This is Optimal Living Daily, Episode 1792, The Joy of Open Space by Rose Loundsbury of Roseloundsbury.com, and I'm Justin Mollick. Happy Friday. Welcome to the podcast where I simply read blogs to you for free covering personal growth and self help topics like mindfulness, minimalism, self care, meditation, and a lot more. If you like the show, greatly appreciate you sharing it with someone getting them to subscribe.
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But for now, let's get right to today's post and start optimizing your life. The Joy of Open Space by Roseloundsbury of Roseloundsbury.com. I've been an on and off insomniac for much of my adult life. It started my first year of teaching when I spent nights anxiously rewriting lesson plans in my head, trying to create the most whiz-bang learning experience of my students' lives.
Little did I know at that time that most seventh graders do not consider English class the most whiz-bang experience of their lives. In fact, use of the word whiz-bang automatically discredits it from any consideration in their top 10 life experiences. Once I finally settled down as a teacher, a more vicious stress hit, infertility. I spent entire nights in paralytic worry.
Will I ever have children? Will Josh and I grow old in a quiet home, just the two of us? We were blessed in 2009 when that problem resolved with the birth of our triplets. And of course, as all parents know, there's nothing more relaxing than a newborn, right?
My worry is I'd only begun. Despite the exhausting work of caring for three babies, I often found myself unable to sleep on my head hit the pillow. I tried all sorts of higory, jigory to induce sleep, counting backwards from 500, drinking more milk, limiting screen time. One mental exercise though sticks out in my mind, imagining myself in my ideal environment.
What strange is that despite my efforts to place myself in various exotic locales, my mind always conjured the exact same image. A woman, in the midst of a prairie, leaning on a fence, she rests her head on her arms, which are folded across the top fence rail, propping one leg carelessly along the bottom. Her long hair is pulled back casually. She gazes off into the distance toward the faint outline of a mountain range.
Far behind her, somewhere, is a house, all by itself, alone in the vastness. She turns to me in smiles and stares back in her original direction. I became obsessed with her. Who was she?
Why was she so calm, so peaceful? I wanted to be her. We'd have to move to Montana, stop wearing makeup, learn how to saddle up some doggies, learn what saddle up some doggies means. She became my own little Mona Lisa.
What was that smile about? Was she taunting me, inviting me? What did she know that I didn't? As I've minimized so many of my physical possessions over the years, something about this woman has become clear.
My fixation with the image isn't so much about her. It's about the space. She's not the most important part of the picture. The vast emptiness around her is.
I've realized something else too. As I slowly shed the burden of my stuff, I became more like her. I didn't need to move to Montana or some tropical island in the middle of nowhere. I created a peaceful environment right here in suburban Dayton, Ohio, by creating more open space in my home.
I've said many times to people who've inquired about my minimalist habits. But the reason I do it is because it makes me feel calm. I no longer look about my house anxiously, fearing that my stuff will swallow me whole. I feel at peace, no vacation required.
I believe everyone feels this way when they encounter open space. Take my classroom, for example. As I started creating open space in my home, I did the same thing at work. I remember the day I donated a large red rolling cupboard to a new teacher.
When my students came into my room and saw the bare corner, they were astounded. What did you do? They asked, feels different in here. Some didn't say anything, though, and simply walked over to the space, raise their arms and twirl slowly in a circle.
I don't mind you. These were 12 and 13 year olds. Arms up twirling isn't their typical stance. Yet confronted with the unexpected joy of open space, they cannot help but adopt the universal body language of wonder and happiness.
There's something in all of us that attracts us to open spaces. I bet if you ask 100 people to imagine their ideal environment, 99 of them would name something that involves space, a beach, a woods, a field, a river, et cetera. I doubt anyone would describe their ideal environment as a crowded shopping mall or a basement bursting with boxes of old memorabilia or a living room stuffed with toys and magazines. Yet we consistently place ourselves in these environments every single day.
It's no wonder we long for vacations. Vacation is not just a break from our daily routines. It is often a break from the overwhelming stress of our stuff. So I have a challenge for you.
Imagine yourself in your ideal environment. You got an image? Good. Now, create it in your daily life at work, in your house with your family.
It is possible. And in case you're wondering, I've been sleeping better lately. I'm not sure if that's due to minimizing or not. But I do know that the image of the woman on the prairie no longer mystifies me.
Nowadays, when she turns to me with that secret smile, I know exactly what she's smiling about. You just listened to the post titled The Joy of Open Space by Rose Lowesberry of Rose Lowesberry.com. I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health, what supplements to take, hours of sleep, what my diet should focus on. Superpower finally takes the guessing out of it.
One simple lab test covers over 100 biomarkers and their app gives you a complete picture of your heart, liver, hormones, metabolism, even environmental toxins. Plus, it used to cost $499 right now. It's just $199 and head to superpower.com and use code old at checkout for an additional $20 off your membership. Really interesting perspective and observation from Rose that I've never put together about how if you pretty much ask anyone to imagine themselves in their ideal environment or anywhere they'd like to be, they'd like to imagine someplace very open.
Most probably outdoors, but even if you don't like the outdoors, it's unlikely to be someplace with a lot of clutter. That clutter really seems to have a direct correlation to how cluttered our minds feel. Like when my mind is juggling a bunch of things, maybe tasks, worries, anything, really. I feel like my space becomes more cluttered too.
But when things are calm and there's less anxiety and less pressure, generally, my space will also resemble that mindset. Things will generally be less cluttered. That's the case for me. I'm not sure about you.
I think it works both ways. The more cluttered the space, then the more cluttered our brains feel too. Kind of like a feedback loop. That's something to think about today for the Friday episode.
Maybe you'll spark something in you to do some minimizing or decluttering this weekend. In either case, have a great weekend if you're listening in real time and I'll see you tomorrow where you're optimal life awaits.