So what are my minimalist and simple living plans for 2016? I've been mulling this over and here are my very loose ideas thus far:
- To enjoy life. Every day to seek and acknowledge the beauty, simplicity and power of life.
- To work steadily on my goals and develop motivation to meet them. The time to start is now but reviewing goals regularly is important too. This year I am not settling on one word to guide me - I feel the need to explore and be multifaceted.
- To look forward. I'm looking forward to great new food to eat, to planting more flowers and crops in our garden and to a few short breaks away from it all.
- To continue A year of Less Spending with as many no spend days as possible. Yay to list writing, sticking to a budget, stock taking, occasional stockpiling and eating down the contents of the freezer and food cupboard. Red cabbage anyone (we have plenty). I am happy with my wardrobe and look forward to wearing every piece throughout the year. I hope to buy very few new items this year.
- To be more anti-consumerist and to not follow trends blindly.
- Keep my head in a book. In 2015 I read more than I have for many years and I believe reading helped me to both recover from and acknowledge the reality of loosing my dad last January. H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald was a great help for this and my favorite read of 2015. I've started a sidebar of my reads in 2016 and may write about some of my reading.
- To read authentic blogs. My taste in blogs has changed and so I've updated my blogroll to reflect my current taste in blogs: authentic, inspiring and no hard sell (especially of simplicity - pleeease). I did fear in 2015 that the heydey of blogging was over but I'm quietly confident that 2016 will be a great year for blogging.
- To take a balanced approach to health. I must be mindful to not beat myself up if I forget to meditate or miss a run. Any exercise is good. I love walking. Running is less enticing but I have vowed to run a marathon this year (to raise money for Parkinson's in honor of my dad). Wish me luck. It will be my first and (probably) last marathon.
- To continue to declutter. There's still a need to declutter here and there but I can afford to take a relaxed attitude now that the major purging is over.
- To work hard but appreciate my time off and not feel guilty if it's not productive.
- To continue writing here. There'll be very few changes but hopefully lots of enthusiasm. Happy Friday links will resume on the 8th.
