A Lifestylist's Blog

There’s a precept for being happy that says “Try to treat others as you would want them to treat you.” What if we applied this precept to our living areas? Do you think we could make our living environment happy?

I know for a fact, by personal experience, that rooms show emotion. I’ve prove it to you.

See, I keep my office pretty tidy and, as a result, when I walk into it, the room smiles at me. The room is actually happy and greets me with a cheerful attitude. The great part is, that cheerful feeling rubs off on me somehow.

Then, on the rare occasion I leave the office untidy, the greeting is not so friendly. In fact, it is downright unfriendly. I could swear the room acts like I’ve offended it.

This is often the case when I’m at a person’s home or office that needs organizing. My first view of the space makes me feel unwelcomed. The space is clearly unhappy and, when you look at the owner’s emotional condition, it is evident that they are themselves unhappy in that space.

Some spaces might even yell at you with a warning, “Get out of here! Run for the hills!” Or, more apathetically, “Enter at your own risk.”

I’ve been in places where these kind of warning signs are invisibly plastered around the room and it’s intimidating. You may not be able to see the signs with your eyes, but you can feel it. Just like you can’t see “unhappy,” but you can feel it.

So obviously, the condition of a space can reflect the emotional condition of a person in that space. If you feel like putting this to the test and want to try this at home, make sure you have taken all the necessary precautions to prevent long-term emotional injury.

First, keep your escape route clear in case you feel like making a mad dash out of the room. You don’t want to trip over anything.

Secondly, set a timer for a certain amount of time in case you end up trapped inside the room and forget you can leave. This sometimes happens when you get into an unhappy room and wind up spending a lot of time in it trying to get things done. The lingering affect takes longer to recover from.

And lastly, I suggest you play some pleasant music to offset the unpleasant environment you’ll be spending time in. You may not notice the lowered emotional affects so easily.

Once you’re ready to spend time in the unhappy, disorganized space, observe what happens. Notice whether you start to feel sad, overwhelmed, flustered, unable to focus, or just unable to get anything done. Try not to stay there too long, as I said earlier, or these affects will stay with you longer.

Now, finish the test and tidy up the room. Get it organized. Maybe even paint it or rearrange the furniture; whatever it takes to make it happy (the room, that is). Then do the test again. Only this time, you won’t need to take the precautions you had to previously.

Go back in the room and do whatever it is you do there: work, relax, watch television, read, etc. Notice how you feel now. I’m betting it won’t be an adverse emotional state.

The lesson is: You treat the room well, and it treats you nicely. You treat it bad, and you feel bad in it. So, if you want to lift your spirits, try making your space happy.

My space loves me and I love it. And, we’re living happily ever after.

By Cyndi Seidler
http://organizedlifestyles.com/category/column/page/2/

Still waiting to do something you've wanted to do? Putting it off until there's time? Maybe it just doesn't seem all that important to do now?

Living in the moment has a nice conceptual quality to it, however it has a "dark side" if it is applied to coping situations. I mean the going-on-hoping conditions that prohibit us from accomplishing those things we set out to do with any degree of ease.

Hoping that you can get through the day without adversity and hardship? Hoping that your fellow workers don't dump another problem on you? Hoping that you'll find that important document when you need it? Wishing, hoping, waiting.

To go on dreaming of ideal conditions is only as good as we take action toward achieving that vision. Dreaming is good. Action is better.

If you have a yard you've been wanting to trim and plant, do it now. Appreciate the beauty you'll be creating now. "Now" can be a wondrous place when we make it the way we want it.

Why wait for something else to take place before you can do something?

I've heard people say, "When I have lots of money I can have a good life." That may be true in terms of having certain things we want but cannot afford. Meanwhile, it's how we spend our days that matters. It's what we do now that helps us live our lives in better conditions.

I've had people say to me that they want to be organized but don't have the incentive. That's a dichotomy -- wanting, yet not wanting to take action on the want. I would have to assume it's not wanted enough.

I witnessed this. One person told me she needed incentive to get her space organized. I told her to look around her area and envision it the way she wants it. She did and smiled. I then said, "That's your incentive."

If you're waiting for someone else to come along and give you a push to get something done, it will probably stay the way it is. To leave it up to others to get us to do something is putting our life in other's hands. The fact is, it's in our hands.

I believe us humans have great potential. We're actually capable of making things happen. Yet some people choose to wait to make things happen. I'm sure there might seem to be legitimate barriers, but it's still obvious to me that the recognition or desire has not been attained yet.

Making goals and moving forward on them now is the only way to achieving them. Dreaming your dreams is only as good as doing something about attaining them.

Stop waiting to do something. Just do it. Decide to cut through your own barriers (and believe me, they are YOUR barriers, not others), and take action. Any action is suffice, even if it's starting with a small action.

The "do it now" philosophy is what gets us from where we are now to where we want to be. Our vision is the road map. Our incentive is our driving force.

Why not make your life a glorious trip?

Cyndi Seidler
http://organizedlifestyles.com

Leading busy lives can have a way of taking time away from us and, before we know it, papers pile up and rooms get cluttered with stuff and junk collects in the garage.

While the garden may need attention and the house could use some organization, taking a little time to assess our lifestyle from time to time can be life-changing.

Days off on the weekend can be a time to look at your future goals and planning for those things you want to do. It’s also a good time to see how you want to reinvent yourself.

Maybe you want to take classes that align with a future vocation, or maybe you’d like to plan an activity you love. If you’re feeling exhausted, maybe plan to go for a day at the spa or take a holiday or go on a retreat somewhere.

Finding balance in a work life, family and personal life can have its challenges, and even be an ongoing struggle. But by embracing some time to ourselves and our future, can help shift an unbalanced focus and create a way to do more things for ourselves.

Commentary by Cyndi Seidler
from http://organizedlifestyles.com

Sometimes things that don’t seem possible become the reality that it is possible, and has indeed cropped up into our life. Good or bad, things happen that we may not expect. And, I’m not talking about stumbling upon some live, ancient dinosaurs either, such as that in Jules Verne’s novel.

I’m talking about falling into a lifestyle you didn’t plan for, and that lifestyle may be a good one or a not-so-good one for you.

Did you ever think that you’d be in a miserable relationship? Suffer through a natural disaster? Lose a good paying job? Or, on the other side of the coin, did you ever think you’d find your soul mate and live happily ever after? Get to buy that dream home you always wanted? Find the best job ever or start your own business?

Life is a series of changes. And change can be viewed as opening doors to new opportunities.

I’ve been reading about many retailers for example who, in the face of a challenging economy, have reinvented themselves, found new opportunities that didn’t seem to exist before, and cut back to basics with strategies that improved their bottom line. And, they’re having success.

Other people are doing it too. When one journey ends, they planned and initiated a new journey. And a new adventure began.

Then, it’s what a person does that leads them along their new path. And, contrarily, it’s what a person doesn’t do that leads them nowhere.

We hear about it all the time, especially in these struggling times. A job lost creates a new opportunity for something else they didn’t attempt to do before. Financial difficulties can lead to a lifestyle that doesn’t have so much stress. A bad relationship opens up the door for finding a good, much better relationship.

I’ve met a lot of people throughout my life who say, “I can write a book about my life,” as they look at how much and how many changes they’ve gone through, and survived. I could probably write one myself, but that will have to wait until I’m bored and have nothing else to write about.

These days, I never know what to write on my own bio because of the various ways I’ve reinvented myself through life changes. I’m a lifestylist, a professional organizer, an interior decorator, a public speaker, an entrepreneur, a writer, a marketing and PR expert, a web designer, an animal rescue activist, a multi-media producer, and the list goes on. I figure I must take on new endeavors every year or so and, at this rate, by next year I hope to be adding something like world adventurer, if there is such a profession.

I’ve had many doors close in the past, too. But, when those closed, a new door opened up which didn’t seem to be there before, strangely enough. And it always seemed to open to something better, and often bigger.

One time in my life I was between jobs and at the end of a 6-year relationship. While my Temp Agency got to work trying to find work for me, I began to embark on my own search. I listed my skill-set and transformed those skills into services. The next thing I knew, I was pounding the pavement with brochures at hand offering services such as organizing an office and a filing system, and other similar business services. Before I knew it, I was in business and my life as a professional organizer began.

I firmly believe these new openings in my life were a result of where I put my attention. And I always chose to put my focus on something better, something positive.

This, I’m sure, holds true for anyone who took change and turned it into a new opportunity. They had to have put their attention on a solution, a new strategy or the like rather than the problem. How else could they have come into the great events and wonderful journeys that took place in their life?

With change, we need to re-organize (yes, I’m sure you were waiting to see how this would tie into the subject I always talk about!). This also applies to making, or causing change. We don’t always have to wait for change to happen to us; we can actually cause change all by ourselves.

If you’re unhappy with something, say for instance a cluttered room, than decide to make a change and re-organize accordingly. Anything you’re unhappy with and want to change just requires that you regroup, reinvent, and re-organize.

After all, a journey to the unknown can be fun and rewarding and prosperous and exciting. Even Jules Verne’s story had a good ending.

Column by Cyndi Seidler from http://organizedlifestyles.com