“Surrendering to slumber does more than just restore the ability to function efficiently – it actually generates that clear and transparent state of mind we call wakefulness.” –Véronique Vienne, The Art of Doing Nothing.
What helps you feel clear, joyful, and more spacious? As I sat down to reflect on my list of top ten favorites for 2011, here’s what showed up – in no particular order:
- A cozy bed with high thread-count sheets.
- The Art of Doing Nothing: Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself by Véronique Vienne with photographs by Erica Lennard. I love having it around the house. I just opened it randomly and landed on “Deal With a Guilty Conscious,” and “Recipe for a Gourmet Nap.” You get the picture.
- The Tapping Technique. When I find a simple tool that helps humans clear clutter, reduce physical and emotional pain, experience ease, open the heart, expand consciousness, I’m all in. The more portable and user-friendly the better. To learn more about the supremely simple tapping technique read my post Tapping Releases Stuck Energy.
- Life by Me. This blog a visual treat. With its large fonts, uncluttered pages, and beautiful original art, it embodies spaciousness on every level – a rare attribute, I think, in this increasingly noisy virtual marketplace we call the internet. You can read what I wrote in my piece I called Home. After writing and submitting my 400-word piece, I realized I had written my manifesto.
- 1,000 Awesome Things blog. It’s about living your life with a great attitude and cultivating a sense of wonder. Just opened up randomly as I was writing this and what showed up was (#90) Pinky Swears, (#95) When that kid crying in the mall isn’t your kid, (#96) Basement couches. With titles like that, you can’t help but smile and want to read more.
- Your Spacious Self eBook app. I love technology that helps me teach what I love. It still blows me away to press a button on my iPhone and hear my own voice delivering some of my favorite “simple meditations.” Not only do you get the entire book in the palm of your hand, but a whole slew of multimedia features that can deepen people’s experiences of clearing.
- Self-Care Cards app. Yes you can download Cheryl Richardson’s 52-card deck app onto your smartphone. With one click it randomly shuffles the deck for you and reveals your self-care word. Double tap on the screen and you’ll see a longer message on other side of the card. I just opened mine while writing this, and out popped “Rest: Release guilt and make your needs a top priority.” (Is the universe trying to give me a message?) Available from Hay House.
- Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye. This documentary about the famous French photographer is a visual and auditory delight! Watching it is like sitting at the foot of a master: you hear him talking about his photos (which he holds up for you to see), the art form itself, his subjects, and his extraordinary life traveling the world: i.e. Mexico in the 30s, India in the 40s, Paris in the 50s, 60s and 70s. He even shares a prescient conversation he had with Mahtma Gandhi just moments before Gandhi was assassinated. Armchair and otherworldy travel at its best.
- Muco Coccinum™. This homeopathic remedy has helped me avert all kinds unsavory cold symptoms this season. Even after hours sitting next to other sneezing, coughing passengers on a recent trip to visit my folks (who were themselves recovering from bad coughs), it seems to have helped me steer clear and stay healthy. I take one tablet every two weeks during the winter cold and flu season – which I put it in my calendar so I don’t forget. So far so good!
- Christmas trees. It takes skipping a year to realize how fabulous and chi-ful these things are. With our daughter in Argentina during the holidays last year, we went with a lame “mini-me” plant from the supermarket. Compared to the big green conifers that have infused our living room with heavenly fragrance in years past, it was joke. To make up for it this time, we bought a gorgeous tree right after Thanksgiving. It’s a thing of beauty.
What are some of your spacious things? What would you put on your list of favorites for 2011?
Read my top favorite things list for 2012 that I wrote for the Huffington Post
Photo: Flaming June by Lord Frederic Leighton
