Not only is today the first day of summer in the northern hemisphere and the first day of winter in the southern, it’s also National Day of Slowness.

It’s odd-sounding, I’ll admit. Slowness is associated with snails. And traffic. Slowness is my brain on an un-caffeinated morning. So, how is slowness a good thing?

A few years ago, I discovered the Slow Movement when I read In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honoré. All the parts of the Slow Movement are efforts to get humanity to slow down and savor life. There’s Slow Food (heard of that one?) — the antithesis of fast food. Slow Foodies encourage buying locally grown foods, preparing them deliciously, and then savoring them as they’re eaten. Sounds like a slice of Under the Tuscan Sun, but you don’t have to travel to Italy — you can have this experience in your own kitchen.

Other parts of the Slow Movement include Slow Cities, Slow Sex, Slow Medicine, Slow Children. Inspired Home Office is all about Slow Organizing.

Can you imagine bringing more intention and love to your life?

In this driven culture, I believe that we don’t need more. Even though that’s what every ad and publication wants you to believe. We don’t need faster internet or more apps or the latest thing. Honoré calls this the “cult of speed.”

What we really need is to slow down enough that we can be present with what we already have, and find gratitude there.

Slowing down brings our stress level to nil, allows us to connect meaningfully with ourselves and others, and deepen our sense of contentedness. Aliveness. Purpose.

Slowing down is a process.

Most people’s initial reaction to slowing down is “Where on earth would I find the time to slow down?!” The truth is, you have to reserve it. Maybe on Sunday nights, you can make a Slow Meal. Or you can attend an Office Spa Day once a month for some Slow Organizing.

Lately, I’ve been reserving 30 minutes at the beginning of my day to meditate and find gratitude for the abundance in my life. It’s changing me in positive ways I could never have anticipated. I love it. Even when it’s hard to reserve that time.

A way to begin

If you want to slow down, it helps to choose one area you and learn the terrain. To start, simply notice which area of your life seems most out of alignment. Which area of your life could bring your more joy or peace if you paid attention to it? Start there, and be curious about what you’d like to experience. See if there’s any slowness you want to invite there.

Is there an area of your life you’d like to slow down? Feel free to comment and share!

(c) 2010 Jennifer Hofmann

In the last few weeks, I’ve started a new little practice whose effect on me has been profound. It’s called counting your blessings. Maybe you’ve heard if it?

As I was writing my weekly God List recently, I realized something was missing. I’d never once stopped to say thank you for all those divinely delegated items that had somehow miraculously gotten accomplished. No guilt, just — huh!

So I added a second column on the big chart that says “Grateful for…” and as I started writing, tears started to flow. I realized how much good there is around me. Even the simple things, like snow and avocados, remind me that I am so very blessed. I’m usually in such a day-to-day hurry that I fail to recognize these small, sacred gifts. And I miss out on all the warm, heart-expanding feelings that go along with them.

Not this time.

The second column is now a permanent fixture. My God List is now both requests and love letter to the Divine. It’s a thank you for the life-affirming things I receive every day.

Thanks  giving

At Inspired Home Office, especially in my classes, we look at 9 particular areas to gauge personal satisfaction in life. I realized recently, that these areas are useful for counting one’s blessings. There are a dozen little voices in my head saying it’s trite to share what I’m going to. That it’s overdone. I’m sharing anyway it in the hopes that it inspires you to follow suit.

Giving thanks in the 9 Areas of Life

Home: I’m grateful for the quiet beauty of our space, our fabulous landlord, a working furnace and well, and the myriad wild animals who call this place home.

Body/Health: I’m thankful that all my parts work, that I’m getting stronger and healthier every day now that I’m exercising. It is such an amazing gift to be able to feel and move and see.

Primary relationship: I feel so much gratitude to Inspired Spouse who shares my joys and frustrations, accepts me in my most obsessive, obnoxious moments, and loves me beyond measure.

Friends and family: Being related to some of my best friends is an incredible blessing – and one we’ve worked hard to cultivate. My close friends see past my business face, encourage my inner growth, and love me despite my faults. I’m awed.

Recreation: Does Facebook count as recreation? Because I’m thankful for that. And Wii Fit. Those and also painting, guitar, singing, my cats, photography, Barbara Brown Taylor, travel writers, and Hawaii. Just to name a few.

Livelihood: When I think of this, I can only shake my head in disbelieving gratitude. Really? Me? I get to do this work with such beautiful, soulful, inspiring women? Thank You, thank you.

Money: I am thankful to have enough. I’m well aware that many do not.

Spirituality: The Benedictine community at Mount Angel Abbey, the intentional community at Breitenbush Hot Springs, and the amazing staff at Wings Seminars have created sacred spaces in which my spirituality has blossomed. How lost I would be without them.

Contribution: Though my work is my primary contribution to the world, I am thankful for the opportunity to join a small choir recently that lets me touch others’ hearts through sacred music.

Finding your way

Can I think of myriad ways I want to improve my life? Of course. I’m constantly striving for more, for better, for improvement — to the point of exhaustion sometimes. Stopping to hold all these blessings in my heart and finding gratitude for them is healing. It fills me up in a way that more-better striving never does.

In the following weeks, you’ll be led to believe that your satisfaction is defined by what you get, what you give and how much you do. It’s not. What’s true is that you are surrounded by love and abundance every moment. It may not look as shiny or sexy as what’s for sale, but it’s an abundant life. May you find lasting contentment within.

Thanks for reading. I’m wishing many blessings on you and yours this Thanksgiving.

Warmly,
Jennifer

P.S. Care to share what you’re grateful for?

In the midst of our collective stress, pausing mid-week for “thanks” rings false. Just ick. Like a syrupy-sweet greeting card complete with fuzzy-focused hearth fire and cornucopia nearby.

If being thankful feels forced to you right now, it’s okay. You’re not alone. In fact, you’ve got lots and lots of company.

Gratitude logjam

When you get stuck, even with something like gratitude, one of the best things you can do is start small. Like, really small.

For example, here are some of the small things I’m grateful for:

• A headset that actually works (Plantronics, if you’re wondering)
• Running water
• The big bag of string cheese in the fridge
• Gmail
• Sweatpants
• allrecipes.com
• The trash hauler who works our stretch of rural highway

I could have listed bigger things, but these are what feel true today, right now. Locating a small amount of gratitude within you is like finding a vein of gold in the earth – it runs deep. But you don’t have to *start* deep. Just start where you are.

If you say, “I’m so overwhelmed right now, I don’t feel grateful for anything. Just my lungs.” That’s okay. In fact, it’s perfect. Just start with that.

The thing about gratitude.

Most people experience gratitude as effortful – as something you “should” feel. Something you must pull out of yourself. Forcing thanks feels like cold extruded plastic instead of a comforting cotton-silk blend.

Honest, genuine gratitude nourishes your heart. It gives you energy, rather than extracting it from you.

Instead of forcing yourself to feel grateful, I invite you to consider starting where you are.

Is there a small thing you feel grateful for today (even if you think it’s something not worth mentioning)?

But that just wouldn’t do justice to the gratitude.

Allie helped me when I didn’t even know I needed help.

See, Allie and I go way back to 1994 at Willamette Univeristy when I worked in Student Services and she in the website-wrangling department (I can’t remember the official name). The entire campus was undergoing a wesbite overhaul, department by department.

We met and I was immediately impressed by her precise, tiny (and I mean minuscule) handwriting – and her ability to ask questions. And then really listen.

Allie got our department’s website functional – and got me to the point that I could update information all by myself. A feat. She was patient, thorough, and helpful. Unlike other website people I’ve worked with, Allie never pushed or copped an attitude or told me my wishes were wrong. She steered and informed, but it was clear that my opinion mattered.

The time came when I knew I needed her.

When I became self-employed, I needed a pro. Allie designed a logo and a drop-dead gorgeous website for my staging business. She brought all her delightful listening and talent to my project – and it was a dream. I couldn’t have been happier.

As my business grew, I had conversations with other web people who looked at the back end of her work (Greek to me!) and were impressed with her attention to detail.

When I started Inspired Home Office, Allie created the website you’ve come to know – along with my daisy logo. We’d been talking for months about a blog and I finally bit the bullet. Right before she got married, in fact.

Am I ever grateful.

Because, in addition to converting my website to a WordPress blog, Allie went above and beyond as usual. For once in my life, I let go of control and Allie created a redesign that’s elegant, simple, and functional. I couldn’t love it more.

Now I’m a fan forever.

For me, starting a blog feels immensely personal. You come here looking for ideas, solace, and encouragement… if the blog were ugly and testy, I wouldn’t feel comfortable writing. You wouldn’t want to visit. How it feels and looks matters.

And so, my debt of gratitude is to Allison Towers Rice – web designer extraordinaire and owner of Allie Creative – for her impeccable eye, for all the listening and ideas, for sharing her gifts and time, and for making a place for me and readers to get to know each other.

I’m so very grateful to you.

You have stuff.

Maybe you hate the way the printer works. Or the snarl of cords that lurk under your desk. Maybe it’s the massive accumulation of half-finished projects. Or papers that may have been important once, but now fill you with dread.

Sometimes it feels like your stuff has you.

Because of the negative feelings you have about some of the items in your workspace, you begin to resists the entire space. The whole enchilada. You feel cramped, uncomfortable, and it’s hard to get anything done.

Over time, you start to develop a barely-tolerable relationship with your space.

Renegotiate your relationship

If you are in a relationship with a person who nourishes you, you actively care for that relationship and give it your time and attention. You give back what he or she gives to you. You grow closer and feel loved and supported.

It’s the same way with your belongings.

If something you own feels unsupportive or draggy, it’s healthy for you to manage it so that it doesn’t affect you negatively – or you can simply let it go.

You have a right to a workspace that feels clear and inspiring.

Find gratitude for your stuff

While you may feel enslaved by stuff, in reality, you are swimming in abundance. Every object around you is like a friend, waiting to assist you, help you, or inspire you.

Even negative-feeling items around you are your devoted, if imperfect, servants.

• That printer will print out anything you ask, at any time of day, in almost unlimited amounts. Could you possibly imagine asking a flesh-and-blood human to do the same?

• That pile of books, if overwhelming, are a collection of teachers gathered together to inform and advise you.

• The desk, though it looks out of control, it’s a sacred space dedicated to your work. This space helps you create, complete important projects, and is the altar from which your greatest gifts are offered.

What overflowing abundance you have, right in your very midst!

And your stuff will nourish you in return.

What thing in your space is most distracting to you right now? Take a moment to notice it.

It is serving you? What do you feel grateful for about this item?

Where would you like this item to go – so that you feel more clear and supported while you’re working? You might want to let it go entirely. You might want to put it somewhere out of sight. It’s up to you. Whatever you feel compelled to do, take that one action.

If you do this process, one object at a time, you will feel clearer, lighter and will have practiced a profound kind of self care.

And aren’t you worth it?