MONDAY MUSINGS

 I am currently on a little lag between projects - so January has been all taking time to get back into a good flow again and about catching up with admin and just rearranging my life somewhat.  Taking stock.  When things get busy I always find that I don't take the same time to start my day mindfully - and reflecting on the past year I can see clearly how that impacted things somewhat.  Now that I have a bit more time I am building on a new solid foundation - so when things start to pick up again I'll be able to continue in this manner and flow.

This will also help me to have a more mindful approach to projects and clients alike. By starting the day more mindfully - with intention, with meditation and prayer I am allowing myself to come back into alignment with what is meant for me.  And what is not meant for me will pass me by.  I am surrendering control and trusting .... and quietly on the sidelines building on my inner world so I can be strongly rooted - yet flow without being uprooted.  And that means looking after myself and my wellness first.

There is a beautiful quote from 'The Tao Of Woman' 

24 Grounded

'Stretching herself too thin, she breaks her connections. Staying too busy, she has no time.  Doing for others she neglects herself.

Defining herself only through others, she looses her own definition.

The wise woman waters her own garden first.'

Not all projects and not all clients are meant for us - and when we are in a more intuitive flow we are able to discern, our intuition will guide us and projects will flow accordingly.  On the other hand the opposite is also true - sometimes we say yes to projects or people, when deep down we can feel our gut instinct saying N O.  Have you experienced that as well in your life or career or a project or relationship.  Would love to hear some insights from your experiences and how that has impacted your approach now.

I also decided to get back into blogging again - to share inspiration, and random thoughts, bits and pieces of my work - some mindfulness reminders and anything that might pop in for me to share out into the world.  It would definitely still be more about architecture and inspiring interiors - but blended with a more mindful approach ... it might even become 'The Psychology of Space' 

Who knows what the future might hold - but today I am feeling somewhat inspired...

With love

Lindé x

WINTRY WALKS ALONG THE THAMES

Photo: Lindé Davies

Yesterday I took my usual walk along Chiswick Mall - with The Thames to my right.  I love this walk because the landscape can change so drastically depending on the tides.

Its cold and windy and wintry but the landscape somehow comes alive in all this freshness and cold
Sometimes I guess its only when our hearts start to open we really feel the cold of the world again - but also the warmth of just being human... and the freshness of the air on our skin.

So I guess with the Chinese New Year just gone - there has been some build up of emotions over time - over time and time and time - sometimes we get so busy trying to get away from our feelings or for some like me, the lack of the feelings and emotions - to always be strong, to not let things get to us - that they go and hide somewhere deep in our subconscious mind - and then one day - they just all come to the surface and well up and stream out of our eyes - like a cloudburst drenching some fertile lands.  To feel the vulnerability of being human and to allow the tears that are to come could actually be quite healing.  I just had no idea there were so many hidden within

I think I needed exactly this experience and what has led up to it - to catapult me into really starting to feel things again - to feel sad and sit with it, to feel vulnerable and sit with it, to feel happy and sit with that - to feeling content and sitting with that.  I think in some small part the walls are coming down and this will be a time of personal growth and development, to go make some changes and to go make some things happen, and to be open to the challenges of being human and being fully participating in this thing called life and to align myself spiritually and emotionally each day to the opportunities that may arise.

I read this lovely quote yesterday and it just made so much sense for me right then - 

If a train doesn't stop at your station then its not your train.... so so so true

I guess that's exactly how I felt yesterday - I guess if the station is closed - there will be no trains stopping either - so here's to no more walls and fully embracing what this life and what this year may have to offer - with hard work we will reap the rewards, putting in a little bit of effort will go along way.  I have not forgotten, but now I have really remembered.... thank you for reminding me again

And now it kind of makes me feel happy that I could have felt so sad - and I am feeling excited because this is all good all round - to feel again.

Photo:  by me

JUST BE YOU

an urban village original

JUST BE YOU

What does it mean though to ‘be you’

In a world where we are constantly being bombarded by having to behave this way or that way or looking like we have just stepped off a magazine cover or driving this car or that - what about just being you - to not be recognized as a matter of your belongings or what you have achieved - but to be recognised by your truth, by speaking your truth and by living your truth and by standing up for your truth

I believe the more of us stand together in our uniqueness, in our perfectly flawed humanness - that vibration of realness will start resonating with more and more people and soon we will be a whole collective of humanity - a mass of humankind - human kind - that in our tribes and droves will pull together and form a powerful movement of love and of light and of warmth 

I think its already started happening

I imagine a beautiful spiderweb with soft sparkly threads with each strand connecting at very specific points to form the most perfect web

Imagine each one of us - are those connecting points on that beautiful and perfectly formed web - our place just perfect and within that we form a perfect whole.

Now imagine I want to be you - so I start mirroring you, your behaviour - what you say and what you do, how you do your hair …. and soon my connecting point disappears and your connecting point becomes thicker - if more and more of us want to become someone else - the more and more gaps there will be forming in this once perfectly formed web - and it will start being off balance

When the web has too many holes - too many copies of copies of copies of people - the web will become too week to stay strong enough to stick together….. and we will start picking holes in each other because of the holes in our web

It feels like we need to almost forget everything we think we now and learn anew how to be me and you how to be you - spend some time hanging with your soul - and really feel how does it feel to just be you

You are enough, you are perfect - you are exactly where you need to be

The more true we become to our selves - the more space we make for our soul to shine, and the less space there is for our ego to want to change us into something we are not.  When we are in this state of accepting our true self - just purely by the act of acceptance, we are allowing ourselves the space to grow into the most perfect version of ourselves - and therefore move back to our original space, our original connecting point in that perfectly formed web - imagine it so thin and so beautiful yet so delicate with sunlight and dewdrops now being caught by this web - and suddenly the most beautiful rainbow colours are reflecting and shining out from each and every connecting point on this web - and this web is starting to rotate and move and with each rotation each connecting point are getting stronger and stronger and truer and truer to themselves - yet it all happens collectively because of the connectivity between each of us, between each point - until it reaches a point where the force of the rotation causes the web the disintegrate in the most beautiful of explosion allowing each one of those tiny little connecting points to go off into the atmosphere and slowly growing new connections and forming a new webs until the whole is connected as one big beautiful rainbow of magnificence

Imagine recognising each other from a place of truth- and moving in our lives from that place of realness and rawness - but also imagine once we start accepting ourselves and our place - by accepting it - we are actively standing in our place - and therefore we are allowing ourselves the space to grow into where we need to be…… its all about the ebbing and the flowing like the phases of the moon and tides - neither are fighting the other - a perfect unison in movement creating an energy field that will draw in what is needed and release what no longer serves us

Making space to draw in more of what is needed and releasing each time that which no longer serves us ….. nothing is permanent, we are forever changing - but only by accepting our truth we are allowing the changing to happen - when we are fighting our truth - that is when we become stuck, we become stagnant - we feel stuck

And because we think from a place of self and not from a place of truth -the place of self wants to be seen

The place of truth is just being

WOMAN ON THE STREET - JOANA KRUSE

I was walking along Chiswick Mall this afternoon, with the winding Thames on my right - it's a good 25 minute walk to Hammersmith, but I enjoy the space it allows between the working day, and my journey home.  There's a man who feeds the pigeons in the same spot, and we sometimes say hello and chat about the weather.  They have become quite tame around him - the one who feeds them I guess.

So today it was a little bit rainy at first - and then it cleared for a while.  A woman was walking towards me, coming from the direction I was heading into.  She had her umbrella open, and her face was wrought almost as if she was fighting a strong wind, while trying to keep her umbrella open.  Tired of this rain rain rain was what her expression was telling me when I caught her eye.  

Yet, she did not realise that it had stopped raining, perhaps some time ago already - she was holding on so tightly to the umbrella and what she thought was happening outside the safe shelter of it ... made me think about life, and how sometimes we hold onto things so tightly, our fists white around the knuckles from not letting go - so tightly that we don't realise that things, that feeling, that situation - has changed and no longer serves us anymore, things have changed, our circumstances have changed, we have changed through it, and perhaps have grown through it - the rain has stopped - and its ok to let go, to drop the umbrella

Made me smile to myself - as I could relate to this so well in the here and now - how we can sometimes get so caught up in our own rain and thunderstorms - we forget to even check if its still raining outside - and we miss the sunshine and that soft breeze after a summers downpour - and that's when I suddenly realised that it had in fact started to rain again - but without my realising until my face was drenched with the gentle drops falling from the sky, and my hair I could feel was big as a lion's maine ....  

Again -  I could not help but smile, as even in this I could take something away from it.  Like the woman with the umbrella - we should learn to know when to let go, and when to seek shelter.  And like me walking along so deep in thought I did not realise it was raining again - don't get so used to your situation, your frustration, your anxiety - that you don't even realise that it is getting you soaked soaked to the bone - and if you're not careful, if you walk in the rain for too long without an umbrella you'll catch a chill....

Lastly - I also learnt this - I do not know where the woman was coming from, I did not know her journey - perhaps there was a rainstorm up ahead that's waiting for me, and she has just passed through it - when we do not know the facts we can not make any assumptions - but we can learn from others - if I took note, I would've gotten my raincoat ready - cause obviously where she was coming from, and where I was heading to - there was a whole lotta rain falling from the sky.... 

What is your take on it - what can you take away from this?  Certainly interesting when life can start teaching us little gems in our normal day to day life - and so delighted that I can share this with you...

I thought this beautiful print was rather apt - its by Joana Kruse and its called
'Woman on the street' 

Image via Pinterest