Welcome back to "Random Thoughts with Sara," where we're diving into the transformative essence of winter's magic. In this episode, join me as we explore the profound beauty of curating and repair during the winter season.Through heartfelt stories and practical insights, I'll guide you through the art of curating your surroundings and repairing what's been neglected. From decluttering our physical spaces to mending relationships and healing old wounds, we'll uncover the gentle power of winter's magic to rejuvenate our lives.
Welcome back to "Random Thoughts with Sara," where we're diving into the transformative essence of winter's magic. In this episode, join me as we explore the profound beauty of curating and repair during the winter season.Through heartfelt stories and practical insights, I'll guide you through the art of curating your surroundings and repairing what's been neglected. From decluttering our physical spaces to mending relationships and healing old wounds, we'll uncover the gentle power of winter's magic to rejuvenate our lives.
Welcome back to edit your life. I'm your host, Sarah And this podcast is about the art of editing your life season by season. This process is messy. Beautiful. And what I'm all about. It brings life to your soul set you up for success so that you can thrive and truly enjoy the life that you're intentionally building I've decided to put out an entire season of podcast sharing the process I've used over the last several years to step away from overwhelm, living out what I should be doing and lean into intentionally enjoying my life. This process was borrowed by farmers who have been tending to their own plot of land faithfully year after year. The process I practice follows the seasons. It's simple, practical, and guide you. Step-by-step into living out your best life. Each season I highlight for opportunities and jobs that you can put into practice. Currently we are talking about the season winter and the four main opportunities. I practice our auditing clearing and editing, curating, or repairing and planning first. Auditing this opportunity allows us to see where we've been spending our time or energy is going engage how our head and heart is feeling about all the things. It's a beautiful time to check in with yourself. It gives you the honest feedback and data to help you move forward. As you're creating this life that you dream of. Second. Clear and editing this opportunity is empowering and the heavy lift. This is where you put all that data from auditing to work, using it as a blueprint of what gets to stay and what needs to be cleared out. That is no longer serving you. Next it's curate and repair. That's what we're going to talk about. This episode, this opportunity you begin to see the things you've chosen to keep and how they may need some tender, loving care. They may have been overlooked or depleted, or you simply didn't have the energy to maintain them. This is the time to repair and fully sit with what you've chosen to keep in your life. Last it's planning. This is the opportunity to dream of what you want to add into your life. After you've sat with the data and you've cleared out space with room for something fresh. You get to listen to your heart and soul and follow the inspiration. You're sensing you've created space to grow and this is where you get to plan what seeds you're going to plant for this next season of your life Over the past few episodes I've already shared about the first two opportunities that I believe winter offers the art of auditing and the art of editing and clearing. Please feel free to go back and listen Now that you've processed all that data from taking inventory. And being curious, you've had the opportunity to make hard decisions, decisions about what you want to clear out and ultimately through that entire process, you've decided what's important to you and the things that you want to keep in your life, in your garden in the season. That's where this opportunity comes in curating and repair. Sometimes I'm not sure which to approach first because they're actually equally. Important they coexist in the stage. You add them flow between curating and then repairing. As you have this time, there's this space that you're intentionally giving that is protected right now, your heart is open and you have time to really be present. And in that act of being present, For what you've chosen to keep in your life. Everything is magnified. So you are actually seeing what you have in your life. And so you're going to be beyond grateful and excited and have these beautiful, precious moments. And then you're also going to see where things need to be prepared because there's this time, this magnification. And you see. That you may need to repair something student in Glaxo or that you didn't have the time in the space. Prior because your life prior to this was too full. This is the time that you get to be a gardener. You've just spent a lot of time and energy weeding out your garden. And now you get to take notice of the beauty. Of the trees and the plants that you're keeping, you get to pay attention to what they need. Do they need to be watered? Do they need extra sunlight? Do they need fresh soil? Do they just need time? Because now you've taken out all this. Things that were surrounding them and sucking all the life out of them. Do they just need some time to grow? What is it that they need? This is a beautiful time that you get to appreciate. The things that you have in your life and you also get to pay attention to anything that they may need okay, let's talk about curating first. Since I am a stylist, this is literally how I approach my life. I follow the same process when I style an Airbnb, a room or a space. I slowly take in the space. As I walk through, I'll take inventory. Then I edit, I edit everything out that doesn't work for the vibe that we're wanting to create. And then I. Literally, I celebrate all the things that we have left. This is what I call curating. I pull the items together. I'll usually do a fun, inspiration photo of what I already have. It always is so wonderful for me to see the layers that have space already has in it. I love sharing this and celebrating this with my clients. They have chosen some really beautiful things over the years that worked beautifully for their space. It might be a vintage rug, a comfy couch, the art that they've collected over time. I'll tell my clients and everyone actually, as I talked to them about their lives, you already have so much beauty in it. It's just being overshadowed by the things that no longer are serving you. Or your space. Once you have cleared everything out and you see what you have thoughtfully chosen to keep that. There's this wonderful gratefulness that starts becoming overwhelming. It overwhelmed you, the gratefulness that you have for your space. Or your life it's like once all of the other distractions or extra or overwhelm or whatever is gone. You start realizing that you have family, friends, creative work jobs. Uh, community, whatever you've chosen to keep these, all these things are incredible. And they're, we're celebrating. As I celebrate, I can see the threads of color texture and a vibe starting to speak to me. I can see why I've chosen to keep these things in my space. And if you use that same exact thought pattern, You will start seeing the thread of your life. Why you have chosen to keep certain people in relationships and creative opportunities. It begins to deeply register in your heart. What a beautiful life you have that has been hidden under a whole bunch of overwhelm. Curating to me as a form of gratitude, I spend time with my space. And life are appreciating the things I already have without adding one more thing to the mix. I'll sit with it. I will allow the goodness to sink in. I take a moment to organize, to style, to really just let things have a moment to shine. As I spend this time settling in with this new, amazing space. Life things that I already have. I begin to notice where I can repair things. This is the part that you're going to ebb and flow between. You are going to appreciate the things. And then you're going to notice where things hadn't been. Consistently taking care of because you've been so overwhelmed. So this is where I start asking questions and become really curious, like how come the role I'm in be tended to. Do I need to have a conversation to reset expectations or to apologize for my absence or inconsistent attention. How are my relationships? Where can I show up? How can I tend to these things? And. I dig to the root to see if there's been a weed or something that was planted that I need to forgive or heal or water or tend to, or. Take care of whatever that is. I literally spend time resetting. I like to call it resetting. You're giving yourself time to be present and to find language. Of why the things that you're keeping in your life matter how you appreciate them, how you want to engage them, how you want to really fully show up for them. As you walk through this process, I just really encourage you to give yourself grace, give others grace. We all have really, really full lives. And sometimes the overwhelm was not necessarily ill intent. It just happens. Sometimes I realize, oh my goodness, I've added so much stuff to my life. And I have. Not showing up for myself or for others. This is such a beautiful, gentle process. We are just tending to the things in a precious way. It's like holding something in your hand. How can I tend to this? Does it need a gentle touch? Does it need. Uh, reconnection doesn't need some life breathed into it. Does it need some sunlight? You know, some things may need a lot of repair and some, a lot of extra sunshine, and it might take a little bit of time to come back to life, but it will with time. And that's the thing you've just created so much time and space by editing out your life that now you have the capacity to put in the time and energy that it will require to heal some things I love this. We are fully being present for the relationships and the things in our life that we want to thrive. Repair is a big part of a farmers winter. It is something that I didn't really realize was so important, but now that I've like had time to sit with it over the last few years, it is just such a beautiful thing. Sometimes life gets so busy. Our seasons get so busy. The farmer knows that during planting season and watering and harvesting, they're not going to have time to tend to their machines. They need it to work. They don't need friction. They don't need to add oil and be out in the field and something break because they didn't take care of it. No, they go and revisit it every single winter to make sure it's in. The best working order. They might need a little bit of extra air in the tire, but they aren't going to have a broken machine that they can't use. And that they'll have to stop operations. No, no, no, no. They take the time. They repair the thing. And it sets us up for success. Once I realized this. I was like, duh, take the time to repair things. Take the time. Even if it's going to be a big repair. You will never regret taking the time to repair something. I have seen in my own life when I haven't taken the time to repair something and I just ride it out. My engine broke in my car. One time I didn't put gas in it. Anxiety stopped me because I wasn't taking the time to repair and edit and scale back. I've had things break. I've had things, you know, sickness or anxiety or whatever. Forced me to stop. And then I had to repair something that was all a lot worse than if I would've just taken the time. I love that farmers sense seasons. They sense it. They know it. It's built into their life to stop and pause and edit and repair. This is exactly what we are doing is setting ourselves up for success. It's kind of wild, how the act of just curating and setting with things and repairing them. Makes you so present in your life. It's like when you open a drawer and you only have things within that drawer, that all bring you joy, or you walk through your home and you know, it might not be overstuffed and it might not have the most current things, but it all has handpicked things that you love. That is exactly how your life is going to start feeling. The activities that you're going to participate in. We'll. Bring you great joy. The time that you spend with the people that you've chosen to stay in it. Are going to be fountains, not drains. You're going to thrive within. Your own skin you are not. Filling it up with other people's dreams. You're literally paring it down to the exact things that bring you joy. And when I do this, I'll tell you, it is just such a blessing. You feel so blessed in your life. You have way less your home is. Not filled to the brim. Your closet is not overstuffed where society tells us the more you have, the more happy you will be. That's just not true. It's like the less, it's actually like more of the things you actually want that fit you, that you like that are colors that you like that are fabrics and textures that you like that are friends, that you like there that are activities that you enjoy that are presently what you want. Today instead of what you want to 10 years ago. Six months ago, it's like really honing into what you want. And what you've chosen that is this whole. Opportunity. And I believe winter is pretty long. There's a lot of deep work that is done heavy work that is done in winter. But this one right here, this is beautiful bliss. You just get to sit in it. So if you want to sit in it for a while without adding anything go for, I've had seasons where I have. Edited edited, edited out, curated repaired and sat where I've just allowed my heart and my soul and the soil of my life to become. Rich it is without adding anything. I didn't add any new friends. I didn't add extra activities. I didn't add extra things to my home. I literally just sat and I allowed myself to embrace what is instead of looking forward or backwards, I was just present. With my surroundings with my people, with myself, and I just allowed everything to reset me. And I promise you, it is just such a gift that you can give yourself. Sometimes, we don't have the opportunity to stay in winter long. We have a lot of things that are happening and we're building but if you have a chance just to sit in it for a minute, even if it's like a week before you go to the next planning session of winter. It's really rewarding to feel I have. Edited out and I've chosen. You're almost like read, choosing what you want, if that makes sense. Like you've picked all these things. At one time, but now you're going back through. To reach juice, like, do I still want this in my life? I was telling a friend the other day, I've had seasons where I made commitments a long time ago. And I just want to revisit those commitments. Do I still want to commit to that as the person I am today? Who I am now? Is this important? Is this what I want? It just feels good. Sometimes we are. Scared. Sometimes we are made to fear. Being curious, like asking a question is somehow going to hurt someone else's feelings or it's going to invalidate a commitment that we've made or whatever the case may be. But for me, I feel like it is something that we get to give ourselves. Especially when you work through this process and you realize you have your own garden, you want to make sure what's in your life is what you want. That you're choosing that now, because when you choose it now, it has so much meaning. And it is so special. And it's like renewing that commitment, as you walk through this, you will see the beauty in it. You'll see the struggle in it because there's a lot of programming that we have that is like more and more, more, or you made that commitment 10 years ago. You still need to want that, but things change. And as you're repairing, even things might not. Be able to be repaired the way that they once were, we're going to have to shift them. So like, if something had kind of like cracked, it might heal differently. You are not going to be able to put yourself back into the original form. It came, you have evolved and change. There may have been some necessary endings that didn't happen. And that have tweaked you into this new version of you. Let's honor who you are today. Not yesterday and not in the future, but just who are you today? Let's love and approve of you today. Let's repair things so that you can fully enjoy her life. Not adding another thing. You've already paired everything down, but what is it? That you can. See that you already have today and enjoy and celebrate. I want to celebrate with you. Let me know the things that you're celebrating. What is it that you notice now that there's all of this clutter is out and overwhelm other people's decisions and things, people gifted you and you know, all decisions. I mean, seriously, think about some of the clothes that we've picked in the past styles trends. Clothing. Home decor decisions that we made 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, we are different people. Now we have different opinions. We honor ourselves more. We listened to ourselves. We're not taking directives from other people as much. What is it today? And then honor that and then celebrate it. I had a lot of things in my home. And my life that I, one time wanted that I built in that I invited in that I took responsibility over that. I started that I had to have a necessary ending and walk away from it. And when it was gone, I grieved it and I had time to transition and I loud myself to feel all the feels. But then when I had the things I chose to continue doing in my life, I felt so good. I felt so much relief. I felt so much grace and peace, and I knew exactly where I was supposed to be in that moment. And that is the magic of this. That is the magic of curating and repairing. That is the magic of winter. That is what it is. It's sitting with everything. It's letting yourself. I feel all the fields and needs and wants in the season. It might be less than you used to have and want and that's okay. It might be more it's. Okay. You're going to gauge that. You're the only person that gets to make that decision for yourself. And, you know, for me, I have had seasons where. I want it to be more my husband and my kids and myself. And not me. Engaged in community or responsibilities. Outside of us. And that was okay. I'm then I've had other seem to be treating and building and making that's okay, too. It just is like balancing your own internal gauge. What feels right for you. And right now it's going to be a little bit emptier. You're going to have more space. You're going to have more margin. All around you. Everything's going to have margins. Everything's going to start growing a little more. It's going to have more nutrients. So in this in-between before you plant new things, it is just this magical, beautiful, interesting time. And I'm really excited to hear your feedback because for me it started stark and drastic, and I didn't know what to do with myself. And then it grew into like, oh my gosh, I love this. This is actually an amazing time in my life. And I. Always want to be this tight about what I allow in and out of my life. At the same time. We all are. Shifting and evolving. And so we're going to feel this differently season to season. Sometimes I don't edit that much out because I didn't add that much. You know, we're getting more tuned into what we like and what we want, I kind of edit throughout the year now, so I don't have this one time a year where I edit so much out. It's kind of like monthly, weekly, daily. I'm. Choosing. And listening to myself and my heart. You are going to grow into this and the skill set, and these are tools that we're putting in our toolbox. And we are growing and we're learning how to farm our land, how to garden our land and how to edit our life. This is such a fun adventure, and I'm so glad that you are along for this journey. Thank you so much for listening to thoughts. I'm curating and repairing and all the things as always reach out and let me know, what's resonating with you, how this process is looking for you in your life and know that I'm always here cheering you on.