@Anto Lyn That's amazing, Anto! So happy for you! I love hearing your feedback and knowing that it has helped you so much! I hope it will do the same for me too. Thank you for sharing! 🙏

@Anto Lyn Thank you Anto! 😊

@Celeste Elash I am so moved by your kind words, Celeste! So much love and compassion, and I feel it all coming my way, thank you for the beautiful vibes, for listening, and for the acknowledgment! I appreciate it more than you can imagine! 🫶 I love what you said about doing TM in different corners of the world in different settings, that totally speaks to me! It feels like a joyful collection not of physical things, but of experiences and I would really love to do that! It feels good. It feels right! And it feels exciting to look forward to that! So know that I will carry your beautiful words with me and they will be great inspiration not just for future travels, but also for the present, to make it easier to stick with the practice. Thank you for that! 🙏 I hear you about identifying with the work persona, missing feeling competent and knowledgeable (I really had a hard time with that one, oh boy!), but not missing the stress! I think it's so interesting that you had a hard time admitting to yourself that you didn't miss the stress. I think for me that was the biggest and first thing I felt the most relief about, being away from that stress! I'm so glad you were able to remove that from your life, that is huge! And coming to the understanding and acceptance that you don't miss it is amazing! Perhaps you thought you would miss it because it was all tangled up in that identity of work being so important in your life and those good feelings of competence and being knowledgeable? I love the way you rephrased it, that we know our own rules, but we keep testing them! You hit the nail on the head! That's exactly how it feels right now. And yes, meditating, despite not feeling like it turned out to be a great experience and another lesson learned. Once I started doing it yesterday, in the middle of that stressful day, I felt almost giddy with relief at running away from the stress of the day, and it truly felt like I was in my own special little corner, in a safe space, where I could really be just with myself and present only for myself. And in those 20 minutes of meditation, the work stress had nothing to do with me. That felt really good!

@Celeste Elash Thank you so much, Celeste! So happy to connect, and to share, I love that we're learning from each other, absolutely! Glad to hear about the dry brushing! I have not read Atomic Habits by James Clear yet - though I've started it twice in the past and somehow didn't get into it. But I believe he's the one talking about habit stacking, and that one bit stuck with me and it's worked for me at least on these two habits. It's kind of fun to find creative ways to stack your habits! And I hope we can incorporate more good habits into our daily routine with benefits that overtime will add up. Apparently, once you establish a neurological pathway of an existing habit to trigger a new behavior, the need for willpower and motivation goes away. As they say, it's more important to develop habits than to rely on willpower or motivation! And it makes perfect sense. I don't think about my habits anymore. They're just part of me and my routine. I do them without thinking. So glad I could help with the mystifying TM! That's the perfect way to put it, it really felt like this mysterious thing before, and now I can't believe I'm one of those people who meditate ha ha! It really is easy and simple to do once you know what's going on. For the cost, check with your local TM centers, they might have a pay scale based on income. I believe my center had that, but I don't remember all those details. Either way, maybe it's something to save up for? When you think about how this practice could be with you for the rest of your life, and it could bring so many mental, emotional and health benefits, it might not seem like such a steep price anymore. Might feel like it's worth it. But I totally get it, it's a chunk of money for sure! I can tell you that I am very glad I did it, though, because like I said, I never thought I would be someone who meditates. Yet here we are :) Hope my two cents help! I know for sure your advice and feedback, and most of all your a huge support, are helping me a ton! So thank you!! 💖

In my humble opinion, we each decide for ourselves with that fine line lies. We each get to determine what is too much stuff, what is unnecessary and what still brings value, joy and comfort into our lives. I would personally love to be an extreme minimalist, but I also don't find it practical. I'm pretty much a minimalist at this point, that's how I see it. And I define myself as such, therefore, I am a minimalist lol. I truly enjoy flexing that muscle of letting go of physical possessions and overconsumption. I think the Swedish death cleaning is brilliant, why should we burden our loved ones with having to go through tons of our stuff when we die? But I personally also enjoy living a more minimal lifestyle day-to-day. I truly get joy from simplifying my physical, mental and emotional environment! And I get a ton of value from that! But who is to say what constitutes too much stuff? I have a total of 44 pairs of shoes currently (both summer and winter, including working out and rain boots), and I have a total of about 50 books. Is that too many to be a minimalist? To few for comfort? Who's to say? I am, that's who! I decide if it's too much or too little or if I am a minimalist or not. I love being inspired by what others are doing and how they're living their lives, and I'm constantly refining things. But ultimately, I am the one who decides. In about a year or so, my BF and I are planning to slow travel around the world, and at that point we will let go of pretty much everything we own. We will travel with one large check-in suitcase and one carry-on suitcase for each of us. We might rent a small storage space for very few valuables that are not quite prepared to let go of, but almost everything else will go. Are we going to be considered extreme minimalist at that point? Maybe, or maybe not. Some people might not call us extreme minimalists if we are only doing it for slow travel and not for living in one spot or if we will still have a small storage space. And some people might.

@Celeste Elash I love the Swedish death cleaning PSA, haha! I hear you, it's hard when our loved ones just don't get it. What can we do but be patient and wait for them to arrive at the same conclusion on their own? Pushing never helps, as I have learned (and re-learned, ha!) many times. But, man, wouldn't it be great if it happened on our own schedule lol. Sadly, as you put it, real life intervenes! Thanks for the extra points ;) But I think you take the cake in the points department for dealing with all your dad's stuff! That is a lot and it's a heavy load for sure. Try to be patient with yourself through this process as it is an uphill battle. My mom has a lot of stuff too, but she's also very open to purging and letting go. At least in theory, ha! And we've had conversations about how she doesn't want to leave me a whole pile of her stuff to go through. However, is still a lot of stuff at her place lol. And there will still be a ton to deal with when that sad time comes. But I know it won't be perfect either way. And I know I will be in a world of hurt when I will no longer have her here with me. And so in the meantime, I remind myself to just let it be, to just let her enjoy her shopping and excitement when she gets something new, and to join in on the fun and to let her purge and declutter at her own pace, whenever she feels like it or has the energy for it. Even if she went through a Swedish death cleaning, I would still have stuff to deal with. Might as well just let her enjoy the ride and enjoy her stuff while she's here to make use of it and to get joy out of it. Somehow, thinking about that and putting it in that perspective is helping me not stressed out over how much stuff she has. I know that piles of it will literally just go to the Goodwill. And neither one of us feels bad about that either because we've talked about how when we're gone from this earth neither one of us is gonna care about our material possessions anymore. But in the meantime, while we are still here, we are enjoying the heck out of it!

@Daniela Renner Very cozy, Daniela! Love it 💖

@Celeste Elash Thank you so much, Celeste, you’re very kind!

I took a nap 😂 May sound small, but I usually push thru feeling tired, so that's a win for me - putting aside my to do list to take care of my body's needs.

@Connie Riet Hehe, thanks Connie! ☺️