Mindful Matter
Q&A with Leah Duffney
This month’s art is by Holstee’s very own graphic designer, Leah Duffney. Based in the cozy woods of Vermont, she loves creating compelling visual solutions that help tell a brand’s story and make an impact. Leah believes integrity is an intricate balance between doing what is right in your heart and taking action. For a little more about Leah, here's a short Q&A! Where is home for you? Home is in the mountains of Central Vermont. What is your definition of a successful life? A successful life is one you can look back on when you’re older and feel pleased with the journey you’ve lived. You are able to look back at all the adventures you’ve taken, accomplishments you’ve made, reflect upon the “downs” you’ve had and are proud of the person you have become. A successful life is one of integrity—always taking action and following your heart. Describe your perfect day. My perfect day is when I find balance in productivity and self-care. I love being able to start my day in a way that allows me to feel full and ready to take on the rest of it! This could be a range of things like going to the gym or sitting on the front porch in the morning sun and listening to the world around me. How did you get into design? I was always a creative thinker—even as a child I was constantly drawing and coming up with new ways to challenge myself creatively. I took as many art courses in high school as I could and when I took my first Graphic Design class, I knew it was what I wanted to pursue as a career. What I love about being a designer is that there are so many facets in the industry—so many different areas and styles to explore. It gives me the ability to continue challenging myself and discover new ways to creatively problem solve. Where do you find inspiration? Anywhere and everywhere! I can’t seem to walk into a store without looking at or taking pictures of inspiring branded materials—packaging, signage, product design, etc. I also look on Pinterest but most of my creative inspiration comes from Instagram! I have an absurd number of Instagram collection boards of designs, styles, techniques, and project ideas that inspire me -so when I start a new project or want to challenge myself, I can easily look back and reference those inspirational pieces! What's your dream design project? I don’t necessarily have a “dream” project but any opportunity to create compelling graphics/branding to support a business is always the most fulfilling part of my job. I love taking a business’ story/mission and creating its visual direction. I find joy in designing cohesive elements that tell an engaging story that makes an impact. Which designers or thinkers influence/inspire you? There are so many people I am inspired by! I have to start by saying that Wassily Kandinsky, a 20th century artist known for his geometric shapes and lines, is someone I draw a lot of inspiration from. He is believed to be the first artist to arrive at a true and complete abstraction. One of my favorite pieces by him is titled “Composition VIII”. But there are many modern day designers and thinkers that I am inspired by—too many to list but I have to share a few!… Olivia Herrick, Carli Anna, Amy Bridgeforth, Morgan Rapp, Kim Lincoln, Kelsy Stromski, and the teams at Outline & Stitch Design Co! These are all people and teams that I look up to when starting a new project because of their unique outside-the-box thinking, creativity, use of color and typography, and influence in the creative community. What was the inspiration behind this design? Throughout my life and my career, my goal was to always follow my heart. It was never about following the money or doing things I don’t agree with—it was always about doing work and making decisions that were fulfilling and made an impact in some way, shape, or form. Design has always been something that felt natural to me so I knew that I had to follow that path, even if I didn’t know exactly what that path looked like. (I still don’t! And that’s why it’s a journey.) So, I wanted to create a piece that reminded people to follow their inner truth and rise up to it, especially when the going gets tough. We are our integrity—our work, our decisions, our words and if we stay true to that, we will always find our way. At the moment, what is your favorite… Color: I love so many different colors but my ultimate favorite is matte royal blue—not specific at all, right? Ha! Food: Oh food, my favorite thing of all! Sushi and anything pasta related are top of the list. Song: Honestly, I have never had a favorite song! I like way too much music to just pick one. I love everything from pop, R&B, reggaeton, hip-hop, country… the list goes on. It entirely depends on my mood. Quote: “The details are not the details. They create the design.” – Charles Eames
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The legend of Django Reinhardt.
Django Reinhardt is known as one of the best jazz musicians of the 21st century. What’s less known is the story of his incredible resilience. I came across this story while getting lost down a Wikipedia rabbit hole one recent night and wanted to share it with you. Reinhardt was born in 1910 and grew up in a family caravan with his single mother and siblings in a nomadic Romani settlement outside of Paris. Life in the settlement wasn’t easy, so he became skilled at stealing chickens for his family. Reinhardt was also musically inclined and taught himself the violin, banjo and guitar. At the age of 12, he would travel outside of his community to Paris to put on shows. By 18, he was a favorite in Parisian dance halls and beginning to gain international fame. Then the unthinkable happened. One evening, a candle fell into flammable liquid as Reinhardt and his wife slept. Their caravan immediately went up in flames and they barely escaped. Reinhardt was hospitalized for nearly two years with bad burns across his body. Two of the fingers on his left hand were burned with silver nitrate to make what remained of his hand usable, but the doctors doubted that he would ever play guitar again. In a way the doctors were right. Reinhardt was never able to play the guitar as he did before the fire. Instead he changed his technique, creating a new style to accommodate his hand. "Instead of playing scales and arpeggios horizontally across the fretboard as was the norm, he searched out fingerings that ran vertically up and down the frets as they were easier to play with just two fingers. He created new chord forms. . . . He pushed his paralyzed fingers to grip the guitar as well, his smallest digit on the high E string, his ring finger on the B, and sometimes barring his index finger to fashion chords of four to five notes. He then slid his hand up and down the fretboard, employing these chord forms to craft a fluent vocabulary."Excerpt from “Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend” by Michael Dregni This new style sealed Reinhardt’s status as a music legend. During the first part of the 20th century, he was considered the most famous jazz musician in Europe. This isn’t the only obstacle Reinhardt overcame. His biography includes many fascinating stories (including 2 failed attempts of escaping France in World War II, once where his life spared by a jazz-loving soldier). For many people, a life filled with so many obstacles would kill the spirit, if not the body. But Reinhardt was determined to overcome his impediments and bring his own style to the music he loved so much. In the process, he created an incredible library of music (I’ve been playing his Spotify hits on repeat for the past week). His legacy is a powerful reminder that life can give us obstacles — but it will not be defined by those obstacles, only by how we respond to them. Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee
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Let it RAIN.
I recently found myself juggling a family emergency and a complex work project, all while trying my best to not completely fail in my role as a husband and father. It’s in moments like these that I have found Tara Brach’s RAIN method especially helpful. Tara is unique in that she combines eastern spiritual practices with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. RAIN is the acronym of Tara’s four-step process for ‘practicing mindfulness and compassion’ when in a challenging moment and is one of the exercises featured in this month’s Resilience Guide. Here are the steps: R - Recognize what is going onAcknowledge your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Step outside of yourself and recognize any signs of a harsh inner voice, feelings of embarrassment and dread, or noticeable physical manifestations created by anxiety. A - Allow life to be just as it isAllow the experience to be there, just as it is. Do not attempt to alter or avoid it. When defaulting to self-judgment, let the negative emotions exist. It does not mean you are unworthy, it means you recognize painful feelings created by a stressful moment. I - Investigate with interest and careLean into your natural curiosities to discover the truth. Ask yourself, “How is this experience manifesting in my body? What is it that I think I believe? What does this vulnerable place want from me and what does it need most?” N - Nurture with self-compassionOnce you identify the wounded and hurting place inside you, offer a gesture of kindness that might address it. Ask yourself, “Does it need a message of reassurance? Of forgiveness? Of companionship?” Sincerely spark self-compassion and even if it feels awkward, it will start to soothe and strengthen the heart. Take time to explore RAIN as a stand-alone meditation or return to this exercise the next time you face a challenging moment. Mike RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee
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Grief and gratitude.
Last week our grandfather, or Babajoon as we called him, passed away at the incredible age of 104. His death came just four months after the passing of Mamanjoon, our grandmother and his wife of 75 years. His passing also marked the loss of our last living grandparent. After the news of his death, our family received many comforting messages and words of wisdom to guide this period of grief. One video in particular was shared a few times, first by our cousin and then again by a close friend. It was an honest, heartfelt, and open conversation between Stephen Colbert and Anderson Cooper discussing life after losing loved ones. About 13 minutes in, Cooper says to Colbert: "You told an interviewer that you have learned to love the things that you most wish had not happened. You went on to say, ‘What punishments of God are not gifts?’ Do you really believe that?" Colbert took a moment and responded: "Yes. It’s a gift to exist, and with existence comes suffering. There’s no escaping that. But I didn’t learn it — that I was grateful for the thing that I most wished hadn’t happened. It’s that I realized it... I don’t want it to have happened. I want it to not have happened. But if you’re grateful for your life — and not everyone is, and I’m not always… then you have to be grateful for all of it. You can’t pick and choose what you’re grateful for. Then what do you get from loss? You get awareness of other people’s loss, which allows you to connect with that other person, which allows you to love more deeply and to understand what it’s like to be a human being…and however imperfectly, acknowledge their suffering and to connect with them and to love them in a deep way that not only accepts that all of us suffer, but also that makes you grateful for the fact that you have suffered so that you can know that about other people. And that’s what I mean. It’s about the fullness of your humanity. What’s the point of being here and being human if you can’t be the most human you can be?" Learning to find peace, growth, and even gratitude from our most painful moments — is an incredible act of Resilience. To life, love, and humanity, Mike and Dave RadparvarCo-Founders, Holstee
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Our Next Chapter: Reflection.app — a better way to journal.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” - Søren Kierkegaard Last week I recapped our 10-year Holstee journey and how it has steered us towards a new and exciting project. This week I am thrilled to introduce you to: Reflection.app — a simple way to start a meaningful reflection practice with an online journal that guides your personal growth each month. From our Reflection Cards, to our annual Reflection Journal, to the exercises in our Mindful Kits, Mike and I are big believers in the power of reflection. Through reflection, we get the chance to appreciate, learn from, and find peace with our past as we take steps toward the future ahead. The challenge is that starting and keeping a reflection practice is hard. It can be difficult to know how to begin, and once you do begin, it can be difficult to maintain with all the distractions life throws our way. For years, journaling has been our go-to tool for reflection. But even when we mastered the habit of writing about our days, there wasn’t an easy framework for looking back on past entries — no guide to help us find patterns in the things that brought us joy, or learnings from the moments that challenged us. It’s a problem we have experienced first-hand, and after speaking with you, our community, we realized we were not alone. Two years ago, we began researching, testing, and developing concepts to solve this problem. We have created, scrapped, and recreated dozens of prototypes (“reflectionapp_mockupv10-7a_copy-v2-final-FINAL1.sketch” may or may not be a file on my Dropbox ;-). Finally, we arrived at a tool that we believe can really help people start and keep a meaningful reflection practice. Here is how Reflection.app works: Daily Journaling Through a simple web interface, you can add daily entries in one of three categories: Highlights - Things that brought you joy. Lowlights - Challenges you experienced. Free Writes - Everything else on your mind :-) (with optional writing prompts for inspiration!) End-of-Month Review At the end of each month, you are guided through your Highlights and Lowlights so you can understand how to grow from them. After, you are led through a short self-assessment in six key areas: Mind - Do you feel clear-headed, engaged, and intellectually challenged? Body - Does your body feel healthy, nourished, and strong? Soul - Do you feel at peace and connected to the world around you? Work - Do you feel interested in and fulfilled by your work? Play - Do you feel joyful? Are you engaging in activities that bring you joy? Love - Do you feel positive about the relationships in your life? Your end-of-month review comes together in one stunning personal monthly report that you can return to at any time. End-of-Year Review At the end of the year, you will have the chance to look back on the whole year. Your daily entries roll into your monthly reviews, and your monthly reviews roll into your annual review. Our goal with Reflection.app is to provide a simple and delightful framework to help guide you through a meaningful reflection practice. A practice that naturally builds on itself by using your entries to guide your reflection, at each step making the next milestone in your life more enjoyable and meaningful. We plan to work closely with our community to continue making this tool as valuable and useful for you as possible. Excited to hear your thoughts! Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee P.S. Holstee Members — You will get bumped up on the list once you request early access! In addition, we have also been working hard on some new updates for 2020 and we are excited to share those updates. Keep your eye on the private members group for a sneak peek :-)
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Feed your soul.
In our latest Passion Kit (also available in our Digital Guide), we talk about intrinsic and extrinsic values — a key concept in my own path to living fully. Here’s a quick breakdown: Extrinsic values represent external psychological needs such as money, fame, and image (physical appearance). Intrinsic values represent internal psychological needs like growth, connectedness, and helpfulness. I like to think of this distinction as “things that feed my ego” vs. “things that feed my soul”. It’s the “things that feed my soul” that light me up, fuel my passion, and ultimately make me feel fulfilled. And there’s research to back that up. After more than 20 years of study, psychologist Tim Kasser found that living in alignment with intrinsic values correlates with greater well-being. While most people naturally live by a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic values, it’s the intrinsic values that are at the root of personal fulfillment. What are you doing to feed your soul? Mike RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee
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