Mindful Matter
Reduce the noise, focus on the essentials, and keep it simple.
You may recognize this as our Simplicity mantra for the month (found in our latest guide and on the back of this month’s art -- photos below!). This theme is timely for me, as my wife and I prepare to welcome our first child to the world. The due date was May 19th, so it’s literally any day now! I am excited to be a father, to see what my daughter looks like, to play with her and learn from her. But also circling my mind is the knowledge that the greatest gift you can give a child is time — something that there is never enough of, particularly when you run a small business. Still, I am looking for ways I can further “focus on the essentials.” For example, I recently decided to step down from our local Food Co-op board. It was a really difficult decision, because I loved the community and felt fulfilled by the work. But I had to remind myself that saying “no” to things now means I’ll be able to say yes to other (smaller, far more adorable) things in the future. Speaking of babies, I’d love to take the opportunity to learn from the collective wisdom of the Holstee community. If you have tips, books, or words of wisdom as I enter parenthood, I’d love to hear from you! With Love, Mike RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee Display this art and explore this guide -- check out the Simplicity Kit today!
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The noble art of leaving things undone.
“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”― Lin Yutang I needed this reminder today. A reminder that just because I had planned on doing something, and am able to do something, doesn't mean it needs to be done. A reminder that there is beauty in emptiness, and that silence can be serene. A reminder that even though it can be hard to say “no” to something that is already on our plates, sometimes we need to in order to say “yes” to something that matters more. A reminder that it is up to us to decide what needs to be done — if anything at all. Do you, Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee P.S. Our members say that small reminders like this are one of the things they love most about the Holstee Membership. We created the membership to serve as a consistent reminder to live fully and mindfully — to be proud of the lives we lead and the choices we make. A post shared by Holstee (@holstee) on May 17, 2018 at 9:02am PDT
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5 Things We Learned About Simplicity This Month
Jennifer Lioy, Creative and Community Lead at Holstee
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Your three most meaningful possessions.
It's incredible how easy it has become to consume. Clothes, food, cars, toys, electronics — they’re always available, delivered direct to our doors sometimes within hours. We are constantly reminded, by media and advertisements, friends and family, how much we “need” these things. It's hard to take a step back and realize that we are in a system of hyper-consumption. It can be even harder to face the fact that we are often a contributor to it. The convenience is far too great, the feeling of instant gratification far too strong. This month's theme of Simplicity reminds us that living with fewer, more meaningful objects is not only better for the planet but also more fulfilling. In the past we explored ways to declutter your life. But this year we want to focus on the objects in your life that you truly hold dear and that add meaning and depth of your life. The objects that make your life easier, that bring back fond memories, that make you smile. In this month’s Simplicity Guide, we shared this activity question: Imagine this scenario: You pull up to your house to see it has caught fire. All people and pets are safe — don’t worry! The firefighters tell you the fire is contained just enough that they can safely run in to save three items. What three items would you choose? Extreme hypothetical questions like this can help break our existing mental models and self-limiting beliefs. They remind us how little we need and how resilient we can be when challenged. So, what three items would you choose? Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee P.S. Members: Share your answer and read others (including mine!) in our private Facebook community!
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Time isn’t the enemy.
For the past few months, I’ve felt behind, constantly chasing after my to-do list. Yet every week it gets longer instead of shorter. I think to myself that I just don't have enough time — that there aren’t enough hours in the day or enough days in the week for my work, let alone for all the fun things I want to do. This pressure is what Leo Babauta, creator of Zen Habits, calls the Time Scarcity Demon. Babauta writes: “The problem isn’t that we have too little time — we all get the same amount of time each day and each week. It’s the exact right amount of time, because it’s all there is. It’s possible that we have too many things to do. But actually the real problem is that we want to do too much in the time we have.” It's a simple notion, but it changed my perspective. Time isn’t the enemy, time just is — it’s a simple but enabling idea. The problem for me is that I am greedy. I want more: more time and more from my time. But the reality is that I have the same time as everyone else. And though we might want more, we are probably better off just being present in the magic of this moment and appreciating what we have accomplished with the time we’ve got. Simplicity is all about understanding what we have and realizing that we often don't need more, even if we might crave it. Check out our Simplicity Guide to dive deeper into Babauta's shared wisdom, along with the concepts of lobha — the Buddhist concept of greed — and dana, its antidote. Simply yours, Dave RadparvarCo-Founder, Holstee
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