Embracing the act of being brave.

Begin simply by being brave enough to stop regularly throughout your days as the book I am currently reading suggests (seen above and listed in today's This & That). Such an act is near defiance to a culture that would have us loathe sitting still as it means we have taken back control of our lives. 

When we slow down, we are able to think and to process which leads to understanding. An understanding which enables us, should we be courageous enough, to know ourselves and what we truly need. Such information is vital for living a life of true contentment.

The author David Kundtz of The Art of Stopping shared a salient point in one of his early chapters - when we have lost track of something, we most often literally physically stop, pause and try to focus on one task - the task of remembering what we have forgotten or where to find what we have misplaced; contrarily, when we desire to avoid something or lose something or hide from something, we physically flee, often as fast as we can. All of this is to say, it is when we stop that we are able to find the truth of what we need to live well, so why not stop more often, more regularly in our everyday lives?

On Monday's upcoming A Cuppa Moments (for TOP Tier subscribers), I will be talking more about not only this book, but ideas it provoked in my own thinking when it comes to living simply luxuriously. I will also be talking about the detrimental habit of seeking reassurance, sharing a peek into the progress-thus-far of my primary bedroom redecoration project (the wallpaper is up!), announcing some exciting news for TSLL readers regarding new content and projects, along with quite a bit more. You are invited to join the conversation, and I so enjoyed not only partaking in the conversation in this past January's A Cuppa Moments, but providing the space for fellow readers to engage with each other. Thank you to everyone who partook and checked out the video.

This month's newsletter is beyond full as it contains the final week of 2020's posts wrapping up the year and highlighting readers' favorites in a handful of categories. Simply click on each title and be directed to the full post listing and linking to the most enjoyed titles. 

Also, this month, two Outfits of the Month were shared, and really four, as one post contains three outfits as we step into a healthy, but always stylish new year. :)

The month of January has been full of shifts and hopes and unexpected moments - some which captured our awe, some which fueled our ire. Thankfully, when we are grounded in awareness as is talked about in this past Monday's Motivational post, everyday can be more amazing than we would have thought regardless of outside events. Making our lives simpler, as shared in episode #298 (a new most-popular episode of the podcast), just simple enough for what we love to shine and come forth so we can savor it, is also an approach to life worth acquiring. And the third skill to cultivating more contentment in our everyday lives is to eliminate the unnecessary stress which is the focus of episode #299. 

It has been a busy-in-the-best-of-ways this past month on the blog and on the podcast, and I do hope you find content to inspire you as you begin moving forward in 2021 - toward wherever it is you wish to arrive or become or discover in a month's or year's time. 

With all of that said, it's time to get to this month's newsletter. To explore every post you wish to read, be sure to become a subscriber to one of the two tiers - BASIC or TOP as non-subscribers can only read five posts a month (it will reset on Monday February 1st). 

Until Friday February 27th, I will see you on the blog.

—Shannon