We hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
De-Stress This Holiday Season
Posted by Larimer Associates on 9:55 AM
Do you want a way to rewind and de-stress? "Mindfulness" is the new way
to do that. Here are some great tips on how to embrace this philosophy
in your home.
Mindfulness is being embraced everywhere these days, from the
Kindergarten classroom to the company retreat. What is mindfulness,
exactly? Susan Smalley, Ph.D., and Diana Winston, co-authors of Fully Present,
say that mindfulness is "an accepting and kind attitude toward yourself
and your present moment experience." One that will change your
relationship to life.
Sounds enticing, huh? Here are a few tips on how to integrate the practice of mindfulness into your home.
1. Set an intention when you wake up. Before you get out of bed, take a few deep breaths and a minute to give thanks for the day. What do you want to accomplish today beyond your to-do list? What do you want to appreciate, acknowledge, and communicate in your life?
2. Make your bed. Making your bed is a productivity-enhancing and mood-boosting habit that can promote the adoption of other healthy habits. Take three minutes (yep, I timed it) and start your day off right.
3. Do your laundry. Karen Maezen Miller, a Zen Buddhist priest and author of Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life, says, "A full hamper reminds us that running away from the things we would rather avoid makes our lives feel like an endless chore. Face it. Taking responsibility for your own well-being is the first step in transformation."
4. Practice mindful eating. Eat when you are hungry, not when you are tired, sad, anxious or bored. Take a minute to appreciate your food: Where did it come from? How did it make its way to you? What people might have been involved in getting the food to your plate? How will this food nourish you? (Studies show that when we practice mindful eating, we take in only what is necessary.)
5. Turn off the TV, the computer and any other stimulating devices at least two hours before bed every evening. Our brains need time to build melatonin, which is critical for deep rest. Personally, I find that this technology curfew is one of the best House Rules I have.
6. Slow down; Literally. When we race around at a frenetic pace, our minds operate at the same speed. And who can sleep at night when your head is spinning like a Nutcracker ballerina after too many Red Bulls? When you slow down your physical actions, even just the smallest bit, your shoulders relax, your jaw un-clenches, and your mind can be a bit more at ease.
7. Pause to think about your consumption. Give gratitude to all of the people behind each purchase: The person who delivered your Amazon package, the person who packed it and shipped it, the person who assembled your new book, the person who wrote it, edited it, the list goes on and on. Think also about how your consumption affects the greater world. Do you really need to order another pair of shoes from Zappos? Think of everything that this purchase means; it's not just a new pair of shoes. It's a pair of shoes that requires a box, packaging materials, time and energy to ship, time and energy to store and maintain, time and energy to pass it along once it is no longer serving you. Sometimes the greatest gift you can give yourself is deciding NOT to purchase something.
8. Take a ten minute "mind re-set" break in the middle of the day. We live in a world that is turned on at full-speed, full-blast, full time. The body craves balance and one great way to achieve it is by doing nothing for ten minutes a day. Mindfulness is sometimes called the "seat belt of mental health." The body cultivates what we practice and practice changes the breath. By practicing becoming relaxed and aware, we can actually become more so in our daily life.
Fasten your seat belts, because the holidays are here. This holiday season, consider taking a few minutes each day to cultivate a home that is more mindful, a mind that is more peaceful, and an attitude that keeps you happier at home.
For more information see Apartment Therapy.
Mindfulness is being embraced everywhere these days, from the
Kindergarten classroom to the company retreat. What is mindfulness,
exactly? Susan Smalley, Ph.D., and Diana Winston, co-authors of Fully Present,
say that mindfulness is "an accepting and kind attitude toward yourself
and your present moment experience." One that will change your
relationship to life.Sounds enticing, huh? Here are a few tips on how to integrate the practice of mindfulness into your home.
1. Set an intention when you wake up. Before you get out of bed, take a few deep breaths and a minute to give thanks for the day. What do you want to accomplish today beyond your to-do list? What do you want to appreciate, acknowledge, and communicate in your life?
2. Make your bed. Making your bed is a productivity-enhancing and mood-boosting habit that can promote the adoption of other healthy habits. Take three minutes (yep, I timed it) and start your day off right.
3. Do your laundry. Karen Maezen Miller, a Zen Buddhist priest and author of Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life, says, "A full hamper reminds us that running away from the things we would rather avoid makes our lives feel like an endless chore. Face it. Taking responsibility for your own well-being is the first step in transformation."
4. Practice mindful eating. Eat when you are hungry, not when you are tired, sad, anxious or bored. Take a minute to appreciate your food: Where did it come from? How did it make its way to you? What people might have been involved in getting the food to your plate? How will this food nourish you? (Studies show that when we practice mindful eating, we take in only what is necessary.)
5. Turn off the TV, the computer and any other stimulating devices at least two hours before bed every evening. Our brains need time to build melatonin, which is critical for deep rest. Personally, I find that this technology curfew is one of the best House Rules I have.
6. Slow down; Literally. When we race around at a frenetic pace, our minds operate at the same speed. And who can sleep at night when your head is spinning like a Nutcracker ballerina after too many Red Bulls? When you slow down your physical actions, even just the smallest bit, your shoulders relax, your jaw un-clenches, and your mind can be a bit more at ease.
7. Pause to think about your consumption. Give gratitude to all of the people behind each purchase: The person who delivered your Amazon package, the person who packed it and shipped it, the person who assembled your new book, the person who wrote it, edited it, the list goes on and on. Think also about how your consumption affects the greater world. Do you really need to order another pair of shoes from Zappos? Think of everything that this purchase means; it's not just a new pair of shoes. It's a pair of shoes that requires a box, packaging materials, time and energy to ship, time and energy to store and maintain, time and energy to pass it along once it is no longer serving you. Sometimes the greatest gift you can give yourself is deciding NOT to purchase something.
8. Take a ten minute "mind re-set" break in the middle of the day. We live in a world that is turned on at full-speed, full-blast, full time. The body craves balance and one great way to achieve it is by doing nothing for ten minutes a day. Mindfulness is sometimes called the "seat belt of mental health." The body cultivates what we practice and practice changes the breath. By practicing becoming relaxed and aware, we can actually become more so in our daily life.
Fasten your seat belts, because the holidays are here. This holiday season, consider taking a few minutes each day to cultivate a home that is more mindful, a mind that is more peaceful, and an attitude that keeps you happier at home.
For more information see Apartment Therapy.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Easy Ways to Improve Your Work Flow
Posted by Larimer Associates on 9:32 AM
Do you find yourself not having as productive work day during the holidays? Here are some great tips to improve your productivity at work and at home!
With more and more of us spending our entire workday behind a computer, the concept of productivity seems almost silly. What do most of us create anyway? Emails? Spreadsheets? However, there are three things we can all do that will help us be more productive people.
If you're always looking to be more efficient, here are three things you can do today to improve your "tech toolbox," so to speak:
1. Learn the keyboard shortcuts for the programs you use most often.
Do you find yourself right clicking, dragging down a list of prompts, selecting copy and then paste 10-20 times per day? Guess what — you've lost approximately 20 seconds of productivity every day based on this action alone. Seems trivial, but add it up for an entire year and you've lost over 2 hours to the simple task of copying and pasting. It's easy enough to learn this command (Copy = Command + C and Paste = Command + V), since it's the same for every program.
One way to quickly learn key commands is by hovering over the toolbars within the programs. For example, in Photoshop you can hover over the toolbar with your mouse and the key command will appear if there is one available.
2. Set-up automatic hard drive backups to a cloud service.
Instead of relying on finding time in your busy schedule every month to back up your hard drive, consider signing up for a service that performs this function in the background every day. Just forget about external hard drives too. They're pricey, prone to death if exposed to water, and are more cumbersome than web-based services.
There are plenty of free services that will provide up to 5 gigs of storage at no charge, such as iDrive, Google Drive and SugarSync. If you have more to store (most of us do) consider signing up for an annual plan versus a month to month plan to save money.
3. Use reputable web-based freeware whenever possible.
Are you still paying for and downloading Microsoft Office for every new computer you buy? Stop now. There are plenty of free versions of common software on the web that allow you to word process or create spreadsheets that save directly to your cloud space. Plus, you never have to worry about software updates. New updates often mean waiting for a download and full restart of your computer. Want to try a free program? Fly Suite and Google Docs are easy to use and will be familiar to people who have used Microsoft's Suite in the past.
For more information see Apartment Therapy.
With more and more of us spending our entire workday behind a computer, the concept of productivity seems almost silly. What do most of us create anyway? Emails? Spreadsheets? However, there are three things we can all do that will help us be more productive people.
If you're always looking to be more efficient, here are three things you can do today to improve your "tech toolbox," so to speak:
1. Learn the keyboard shortcuts for the programs you use most often.
Do you find yourself right clicking, dragging down a list of prompts, selecting copy and then paste 10-20 times per day? Guess what — you've lost approximately 20 seconds of productivity every day based on this action alone. Seems trivial, but add it up for an entire year and you've lost over 2 hours to the simple task of copying and pasting. It's easy enough to learn this command (Copy = Command + C and Paste = Command + V), since it's the same for every program.
One way to quickly learn key commands is by hovering over the toolbars within the programs. For example, in Photoshop you can hover over the toolbar with your mouse and the key command will appear if there is one available. 2. Set-up automatic hard drive backups to a cloud service.
Instead of relying on finding time in your busy schedule every month to back up your hard drive, consider signing up for a service that performs this function in the background every day. Just forget about external hard drives too. They're pricey, prone to death if exposed to water, and are more cumbersome than web-based services.
There are plenty of free services that will provide up to 5 gigs of storage at no charge, such as iDrive, Google Drive and SugarSync. If you have more to store (most of us do) consider signing up for an annual plan versus a month to month plan to save money. 3. Use reputable web-based freeware whenever possible.
Are you still paying for and downloading Microsoft Office for every new computer you buy? Stop now. There are plenty of free versions of common software on the web that allow you to word process or create spreadsheets that save directly to your cloud space. Plus, you never have to worry about software updates. New updates often mean waiting for a download and full restart of your computer. Want to try a free program? Fly Suite and Google Docs are easy to use and will be familiar to people who have used Microsoft's Suite in the past.
For more information see Apartment Therapy.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Children's Travel Gifts
Posted by Larimer Associates on 10:26 AM
Your children may travel a lot to see relatives. The long hours in
a car or plane can be boring. However, this holiday season there are
many gifts you can get them to help pass the time or to learn about
travel. Keep reading to find out details on what are some great gifts!
Maps
are useful and portable, but globes fascinate children of all ages.
Using a globe, children can learn about countries, continents and
oceans. Globes teach children about the true sizes of landforms and help
them see the distances between points. Look for a raised relief globe,
which shows elevations of mountains and valleys.
Even
young children enjoy packing and pulling their own rolling suitcases.
Taking care of clothing and belongings gives children a sense of
responsibility and turns the tedious task of packing into an enjoyable
activity. Look for a rolling suitcase sized for your child or
grandchild; a youth-sized rolling bag will be easy for a younger,
shorter child to pull. Middle schoolers and teens will probably prefer a
larger bag with a longer pull handle. You can find rolling suitcases
and duffel bags in all shapes, colors, sizes and price ranges.
This
classic, low-tech toy can help those hours in the car pass more
quickly. Each child takes an auto bingo card, which includes pictures of
common roadside items, such as sheep, stop signs and railroad
crossings. Players slide a colored window closed when they spot an
object on their particular card. The first child to close five windows
in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row shouts, "Bingo!" and wins the
game. Auto bingo games come in sets of four cards.
The
only thing more tedious than a long drive is a seemingly longer wait
for restaurant food to arrive. Keep your child or grandchild happy and
busy with these fun Mealtime Masterpiece paper placemats by Fred &
Friends. This stack of 40 11 by 14 inch placemats comes with six marking
pens, but you could also bring crayons or colored pencils, which are
easier to carry and less messy, for your junior artists to use at the
table. Each placemat has a painting-canvas-and-frame design, perfect for
"framing" a creative kid's art.
Card games provide hours of entertainment for children of all ages. A deck of regular playing cards can be used to play Concentration
by spreading the shuffled cardes face down on a table and having each
player take turns turning two cards over, looking for pairs. The same
deck can be used to play Solitaire, Crazy Eights, Old Maid
and many more card games. Boxed card games, such as Professor Noggin's
educational trivia games and UNO, are both colorful and easy to carry. Tip: Airplanes, trains and hotel rooms are the best places to play card games. It's very easy to lose cards in the car.
Children
of almost any age can draw or write about their travel adventures in a
blank journal or sketchbook. Preschoolers enjoy drawing pictures of
buildings, animals and even food; parents and grandparents can write the
date and a short description on each sketchbook page. Older children
can draw pictures, create cartoons or write about each day's adventures
in their journal.
Travel journals and sketchbooks come in all sizes and price ranges;
younger children will probably prefer to draw their pictures on larger
pages. Remember to provide crayons, pencils or pens; marking pens may
soak through pages.
For more information see About.com.
Globe
Rolling Luggage
Auto Bingo
Mealtime Masterpiece Paper Placemats
Playing Cards / Boxed Card Games
Travel Journal / Sketchbook
For more information see About.com.
