. Eat when hungry: align your inexhaustible desires with the one true appetite.
  9. Let the darkness come: set a curfew on the internet and TV and discover the natural balance between daylight and darkness, work and rest.
  10. Sleep when tired: nothing more to it.

Here’s wishing you an excellent week!

Jenny

 

 

6 Replies to “A mindful home – 10 tips”

  2. Alice Keys

    Hello Jenny,

    Yes. These all work.

    Which are your favorites?

    I get up before the sun each day to write and watch the light increase through sunrise. This is very centering. And since my husband lays in bed longer, he gets to make the bed. 😉

    Thanks for the reminders.

    Alice

    • Jenny Ebermann (bxljenny) Post author

      Hi Alice, I have to admit that I am not up with the sun… I am an evening person and love it when everybody is sound asleep and I can listen to the noises of the night! I love the fact that by devoting myself wholeheartedly even to tasks which might not be my favorite ones, I can actually enjoy them… Working with children and adolescents in mindfulness now, I have to say that setting a curfew on the internet and other mobile devices is really a challenge. Amazing how much time they spend on it! A lifestyle with set times and enough sleep to rest is the secret to health and everything else!
      Happy New Year to you and all the best from Switzerland (without snow).

  3. Jenna

    Bonjour Jenny,
    J’adore ! Merci pour ces quelques petits conseils qui nous apportent beaucoup de bien dans nos vies de tous les jours.
    Belle journée,
    Jenna

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