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We think we have the answers, know what's right and wrong, good and bad, best for ourselves and other people. But we aren't always right. There's always more than one version. There are many perspectives that are valid. Keep yourself open to that truth. Whatever is causing you worry or pain right now won't cause you worry and pain forever. A meaningful life is what you define it to be. If you neglect to define meaning, you won't experience it. Decide what makes life worth living for you, and then design your life around that.
To make a positive change in your life, you often must take a risk. You must tolerate some level of uncertainty.
Remaining stagnant is in opposition to the natural order of life. Embrace it and regard it as an adventure. Many of the thoughts are negative and limiting.
You don't have to believe them. They aren't the truth or the whole truth. We want people to think and behave as we do. We want them to accommodate us and live the way we think they should live. We want to change them. But with awareness, we realize we can't and shouldn't try to control others. Instead, embrace differences and honor the uniqueness of the people in your life. We all have something, or many somethings, we hate about our bodies. But your body houses your very essence.
Treat your body with respect and care for the efficient and wondrous way it takes care of you. Even if there are parts of your body you don't like, focus on your body with a sense of love and gratitude. Physical touch is healing and intimate. It bonds us to other people and relieves stress and anxiety. You have more strength, more resilience, and more inner wisdom than you give yourself credit for. You'll get through it and survive — and maybe even be better for it. Consciously focusing on all you have rather than thinking about what you don't have is a far better use of brain power.
Gratitude fosters positivity and well-being. It can arise spontaneously when you are called on to make a decision or need information. Pleasing others for approval and acceptance might feel good in the short term, but eventually, you will lose yourself and feel resentful. Please yourself first and give to others based on conscious choice, not the desire for approval or feelings of guilt. Even if the truth is temporarily painful, it will ultimately set you free. Be radically honest with yourself so you can live authentically. It is our differences, our foibles, and our imperfections that connect us to humanity and make us real.
If you want meaning in your life , start with serving others. Find a way to make a difference, even a small difference, and your life will feel purposeful. It's the accumulation of little things — the quiet moments in nature, special time with our kids, seeing the smile on your spouse's face when you walk in the door. Pay attention to these things.
There is so much to learn and explore in our very short lifetimes.
Take advantage of learning every single day. Challenge yourself to acquire a new skill, read something different, take a class. Learning keeps our minds engaged and sharp, even into old age. It is a truth we can't avoid. You can manage to age well by doing the best with what you've got. Hopefully, you will change in the same direction or come to love the changes in the other person. Don't let these changes take you by surprise. Worry is useful only if it leads directly to a solution. But the very nature of worry implies that it doesn't. Learn how to manage your worry thoughts.
A life full of complications, obligations, and an overwhelming schedule make life more difficult and stressful. A simpler life in all regards gives you more space for joy, authenticity, and engagement. But fortunately, the work is what affords the most sense of accomplishment.
The process is more engaging than the outcome. This is an excuse for not trying. Great things can be accomplished at any age. Telling yourself otherwise is a sure way to remain stuck and frustrated. Action is the cure for worry, procrastination, indecision, anxiety, and frustration. Stop thinking and do something, and you will create momentum that leads to something valuable — or at the least heals your turmoil.
Be proactive in your life, designing exactly what you want rather than reacting to what life throws at you. Creation empowers you and expands your opportunities. Reacting disempowers you and diminishes your choices. You will be surprised how much more there is to life when you don't cling to your beliefs, opinions, and things.
The words you speak have power. Consider your words carefully. Use them for good rather than harm. Once they are out, you can't take them back. It is a finite number, and one day you will reach that last day. Remain conscious of the value of every single day. Love is why we are here. It is the force for good in this often random, painful, and harsh world. Use it as your lodestar. What are some of your lessons learned in life over the years?
How have these life lessons impacted you or the way you live? Of course some… Continue Reading… […]. Here is a lesson I have learned. It is hard having the courage to find adversity but it is worthwhile. I read your list and it is spot on.
It's a Martha Kitchen from Home Depot, which is so beautiful everybody wants to stay in that building because of the kitchen. So I install kitchens, and I see what works and what doesn't. My East Hampton house has a giant island which I thought was going to be so fabulous but I hate it because you spend all your time walking around the island which is just the wrong proportions for the rest of the room. But it's too nice to rip out, so I'm never going to rip it out.
It seems as though you've got as many kitchens as some women may have frocks. There's always been an interesting synergy between home style and sartorial style. Oh very much so. I love going to the shows, meeting the designers and talking to them. They also like talking to me about the garden. So many designers are gardeners, which is my first big passion. And so the garden is sort of a meeting place for a lot of us. We love to grow things, we love to eat from the garden, we love to cut from the garden and you learn a lot doing these manual things yourself.
It's the same as cooking. Cooking is another kind of leveller for good taste. The technological advancement of fabrications has been a great source of inspiration for so many designers. I spent a lot of time looking at home furnishings. What makes a comfortable bed?
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We spend so much time taking pillows off the bed and putting them on the floor … Just go to bed. I don't want to do that. I want to get into bed and have the bed ready to climb into when you're in the bedroom. I think that is definitely a strong philosophy now running through the fashion world too. I think global warming has a lot to do with it too. I used to love coats.
I have a closet full of them. In New York, you don't have that much cold weather any more, so investing in a coat or two every year is sort of unnecessary. Plus a shawl can be used multipurposed, tossed over a couch. Yeah, you can do a lot of things. Your brand has such a lustre to it. Well everybody who works at Martha Stewart Living thinks that way.
What makes a good home? What makes a comfortable home? What's well made, what's affordable? Affordability is also a big thing that I think about, because I don't want to price myself out of a person's environment if I don't have to. And I learned that when I first started the business with Kmart, which was the largest retailer in America at the time. If you make a million of something, you can make it cheaper than if you only make Your juggling act is inspiring as well and I often wonder how you manage to have that many kitchens, to be involved in that many different arenas, yet still remain grounded.
I just think it's spending enough time in each place to make it a positive statement. We photograph so many things in my homes and people know my homes by name. They know Lily Pond. I open my garden in Bedford to many, many gardening groups. My garden's still a work in progress but the letters I've gotten from the women — who are some of the best gardeners in America — are so nice and they understand what I'm trying to do with landscape.
They understand that we eat from the garden, we enjoy the garden, we have animals in the garden. They understand that you're being successful in your life effort. Any vulnerabilities that you'd admit to? I like the word jealous. If I feel jealous when I go to somebody's home, that's kind of good because that's aspirational.
I just visited a friend's home that I had read about and dreamed of what it would be like. He finally invited me to see the house and I didn't feel any jealousy whatsoever. And I felt so good going home, because I didn't feel as though I was missing out on something. Yeah, it's like you see somebody in a dress that you wanted and she looks so much better in the dress than you would have looked in it. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff.
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