Summer is coming to a close. Families are gearing up for the new school year, which includes every stage from preparing little ones for kindergarten to launching older kids off to college. Even if there are no longer kids in the picture that you need to help, this part of the summer season is often a transition time. We can feel the days shortening and the temperatures getting slightly cooler, especially in the northeast where I live. Here’s the thing. When we are in the midst of change and transition, we can often feel anxious about the past and some trepidation about the future. That’s normal.

Practicing mindfulness, both formally through meditation and informally by allowing ourselves to focus on the present, can be enormous in helping us to navigate transitions with less stress and more enjoyment.

As you may know, I’ve been exploring mindfulness beyond my customary way of being to include daily mindfulness meditation, journaling, reading, and formal learning. I’m grateful for the wonderful teachers and guides I’ve had so far that include Laurence Magro, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Amy Reyer, Ellen Langer, Tara Bennett-Goleman and Daniel Goleman. I’m so thankful for finding them at this juncture in my life.

Just the other day, I had one of those ah-ha moments. There’s another mindfulness teacher who has been helping me my entire life, but especially these past few years. It's my mom. She has vascular dementia. At this point, her memory of the past is fairly compromised. The future is no longer a real concept because her short-term memory has also been affected. She lives very much in the present. She finds joy in the present through playing piano, listening to music, singing, dancing, having conversations, being with people who care about her, exploring the garden, holding hands, enjoying a beautiful day, or being playful. When I’m with her, I enter her world wherever she is and we experience each moment for all that it is. She’s helped me to appreciate the now even more, to savor these precious moments with her. I slow myself down so that I can be here now.

These past few weeks I’ve missed being with you as I’ve been involved with family that needed my time and attention. I’m so happy to be back. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Come join the conversation! What discoveries have you made from those that help or guide you?

We could all use a bit more happiness in our lives, couldn’t we? While traveling recently, I noticed someone reading a Time magazine special edition, The Science of Happiness. The cover was splashed with happy-looking emojis. I finally got my hands on a copy and read it, with yellow highlighter in hand, from cover to cover. I’m generally a happy, positive person most of the time. Even so, I loved the idea of learning about the science behind happiness and the possibility of finding ways to experience even more joy.

Some researchers think that genetics are behind 50% of the variations in happiness and 10% are due to life circumstances. This is great news because it means the remaining 40% presents opportunity for you to increase your happiness. We can break that down to small, manageable parts. As author Margaret Wander Bonanno said,

“It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.”

3 Ways to Help Increase Your Happiness . . .

Mindfulness

Being present, refusing to multitask, and bringing your full attention to what’s happening right now is one way to increase happiness. This can be challenging to do with so many sounds, people and thoughts vying for your attention. It requires practice, like exercising a muscle, to be mindful. One suggestion made by Emma Seppala, Ph.D. author of The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success is to take technology breaks. She suggests,

“One of the greatest ways to find joy is to spend a half-day or whole day on a technology fast. That means no screen time. None.”

Generosity

Doing good in the world can translate into donating money to causes and organizations we believe in. According to Michael Norton, co-author of Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending, bringing this idea closer to home can boost your happiness even more. He says,

“While giving to charity brings more happiness than spending money on yourself, our research finds that doing things for people you know makes you happiest.”

Gratitude

Have you noticed that you’ve become more grateful as you’ve aged? One study discovered that for each 10 years of life, gratitude increases by 5%. In addition, according to writer Ellen Seidman, research suggests that people who are regularly grateful, those that are actively aware of the “goodness in life and the sources of it – are generally healthier and happier.” To experience the full benefits of gratitude, you need to both feel the love, like recording your appreciation in a gratitude journal and show the love as in writing a letter (the more specific the better) to express gratitude to your friends and loved ones. Robert Emmons, Ph.D., psychology professor and author of Gratitude Works! says,

“When people are grateful, they feel more alert and alive.”

Do any of these increasing happiness concepts resonate with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

The latest installment (v11) of the “What’s Interesting?” feature is here with my newest discoveries that inform, educate, and relate to organizing and life balance. I’ve included unique and inspiring enlisting help-related finds, which reflect this month’s blog theme. You’re a fantastically engaged group. I look forward to your participation and additions to the collection I’ve sourced for you. What do you find interesting?

What’s Interesting? . . .

1. Interesting Read – Decision-Making Help

Living requires us to make millions of decisions. Are you overwhelmed by choice? If so, you’re not alone. Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice – Why More is Less, sheds light on how the abundance in our culture has made us become less satisfied and more stressed about our daily decisions. He says that while choice improves the quality of our lives, helps us control our future, and is essential to autonomy, the overload of choice comes at a price. Schwartz explains why this has happened and suggests ways to overcome it. He concludes with, “Choice within constraints, freedom within limits, is what enables [us] to imagine a host of marvelous possibilities.”

2. Interesting Study – Productivity Help

While traveling on one of my favorite airlines, Southwest, I read about an interesting piece in their onboard magazine. The University of British Columbia did a study where the results determined that desk clutter lowered your attention span. Interpreted another way, an organized desk increased your attention span by 167%. A different experiment concluded that study participants in a cluttered workspace took 10 percent longer to complete a quiz than the participants situated in a neat workspace.

3. Interesting Conference – Disorganization Help

The Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD) will have its’ annual conference in Portland, Oregon, September 22-24, 2016. Organizers and related professionals will convene from all over the globe to learn about aging, ADHD, productivity, mental illness, hoarding, time management, and the latest research on chronic disorganization. I’m looking forward to attending and learning from the experts so that I can better help my clients. Are you going? I’d love to see you there!

4. Interesting Product – Paper Organizing Help

Have you noticed the adult coloring book craze? They are in bookstores, conferences, airports, hospitals and everywhere. They’re even on file folders. One of Smead’s clever new products is the coloring file folder, great for organizing your papers.  Available at myOrganized.life, you no longer need an excuse to doodle on your files. Get out your colored pencils and have fun while you’re organizing your paper piles.

5. Interesting Resource – Repair Help

I’m all for letting go of things that no longer serve a purpose, are beyond repair, or have overstayed their welcome. However, what about those finer shoes or handbags that could be repaired, but they sit around waiting for a way to get that done. Cobblerconcierge.com is a convenient service that meshes the skill and traditions of expert cobblers with the ease of using the Internet. The process is easy. Fill out an online form, receive a shipping box, and your shoes or handbags will be quickly refurbished and returned right back to your home.

6. Interesting Thought – Exclamatory Help

We all do it, don't we? Swearing that is. Especially when we need help, those expletives can arrive fast and furiously. However, they only go so far for handling a moment of frustration. If you’re struggling with overwhelm, with a challenge that seems unsolvable, or with figuring out how you’re going to move forward, it’s probably time to reach out for help. Be brave enough to ask.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. What are your interesting finds? Do any of these resonate with you?  Come join the conversation!

When we need help, we don't always think about building a team. It’s more common to think that we can or should do everything ourselves. Maybe we consider enlisting help from one person, but a team? Not so much.

In the last few years, I've realized the importance of building teams that are invested in a single purpose. While we can accomplish a lot on our own, creating a team can greatly influence the outcome and experience in positive ways. Teams have many advantages that include reducing stress, boosting creativity, increasing fun and providing emotional support. The teams I focused on building in the last two years were Team Wilma and Team ICD.

Team Wilma

Wilma is my mom and has vascular dementia. She's always been fiercely independent, so the idea of enlisting help has never been one of her strengths. She was the person that helped others, which is something I admired and found inspiring.

At a point it became clear that I needed to gather a team of people, affectionately named, Team Wilma, to help us navigate life with the changes happening because of her illness. Keeping her safe, healthy, and happy have been our top priorities. Without family, friends, caregivers, medical professionals, and household vendors, this would be have been daunting to manage. I am so grateful for all the people that love my mom and are part of Team Wilma.

Team ICD

Building Team ICD was one of the first priorities when I became ICD (Institute for Challenging Disorganization) President in 2014. I knew that without our current, incoming Board and management team working together, we were going to have a difficult time accomplishing our many initiatives. We invested in getting to know each others' strengths, doing team building exercises, strengthening communication, and working towards shared goals to benefit ICD.

On July 1st, I handed the baton to Sue West, the current ICD President. I'll remain on the Board (team) for another year as Immediate Past President, but it will be Sue that will lead us. It was a wonderful feeling to pass on this strong, well-meshed team.

All teams require effort, patience, nurturing, and adjustments. Sometimes team members get added or subtracted. Each member adds value. The key is harnessing that value and making each member feel appreciated and essential.

As you think about getting organized, are you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated? Are you trying to do everything on your own? Maybe it's time to build your team...Team Organize! Who will be the fantastic members of your team? Will you enlist help from friends, family and professional organizers? Will you need donation resources or removal professionals? Will you enlist additional emotional support from a therapist or coach? Going it alone is possible, but building a team of people that are focused on a common goal to help you can make all the difference.

Who will you include on Team Organize? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!