Life is full of distractions. These distractions often have noise components that come from external and internal sources. With all of the noise and distractions, it can be especially challenging to focus on what’s most important. Noise in our environment can be overpowering. It’s essential to make time for quiet and stillness. By doing this, we create white space and breathing room. From this quiet we connect with our minds, bodies and others and ready ourselves for creativity, learning, and a fresh start. The start can be for the next moment, day, month, project or interaction.

There are many ways to bring quiet into your days. Some of us need more quiet than others. I’ve noticed that as I’ve aged, my need for quiet has increased. What have you noticed?

Mindfulness practices including meditation or integrating mindful living are ways of finding those quiet puntuations during your day. Another path to quiet is spending time with nature. You can be an observer and just sit, watch or listen. You can surround your being by taking a walk outdoors. You can set aside some time to be still and focus on the in and out movement of your breath.

All of these practices will quiet your mind, quiet your being, and give you some pause from the daily noise and distractions.

Enjoy this quiet moment . . .

How do you find quiet? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

It’s so darn easy to get out of balance. It can happen in an instant like when one of life’s emergencies surprises us. It can also happen ever so slowly when we get busy and aren’t able to carve out time for any self-care. So how can we get some of that daily “B” back into our lives? I suppose the first important thing is to recognize what it is you need to feel more balanced. It could be having some alone time or having more time with people. It might include eating more healthfully or getting more sleep. You might need one small tweak or some major changes. And frankly, some of us just like the chaos and prefer being out of balance all of the time. Where are you right now?

For me, well, I’ll admit that I went through an intense period that resulted in a wonderful balance. It didn’t happen overnight. It began about a year ago when I took an 8-week mindfulness course. That led to many shifts including changing my eating habits, journaling daily, seeing a nutritionist, doing back exercises, walking regularly, meditating daily, and losing weight. I felt less stressed and more energetic than I had in years. I didn’t expect or even plan for all of those changes to happen. One good habit led to another and then another. They became my balance building blocks.

Then starting in late summer, things slowly began moving in the opposite direction. The balance that I’d achieved began to slip away one habit at a time. My mom needed my attention and it made it increasingly challenging to focus on my routines. And just as slowly as I’d developed some great balance-producing habits, those same good habits managed to disappear one by one. What the heck happened? I worked so hard to get to that better place and then bam…many were gone over a few months!

It happens. Balance is like that seesaw. It’s not always level, but in a constant state of motion that requires thought and action. The intensity of what my family needed has subsided. My mom is settled into a new place that she loves. The family home is cleared and ready for sale. I am ready to refocus some of that energy back to myself. It almost feels selfish making that declaration, but truthfully, if we can’t nurture our core, how can we be available for anyone else?

Slowly, I’ll bring back some of the “B’s.” In the last few weeks, the short list has included:

• Spending more time with friends and family
• Having some alone, quiet time
• Taking more photographs
• Eating more vegetables
• Walking more
• Writing more regularly
• Enjoying the beauty of the first snow

The operative word here is more. I don’t expect instant. I do get that if I consistently do just a little more each day, eventually I will get or surpass where I was six months ago.

There are more good habits to bring back. But as I’ve learned before, each good choice begets more good choices. We just have to be willing to:

• Determine your balance and self-care needs
• Commit to one, small change at a time
• Recognize that change happens when we make different decisions
• Cut ourselves some slack when we go off course

I wish you all the best as you find your right balance. What will be included in your balance plan? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

Several organizing challenges commonly occur with my clients. A few months ago, I had the pleasure of talking with my friend, John Hunt, from Smead, about the top five organizing challenges and strategies for overcoming them. I’m thrilled to share these two podcasts with you.

If you’re stuck or overwhelmed or know someone who is, keep reading. You’ll learn how to shift your perspective, engage new strategies and possibilities, and confidently take next action steps forward.

Top 5 Organizing Challenges . . .

1. Transitions

Life transitions such as a move, new job, birth of a child, or loss of a loved one can create “situational” or temporary disorganization. Transitions can be overwhelming because they can involve something unfamiliar. Current organizing systems may no longer work and require adjustments. Watch the video (Part 1) to learn transition strategies like making a list of areas that need editing and organizing or recalling other past transitions that were successfully navigated.

2. Papers

While we live in a digital age, papers are still a big organizational challenge. Overstuffed and outdated files, unopened mail, and the management of paper can easily cause us to feel overwhelmed. Watch the video (Part 1) to learn paper management strategies including creation of a simple system to process incoming paper.

Organizing Challenges: Transitions and Paper, and How to Overcome Them (Part 1)

Linda Samuels' Smead interview with John Hunt - Part 1

3. Emotions

Organizing can be more challenging, especially when we have a strong emotional attachment to our possessions. This can happen when we’re experiencing grief or loss. Decision-making can be more difficult making it harder to let go. Watch the video (Part 2) to hear about possible strategies, which include engaging the help of a supportive, non-judgmental friend, family member or professional organizer and allowing your belongings to have “safe passage.”

“Organizing can be more challenging, especially when we have a strong emotional attachment to our possessions.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO

4. Maintenance

Organizing involves not just establishing workable systems, but also maintaining them. Maintenance is an often overlooked, yet integral part of the organizing process. Watch the video (Part 2) to learn some maintenance tips including building in regular daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly stopgaps.

5. Mindfulness

Distractions interrupt our focus and frequently disrupt the organizing process. When organizing, we can focus on the future or past instead of the present. Watch the video (Part 2) to learn some mindfulness strategies including using “Full Circle Thinking”, where you purposefully pay attention and are mindful of what you’re doing while you’re doing it. Focus on one “circle” at a time until it’s complete such as “I’m opening the drawer and closing it.” Or, “I’m unlocking the door and placing my keys back in their home.”

Organizing Challenges: Emotions, Maintenance, Mindfulness, and How to Overcome Them (Part 2)

Linda Samuels' Smead interview with John Hunt - Part 2

What is your top organizing challenge? Are there strategies that work for you? What are the possibilities? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

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?