Happy in Your Home

photo courtesy Angela Shenk

Humans are soulful beings and those souls need to be tended to regularly.  At The Larkin Painting Company our mission is built upon “Care of the Soul”.  You care for your soul when you care and tend to your home environment.  This can be something as simple as putting new color up on your walls to planting a container garden of fresh herbs.  When our environments are beautiful and calming, then we feel beautiful and calm.  Our souls are tended to and nourished.

Apartment Therapy just published a list of Ten Simple Things to Make You Happier at Home.  I would actually say these are ten simple things help us take “care of the soul”.  The article lists things like making your bed every day, and bringing each room “back to ready”.  Indeed, clutter causes a lot of stress.  Making your bed and having less clutter so you can tidy up a room in minutes makes us feel more calm an happy.

There are also “deeper” suggestions such as displaying sentimental items all around your home.  You can actually use your favorite aunt’s antique salt cellar and candlesticks instead of keeping them packed away in a box.  Remember the bright wooden clogs you picked up in Holland that you love so much?  Well you can use those to decorate your home too.  I also liked the suggestions that encourage mindfulness and gratitude.  When you wash the dishes be grateful for the hands that can move and feel the water.  When you are taking out the trash and recycling, be grateful for the strength to do the job.  Be grateful for having the resources to purchase the objects and food that created the trash or recyclables in the first place (not that I am condoning creating lots of  trash).

The article also suggests writing a one-line gratitude in a journal every night before bed.  Sometimes our lives are so full that even journaling can seem like “one more thing to do”, thereby creating more pressure and stress.  Even though writing a gratitude is fulfilling, so is mentally reviewing what you are thankful for while you stare in the mirror brushing your teeth.  You can take note of the things and people you are thankful for as your head hits the pillow.  You don’t need a journal to remind yourself of everything you are grateful for at the end of the day, only a grateful mind and heart.

Be well,

Bill