Creating space to breathe: journey to wellness
In the cult novel Fight Club, the main protagonist notes, “The stuff you own ends up owning you.” I have thought about that a lot lately, the way our “stuff” plays a role in our life. I love stuff – every time I clear out and create some zen space I immediately start collecting again. I am by nature a hybrid creature, part eclectic bower bird and part minimalist traveler.
Eight months ago we started a road trip. We cleared our stuff, gave it away or loaned it out, making space both physically and mentally for the new. It was incredibly liberating once it was done, but it was not always an easy task. I recognised an attachment to my pot plants and behaved very strangely with a dear friend who did not grasp the enormity of the gift and collect them immediately (sorry India). I had to fight against the attachment to give things away but once they were gone there was just beautiful space.
I didn’t regret one single thing that left me and, yes, I did immediately start collecting skulls, feathers and books, twisted pieces of driftwood and stones. I am an aesthete – I love to decorate my bower. I just need to recognise that the stuff I own should not own me. Perhaps ownership is the key word: when I liberate skulls, stones and bits of fabric to jazz up my abode and tweak my sense of a life well lived I should see it as a loan, a temporary thing of beauty.
Home for the last eight months.
Our sweet small space among the Jarrah trees
The train carriage interior
Perhaps ownership is the key word: when I liberate skulls, stones and bits of fabric to jazz up my abode and tweak my sense of a life well lived I should see it as a loan, a temporary thing of beauty.
Home for the past eight months was a tent on a beach, now it is a train carriage in the Perth Hills, soon it will be a 1960s caravan which we are currently renovating. My spaces seem to get smaller and my life seems to get bigger. The physical clearing of the clutter in my life and the great gaping spaces of the West Australian coastline inspired me to pick up the reins of my life and attempt to create the life I want, not the life I bumped into.
For me, and I am sure it is true of everyone, creating the mental space for my personal healing journey started with the very basic steps of clearing the physical: the “stuff”. Creating a life that is simple and minimal without distractions.
Clearing out the clutter made room for the big beautiful things.
The physical clearing of the clutter in my life and the great gaping spaces of the West Australian coastline inspired me to pick up the reins of my life and attempt to create the life I want, not the life I bumped into.
Once I was a marketer’s dream with a bathroom cupboard filled with bottles and tubes – things that de-frizzed and oozed promise in strange gunky ways. Now I have a jar of coconut oil and a little mineral makeup. Coconut oil is my cleanser, moisturiser and hair treatment. My skin is the best it has ever looked in my adult life.
When you get skin glow from diet and lifestyle instead of trying to apply it in a liquid or foam, the whole Beauty industry collapses in on itself.
Beauty the natural way
I am posting a natural face scrub recipe in honour of my Zen belongings: all of the ingredients can be found in the Garden and kitchen. Almond meal is a lovely texture for a face scrub, not too harsh. It doesn’t keep so mix it up as you go along.
Almond & Mint Face Scrub
=R1=
Enjoy x
