… is a resource for all hardworking and authentic individuals who are on their own journey of creating their thriving life.
Snippets from instagram – enjoy!
The Law of Divine Oneness is the foundational law.
What it says is that absolutely everything in our universe is interconnected.
In other words, every choice, word, desire, and belief we have will impact on the world - not might - WILL!!!.
Sometimes it will be immediate and obvious.
Sometimes it will take some time.
Sometimes we won`t even know the impact has happened.
Remember always to think of yourself as part of everything around you to take a moment to consider what the impact might be of your next word or action before you take it.
ciao
Janette
Bet you have heard of the Law of Attraction right?
Well turns out there are 11 other laws and they are an interconnected web acting always in unison.
Turns out the Twelve Laws of the Universe teach us something unique about well-being, joyfulness, and how to thrive in our life on a day by day basis.
Hang around while I summarise them for us over the coming weeks.
Talk soon
ciao
Janette
I`m reading Robin Sharma`s "The Everyday Hero`s Manifesto" at the moment and one of the first things that resonated for me was the discussion Robin has about the need to choose our measures of success consciously and carefully because we all know that what gets measured gets our focus.
Robin talks about the measures of success our culture sets out for us - the house, car, job. overseas holidays etc and asks us to think carefully about whether these measures are actually relevant to each of us individually.
Rather we should think deeply about what success looks like for us - what is truely important to each of us and what, when we look at it objectively, would resonate for us at a personal level that we have been successful in our life.
We are all highly individual and it makes sense to me that what success looks like for you might not be the same for me, however it also seems to me that we have been sold this gig that tells us that certain outward displays of "things" are required to be considered successful.
I really liked the challenge to my thinking that this thought created.
The tenth and final aesthetic to joyful living is renewal. Ingrid tells us "In the aesthetic of renewal, we are reminded of nature’s ability to endlessly renew itself, and we find ways to make this abstract idea of renewal tangible in our lives."
So what are the sorts of things we can bring to our life that represents renewal:
🌻 refresh your flowers or if you don`t have flowers in your home, go ahead and buy some and scatter them around your spaces
🌻 take your pupper for a walk in a different spot - not only will it freshen you up, the pooch will love it
🌻 switch out your artwork - move stuff around, put that favourite picture in your office instead of in your bedroom
🌻 go play in the kitchen and create that dish or dessert that you haven`t cooked in ages - maybe even create something completely new
🌻 clear up your desk or that one spot we all have in the house where stuff gathers
🌻 change out a routine that you have and add a little spice to your day - maybe park in a different spot so you can stop at that coffee shop you always wanted to try on your way to work
🌻 and if you are a gardener, plant seeds - the ultimate embodiment of renewal
Let me know what you try out and how it made you feel hey
ciao
Janette
"celebrate good times come on!!"
I think the purpose of celebration as part of the aesthetic of joy is pretty self explanatory personally, but lets have a look at what Ingrid Fetell Lee has to say on the topic:
"The word joy comes from the same root as the word rejoice, so celebration is inherent in the concept of joy. When we come together to share good news, the result is a kind of communal joy that is larger than the sum of its parts. Joy spreads infectiously through laughter, music, dance, and the upswept, open-armed gestures of merrymaking. We can harness this festive joy with aesthetic elements that amplify the effervescent, dynamic qualities of our natural expressions of joy: bursting shapes like those of fireworks and starbursts, sparkling lights and glittering materials that scatter light, and strong rhythms that unite a group in synchronized song or movement."
I think that says it all really don`t you?
What are you going to celebrate this week? Go on, make it happen, there is always something to celebrate - you just have to look a bit harder sometimes.
To the art of celebration. May it become a constant companion in our joyfulness!
ciao Janette 🎊
This is what Ingrid Fetell Lee tells us about the aesthetic of magic in our pursuit of a joyful life:
"As children, the world of magic blends seamlessly with the real one, but as we get older, we feel pressure to leave magic behind. Still, human life is filled with natural mysteries — the Aurora Borealis, magnetism, fog, wind, and the pulsing of fireflies — that elicit a powerful sense of wonder that challenges our understanding of the world and opens us up to new discoveries. We can make our own magic with iridescent colours that shimmer and shift, reflective and prismatic materials, and trompe l’oeil and other optical illusions.
As the English writer Eden Philpotts once wrote, “The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”"
What can we do to introduce magic into our life, into our homes and then capitalise on those moments in our joyful life? Think about the objects that fill you with wonder; kites and ballons soaring in the sky; plants hanging upside down; blocks stacked up in strange gravity defying ways; melting clock sculptures, jugglers 🤹🏻♀️ (I mean seriously how do they do that!). How can we recreate those in some small way in our personal spaces and life?
Wishing you a magical week
ciao Janette
I have to say that when I came across this element in Ingrid Fettel Lee`s book it left me feeling a bit confused, but as I read more it became quite clear what this element focused on.
Ingrid tells us that transcendence is when "sometimes it seems as if our emotions lie along a vertical spectrum. We feel uplifted, or lighter than air when joyful, down or heavy-hearted when sad.
So it’s not surprising that experiences of lightness and elevation can evoke a transcendent feeling of joy.
Watching a balloon drift or a butterfly flit, gazing up at the clouds or a cathedral’s vaulted ceiling, or peering out the window of a treehouse or airplane, we feel a shift in perspective that helps us zoom out from mundane concerns and infuse a sense of buoyancy into our daily lives."
Transcendence is elevation and lightness and thinking about this I recalled an experience of being in a hot air ballon and soaring through the skies. Because we where being blown by the wind there was no noise and it was so amazing to be suspended in the sky looking over everything as far as I could see with nothing but a cane basket under my feet. I gave this experience as a gift to my Mum for her birthday and I remember looking at her and was so surprised to see the absolute wonder and sheer delight painted over her face - I guess I looked the same. She talked about this experience often and each time she did I was immediately back there and felt that same freedom and lightness. Even now, so many years later, whenever I see a hot air ballon flying above me I immediately get that same sense and it is joyous.
ciao
Janette
Ingrid Fettel Lee tells us about the importance of surprise in finding our joyful existence when she says "Surprise is a feeling distinct from joy, and yet they so often come together. We can be surprised by the pop of a firecracker, the stripes of a new shop’s awning in the neighbourhood, the particular size and shape of a “thank you” note amongst the junk mail.
Joyful surprises help to break the monotony of routines and can prompt us to reexamine preconceived notions and stereotypes. We use this aesthetic when we wrap presents, line our drawers with colourful paper, or play with norms around the scale and proportions of the objects in our surroundings."
I very much like the recognition that surprise is an emotion all on its own and separate from joyfulness or happiness and that surprise is that "pop" that occurs unexpectedly and unplanned.
Let`s not underestimate the power of those little "pops", so when they do happen take the time to really revel in them because we can harness them to cultivate creativity, joy and success.
ciao
Janette
"Play"; what does Ingrid Fetell Lee mean by this?
Well it seems we all have an innate drive to play, and this impulse is one of our most natural and effortless sources of joy. The most playful shapes, the ones found in beach balls, carousels and merry-go-rounds, are circles and spheres. Research shows that a part of the brain called the amygdala, associated in part with fear and anxiety, lights up when people look at angular objects but stays quiet when they look at curved ones. In a manmade world defined by endless right angles, rounded shapes set our minds at ease and invite our playful inner child out into the open.
Aesthetics are really just a signal. Colour, texture, form — these things are not important in and of themselves. However they are important because they indicate a happening that might be relevant for our survival. A flash of yellow on a rainy day is a signal of an approaching taxi that might provide transportation. A yeasty aroma on a side street is a signal of freshly baked bread that might provide relief from hunger. A shiny reflection on a matte concrete bench is a signal of wetness — it could be a spilled drink, or worse, but in any case it’s an indication of a spot that might not be so nice to sit on. Yellow, yeast, and wetness (aesthetics) have no intrinsic value to us except for what they tell us to approach and to avoid.
I mention this because too often we think about aesthetics as static attributes, when actually they are evidence of a world constantly in motion. Now play, at its very root, is about motion: the spin/slide/run/jump/pull/push. The aesthetics of play are the sensory manifestations of the very essence of what it means to play and roundness is the shape we are most likely to respond to playfully.
Want more proof - think about all the videos you`ve watched of horses and cows chasing and playing with big beach balls!!