Hey everyone! Happy New Year!
Sorry I was incommunicado the past couple of weeks - my son was home from University and I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible.
And now it is the end of the first week of January and I am desperately trying to catch up with everything!
I don't know about you, but every time I take down the Christmas tree and decorations - and you know how many I have - I feel an overwhelming desire to purge and bring order to my universe after the chaos and gluttony of the holiday season.
And as is my wont, that typically includes everything in my life - clothing, body, space.
I am about to turn 53, I am about to have my first book published, I am doing things in my life that make me happy and am surrounding myself with people in my life that are of a like mind and all is good, except...
I need to get back into shape. That isn't just weight loss, it's getting stronger. To help me on that journey, Barry bought me a fitbit for Christmas - I love it!
I am back doing my yoga regularly, lifting weight again, meditating daily and walking, walking, walking. I am not snacking. I have already lost 3 pounds and I feel great!
I have also, on top of everything else I've been reading, feng shuing the whole house. Do any of you use feng shui techniques to help the energy in your space?
Last fall I took an online course from Kate Northrup about Feng Shui and loved it. Her course focuses mostly on the wealth and prosperity sections of the bagua map, but I wanted the whole meal deal, so followed up and read a great book by Terah Kathryn Collins that Kate recommends and since then have been going room by room to make the changes.
I need to keep that good energy flowing in our house! I am nowhere near done, but each room I do gives me a real sense of peace. While I liked the konmari method, it was a bit too Spartan for my tastes. Feng Shui help you focus energy to feel content and prosperous in all areas of your life. Everyone's approach will be slightly different and there's nothing wrong with that.
In particular, I wanted to focus on the health and family and career areas and have been making my own little shrines and removing things that have bad energy.
More than ever, I feel that the transition I have been undergoing these last few years is finally slowing down and I am where and with whom I ought to be. It is a lovely feeling and one I want to cultivate! I will let you know if the Feng Shui helps!
And am vowing to buy nothing superfluous clothing-wise this year. I really have too many clothes as it is, and I am getting off the hamster wheel of shopping in 2016, less about my pocket book and more about being more frugal and leaving a smaller footprint on the planet. I will keep you posted on that!
Finally, today is David Bowie's birthday AND the release date of his newest album! We love David in this house. In fact, we danced to his wonderful song, Wild is the Wind at our wedding many years ago.
So maybe that's where I'll end. Who knows where the winds of life will take us this year? I can't wait to see!
Have a great week!
xoxo wendy
Hi Wendy, Happy New Year! I'm interested to hear how you get along with the Fitbit. I don't have one (yet) - I have been going to the gym for about 2 months now (with a break for Christmas and the New Year, may as well start over again ...) and I'm doing some weight training as well as walking and running on the treadmill. I want to do the 5 km running clinic again in the spring, so my goal is to maintain some semblance of fitness.
ReplyDeleteI'm also interested to hear about your Feng Shui efforts - I don't really know much about it. It's definitely good to start some kind of programme at the beginning of the year, while we are excited about the newness of it all!
Hi Patricia - I love my fitbit. It can be depressing to realize how poorly I slept (!) but knowledge is power, right? I thought about the running, but in the end, think I will save my knees, which can be wobbly!
DeleteI knew nothing about Feng Shui before I started but I really love and am having fun!
Yep, I Feng shui...I also can Wang Chung. I found most Feng Shui to just be common sense. Trying to work on my fitness but the weather isn't cooperating.
ReplyDeleteI wang chunged in the day, too. I think you must be smarter than me, as most of the feng shui was not things I'd thought of before! But it is fun! How is the weather down south?
DeleteHappy New Year, Wendy! Glad you are having a great start to the year. Funny you should mention David Bowie... I just heard today abut his birthday and the new album! I am a fan of his music too. :)
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year! Don't you love him?
DeleteHi Wendy, Happy New Year to you and your family! I got back home just before Christmas and the holidays were a bit of a blur. I am still recovering from the exhaustion and sleep deprivation of the last couple months. I also feel the same desire to purge everything. I started pulling stuff out of closets and the basement today and felt ill looking at the mountains of STUFF I need to get rid of. No more mad consumption for me. Interested to hear about the Feng Shui. As for what this year holds... people keep asking me what I am going to do, now that I am done the program, and honestly I start panicking when I hear the question. Trying to be hopeful about 2016!!
ReplyDeleteLouise - the first 6 months when I left my job that's all people asked me! Now all they ask me is when the book is coming out, which I still can't answer! I am a big believer that the door opens exactly when it should and I cannot wait to see what happens next for you! Yeah, the mad consumption, or almost consumption of any kind for me, needs a breather!
DeleteThe new Konmari was just reviewed in the FT and it said she'd gone a little over the top with talking to her things etc.
ReplyDeleteIt was good to learn that rolling technique and I still completely empty out my bag, which just makes you feel so good, but we do lots of little purges rather than just one as she recommends.
However my biggest thing is not to get the stuff in (I don't shop at the big box places, having said that our eldest had to do an Ikea run, though it was only the second in 13 years) however where do all these old shoes come from I wonder.
Happy New year!!
I loved your post on this Jody! I don't know how the shoes just show up either... they follow us home...
DeleteI was wondering if DS was still with you-- glad it was a good visit. Our DD2 was here for all of 5 days, but it was so wonderful to be with her. My happy child.
ReplyDeleteThe tree came down yesterday, forced by the tree pickup today, always a wistful experience for me. But done, the house is clean, closet is cleaned out, now the kitchen cupboards. I cannot do a KonMar clean out either as almost everything gives me joy, so pointless. I am trying to part with some things as I don't do any selling sites( anyone want a JC viridian green wool pencil skirt,size 8,never worn?.
Our interior design method is the 2 of us standing in a room-- how do you like that, MLane? Works pretty well. We are v.good at hanging art together,too. I think feng shui can help you identify why a room feels comfortable or not.
Norovirus--12.31. My method of losing 3 pounds and canceling all plans. Weights are so key to us ladies to preserve our bones, prevent injury and keep up the metabolism. I do a lot of planks everyday, rising from my desk at least every hour to do something for a few minutes(as sitting can kill us). I am doing dry-ish January, too.
Happy New Year!!To Barry as well.
ha! MLane is a good man!!! Oh no to being sick!!!! I am getting up every 45 minutes these days and it is making a huge difference! Happy New Year to you!
DeleteKonmari is fascist cleaning IMHO.
ReplyDeleteFeng shui can be easily ridiculed but then as BB says - it is mostly common sense like who wants a loo right next to the kitchen etc. Sure it can get technical and some people take it way too seriously. But then in any culture not just fng shui dont' like clutter except for British people hehe
Wishing you a happy new year
PS obsessed with making a murderer I tell you and I was wondering what Barry thought of it?
Naomi - Barry YELLED at the screen - he was horrified about the shoddy police work (aside from the planting of evidence...)
DeleteI love how the British love their clutter. I think that's where I get the tendency! I would always prefer to be in a house of things than a modern simple house. The latter makes me nervous!
You are off to a great start in 2016! Interested to hear more about that Fitbit bit!!
ReplyDeleteI will show you later this month! I really love it!
DeleteHi Wendy, Happy New Year. Congrats on the book! So exciting. You have to let me know how the feng shui goes.I am with you trying to begin the year eating well, exercising more and buying only what I need. I really am trying not to shop and instead spend time doing things that I put off like doing my house, clearing out, organizing photos and writing. Let's see if I can keep it up, but I think it's great to have a fresh start. Love the Fitbit! Love Bowie too. He is inspirational. xo Kim
ReplyDeleteThanks Kim! I just decided to see how long I could go avoiding consumerism - will be interesting to see!
DeleteOh. David Bowie is gone. So this is the last one.
ReplyDeleteI am so sad!!! We loved, loved, loved him.
DeleteI wrote this on Facebook this morning:
I am so sad. David Bowie was a genius and a musical hero of mine for decades. He was the first dance at my wedding, the soundtrack of drives across Canada, the music I played at full volume on the way home from the hospital when my mother was dying. Hunky Dory was my favourite album and Is There Life on Mars my favourite song. He also provided me with ongoing perspective on mine and subsequent generations with these iconic lines from Changes: And these children that you spit on, as they try to change their world, are immune to your consultations, they're quite aware of what they're going through...
Glad I got to see him in concert and thinking of the two I know who loved him best: Barry MacKnight and Mark William Lutes. Can't think of Ziggy without thinking of them. RIP David.
Really, this hit me as hard as when JOhn and George passed....
The first dance at your wedding! He is indeed an icon. My girls loved him, too; we keep "Hunky Dory" down at the dock as it sounds great over the water. Very sad.
DeleteI bet it would sound great over there!
DeleteWendy, did you ever watch the dicumentary "Five Years"? Soooo good (and i don't usually like documentaries that much). My husband and I stumbled upon it one night on HBO and we were glued to the screen. I highly recommend plus I think a few channels are broadcasting it as a tribute.
ReplyDeleteI have seen it - you are right - it's wonderful and well worth a watch!
DeleteHappy New Year Wendy!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your health goals and it is so refreshing to read it is not all about weight.
It is interesting to read your thoughts on simplifying and Feng Shui. The Konmari method is all over the internet but from what I read I agree, it looks way too drastic.
I find interesting that you ended your post with a video of David Bowie, looks like a good bye...
Stephanie - you are right - it feels like a goodbye. sigh...
DeleteYeah Konmari is about having almost no stuff and it turns out I like my stuff, a lot....
Wow. I could never Kondo. Nor can I anthropomorphise my underwear, although I do believe that some shoes have followed me home. I grew up with very cynical older generations who had seen disaster, depression, war, rationing, unemployment - so if there was a good sale on, say, a nice navy or green wool fabric, you can bet that 1 or 2 dress lengths would find their way into a bottom drawer somewhere. And in the event of unexpected company, did we have clothes! Toothbrushes! Sheets! Coffee!
ReplyDeleteI am going to cherish the phrase "anthropomorphise my underwear" forever...You made me laugh out loud!
DeleteThe most important things are health and family. I hope you will be healthy and happy every day. The song is amazing. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeletezara's blog
thanks Zara!
DeleteWe have Feng shuied in the past but now we are working on moving things right out the door so not sure where things should be placed except for a lot of our stuff that will go out on the front lawn with a big sign saying Yard Sale come spring. Already feeling lighter which includes my closets. Expect to see me in a lot of repeat outfits from here on! Love that your Fitbit tells you that you have a message on your phone!!
ReplyDelete