My twenties were a struggle. I often refer to them as my “Tulmutuous Twenties.” Like many young people, I was learning, seeking, experimenting, and figuring out what kind of person I wanted to be in the world.
During one particularly rough summer, my sister gifted me a book called Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. It was, and remains, one of my all-time favorite daybooks. One of the Simple Abundance principles is to surround yourself with beauty as a way to comfort and nurture your own heart with kindness. The idea deeply resonated with me.
And so, I began to consciously collect beauty wherever I went. I put pretty art postcards up in my otherwise nondescript room. I painted my walls a lovely green. I noticed, and then picked wildflowers and put them in our dilapidated rental. I planted flowers all around our junky street mailbox so that fetching the mail became more beautiful. I painted my bed navy blue and stamped gold stars and moons all over it (this was the 90s!). I thrifted for clothes that I thought were beautiful vs. practical. I decorated my backpack with gorgeous patches. And on an on.
The loving practice of first noticing and then integrating beauty into my everyday life not only lifted my spirits that summer, but it has become one of my signature tools along the self-kindness journey.
Tell me about one of your everyday self-kindness tools. How do you adorn your life with love toward yourself?
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