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Big Love and a HUGE thank you to my 6 Irish fans who chose me as their top podcast of the year!!! WOW!!! And the same to my 19 fans who have me in their TOP 10 - I can't thank you all enough. I wish you an amazing year in 2025.

To move towards a minimal-ish life try incorporating "Tid Bits", much like Tiny Habits so that you can move towards minimalism at your own pace! Here are Five Tid Bits that you can practice right away:

1. Just Say No - NO is such a powerful and necessary word when you are practicing more self-love as this year progresses into the holiday frenzy and the New Year 2025. I feel like this is a little bit of a renewal year where we could really all use some deep rest from the antics of the world around us. We should continue the season of rest through this winter and into 2025. Remember, no pressure on setting New Year Resolutions! I personally love to just set 2 to 3 really meaningful personal goals and do them!!!! Now that feels good and by the end of the year I feel like I have accomplished my top goals that made a difference for me.
2. Low Maintenance - "Everything I think I need always comes with batteries..." you know that line from John Mayer's song - Something's Missing. I don't know about you, but I find so much wisdom about life and living from song lyrics. Specifically my favorite band "Dave Matthews Band" and many others including these lines from the incredible John Mayer:
   --I'm dizzy from the shopping mall
   --I searched for joy, but I bought it all
   --It doesn't help the hunger pains
   --And a thirst I'd have to drown first to ever satiate
3. Face the Fantasy - I love those videos people do called "Reality vs. Fantasy." They are super funny and I really applaud people who show it like it is on YouTube. I'm sure you've seen the ones where there are two scenarios. One is absolutely perfect and the other one shows the reality of it all. Super hilarious and you can just search for "Reality vs. Fantasy" to find some good ones! A former, talented co-worked of mine from Vitajuwel has some hilarious ones on YouTube. His name is Lukas Schultz - handsome German dude,there are a few with his name.
4. Enjoy Imperfection - Perfection is truly the enemy of progress. I absolutely love this saying and I repeat it to myself often. One of my mentors has this saying he uses often which is to "move the needle" and he is referring to moving the needle one little mark to the direction you are trying to move into. Embodying this notion is truly the foundation to how I get anything done. I have learned to give myself a lot of compassion when it comes to my own personal productivity and being on the go-go-go hamster wheel of life. I allow myself so much grace and this means that when I'm not making huge strides on a personal project I don't beat myself up about it. I enjoy the state of rest I might need and I mean fully embrace and enjoy it. Then I go back to whatever it is I need to get done and I keep moving that needle!
5. Inhabit the Neighborhood - This honestly just brings to mind Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers neighborhood for me. I love the depiction of the perfect neighborhood, right down to the crotchety Oscar the grouch. It also somehow brings to mind a favorite old series called "Cheers". I loved when Norm walked in and everyone said hello by yelling out "Norm" to him. I'm a former bartender, so it's easy for me to be the first one to say hello. I like to acknowledge and say hello to anyone that passes me. I always say it first and that's okay. You should try it! I think I get more pleasure out of it than the people receiving my hearty hello.

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You can find all of VC's info and links to her website, her book launch event and other fun stuff about VC here:
linktr.ee/vctang

We all know the kitchen is definitely the heart of the home. Having a beautifully organized kitchen with only the tools you need and not too many extras makes for ease of use and also encourages more cooking at home! There is nothing better than sharing a meal, cooked with love, with those that you love around you.

VC Tang, author of "Come eat, Grandma!" is here with us today to give us some deeper insights into how Stir Fry Stories and her first book came to be. I am thrilled beyond words to have VC here with us today! VC Tang is an author, home chef and martial artist with an MBA and entrepreneurial spirit. She loves to find inspiration in the "everyday" and will definitely inspire you to enjoy the process of cooking at home more often. Her lovely stories of home and hearth are sure to please.

I would also like to honor Emily Ramai Kim, incredible graphic illustrator that created all the delicious artwork for VC's book. You can find out more about Emily here:
https://emilyfuckingkim.com/

As we move into fall here in Northern California, feel free to join us as we each make our own pot of comfort food for ourselves and our family!!!

Joy and big love to all, ruma xoxox

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LAVENDER LIGHT OF SELF-LOVE MEDITATION:

Let's always lead with LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!

This meditation will help you embrace yourself in comforting warmth and the infinite love of Mother Earth. It will teach you to love yourself fully and reap the incredible rewards that truly loving yourself can bring into your life. Imagine a world where each and every one of us loved ourselves fully. Imagine that we each had empathy, compassion, and understanding for all human beings and animals simply because we loved ourselves and each other so respectfully. What would this world look like? Most likely, it would be free of hunger, pain, sorrow, and inequity. It would be a world filled with love, peace, harmony, and equality. All of this can start with you. When you are at your highest vibrational countenance of love or above you have the ability to change lives and affect lives around the world without even knowing it. You, just being who you are at your highest vibrational countenance, can change the world. Imagine that and keep your heart open to this powerful meditation that follows.

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Whenever I am working with one of my organizing clients, I always start with some type of visualization. I want them to wire their brain right from the beginning of our session to see what is to come. With hard work and lots of fantastic decision-making, we always make it to the finish line together!!!

With this visualization, you will immediately start feeling the effects of how it feels to live simply, live clutter-free and stress-free because you are surrounded by what you need and what you love. Get into a really comfortable and relaxed position. You can sit with your feet flat on the floor as mentioned in my recording, OR curled up on your cozy couch with a blankie, OR laying down on your yoga mat. Let your body sink into wherever you are and just breathe in a relaxed fashion.

Enjoy and much peace, joy and love in 2022!
ruma

p.s. I know this isn't a perfect recording at all, but I'm so proud of this first visualization that I ever recorded. I recorded it on my phone many years ago, lol lol. Also, I realize daffodils don't come in blue, but this was "off the cuff" lol lol and I meant to say iris or periwinkle lol lol!!!

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What are your daily simple pleasures? If you can start writing down your daily simple pleasures, you may actually find so much more to be grateful for in your life. More gratitude brings more feelings of joy, more feelings of joy bring more happiness into your day every day, more happiness can bring more feelings of fulfillment and the cycle continues. You can now share your joy with others and allow it to become a gift that you find yourself sharing daily with yourself and those around you! Enjoying and really noticing these simple daily pleasures can train your brain to find the joy and the positive and the beautiful things that surround us all the time:
1) Lazy afternoons with nothing to do
2) Sitting down in my favorite cozy spot
3) The sound of water
4) New growth on plants
5) Sunrise (blue hour/golden hour)
6) Sunset (golden hour/blue hour)
7) Fresh Air
8) Waking up to a clean kitchen
9) Putting away clean dishes
10) The song my dryer makes as it finishes the cycle
11) The smell of garlic, onions, and ginger sizzling in EVOO
12) Clothes that fit beautifully
13) 3rd-day hair
14) Checking off my to-do list
15) The smell of fresh coffee brewing
16) Watching my puppies at play outside
17) Chamomile tea in bed
18) Alone time woot woot
19) Clean linens and a cozy bed
20) Bowl of fruit salad
A few extras I forgot to talk about:
21) The smell of book pages and listening to the sound when the page turns
22) A clean home that smells fresh and feels welcoming
23) Piles of clean folded laundry ready to be put away
24) Watching the birdies outside frolic, play and chirp all day
p.s. sorry I messed up the numbering lol lol

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Please leave a 5-star review and email me at ruma@mylifeinflow.com if you would like to be entered into the "Giveaway Drawing" which will happen monthly as I choose a random 5-star reviewer. Type the words "Organize Your Closet" in the subject line! If you win, I will reach out to you for your best mailing address and send you a copy of "The Home Edit" by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin!!!

Moving towards a minimal life can actually be daunting for many people. I can definitely attest to the fact that it is challenging. Try incorporating "Tid Bits", much like Tiny Habits so that you can move towards minimalism at your own pace, but make sure you also challenge yourself when needed! Here are Five Tid Bits that you can practice right away:

1. One Need a Day - Let's get back to single-tasking and really focus on that one thing that really needs to happen today. Do away with the multi-tasking, multi-level, cross-pollinated to-do lists that just make us feel like failures. You only need to do ONE thing today, or maybe even NO-thing! Do what makes you feel good. Do what speaks to your body and spirit. Ask yourself, "What is the one thing I want to get done today that would really make me feel good about myself?" Maybe it's practicing yoga for 10 more minutes than you already do, maybe it's cooking a meal from scratch, maybe it's taking a walk around your block and saying hello to another human being, maybe it's stretching outside your comfort zone and having a deeper meaningful conversation with your neighbor, maybe it's just sitting in the sun feeling the warmth on your skin while cuddling with your fur-baby or loved ones. There are so many things you can do to feed your soul. Whatever those things are for you, please do them regularly!
2. Rituals - As humans, we actually do crave some form of routine as part of our natural circadian rhythm. Routines can keep us healthy and keep our minds engaged when we form self-care rituals that put us and our needs at the forefront. Rituals can be those moments in life at the beginning and end of our day that gives us the time and grace to get into our body/heart-mind/spirit connection which can really feed our souls and make us feel the feelings of accomplishment and success that has nothing to do with your to-do list or your job.
3. Shoulds, Coulds, Woulds! - Are you living your life for yourself or someone else? When you don't live your life for yourself and your truth, your mind/body/spirit actually becomes disconnected and you go into depression because that vital internal alignment is not there. In the words of Martha Beck, "Integrity is the cure for unhappiness. Period."
4. Live Now - Letting go of the past is crucial to living your best life right now. Enough said - you know this in your heart of hearts, no need to elaborate. If you need more tips on how to live now, have a listen to my Episode 4 - What is Hygge, Slow Living and Unloading Baggage?
5. Simple Pleasures under $5 - I really love all the cute suggestions, but I have found that just saving $5 a week has shifted my money mindset into that of saving and not spending and getting caught up in all the consumerism. As soon as I saw how much I could amass with such a small amount, I kept adding to it and went from 5 to 10 to 15 to $20 a week. Try using Stash, Acorns or Fidelity and watch your small potatoes grow into a life-changing full-on spud farm!!!

Adapted from "52 Ways to Simplify Your Life", by Lynn Gordon

Consume less, live more!

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Consume less, live more!
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Please leave a 5-star review and email me at ruma@mylifeinflow.com if you would like to be entered into the "Giveaway Drawing" which will happen monthly as I choose a random 5-star reviewer. Type the words "Organize Your Closet" in the subject line! If you win, I will reach out to you for your best mailing address and send you a copy of "The Home Edit" by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin!!!

Moving towards a minimal life can actually be daunting for many people. Try incorporating "Tid Bits", much like Tiny Habits so that you can move towards minimalism at your own pace, but make sure you also challenge yourself when needed! Here are Five Tid Bits that you can practice right away:

1. Step Back - Use the "Wheel of Life" as a tool to gauge where you are in your life and how you rate yourself in each of the following categories: Career, Money, Health, Friends and Family, Significant Other/Romance, Personal Growth and Learning, Fun, leisure and recreation and Physical Environment (your home/office). I love this example of the "Wheel" which asks great questions to help you rate yourself effectively. You may need to highlight the entire link and then click on "go to https:......." : https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54bda4bee4b0a3e130efc4ca/t/5d16e12c3f4bcb0001647b55/1561780526296/Personal-Assessment-Wheel.pdf
2. Show Emotions - Allow your feelings to come to the surface. Be self-aware and with great self-love allow the emotions to surface. If you feel sad, cry, it's actually good for you!
3. Simple Systems - As a homeowner, you really shouldn't need more than 15 - 25 file folders with the most important categories. Please note that on my visit to clients' homes, we usually get rid of 80-85% of all the paper clutter they have been holding on to! Here are some of my favorites that most everyone might need. Set up straight line filing in alphabetical order for simplicity and ease:
   • Bank statements
   • Cable bill
   • Car insurance
   • Car payments
   • Cell phone bill
   • Credit card statements
   • Dental records
   • Electric bill
   • Employment records
   • Health insurance
   • Heating (gas/oil) bill
   • Home insurance
   • Internet bill
   • Life insurance
   • Loans (student loans, personal loans, etc.)
   • Medical records
   • Mortgage payments
   • Rental payments
   • Retirement accounts (401Ks, IRAs, Roth IRAs, SIMPLE, etc.)
   • Separation records from past employers
   • Specialized medical records
   • Telephone (landline) bill
   • Vision records
   • Water bill
   • Yearly taxes (one folder for each tax year – you may want to create separate folders for federal and state taxes)
4. Proving What? - All I can say for this is "Be true to YOU," you are the superstar in your own life - only you can live your life. Who honestly cares what other people think or what other peoples expectations are of you? When you are living your life for someone else you cannot be living your best life for YOU!
5. Media Down and Out - This is something that we should all do regularly. Find a day to do a digital detox. Start with 1/2 day without your phone and then graduate to a full day then the whole weekend, or whichever days work for you! Not having the "crutch" of your phone and constantly crooking your neck to look at it will make you feel better overall in body, mind and spirit! It allows you freedom to think for yourself and be creative again. Scrolling incessantly can be truly numbing, if you know what I mean. After hours of scrolling one may feel a sense of loss since many hours becom

Support the show

Consume less, live more!
https://linktr.ee/rumatenbrink

Send us a text

Please leave a 5-star review and email me at ruma@mylifeinflow.com if you would like to be entered into the "Giveaway Drawing" which will happen monthly as I choose a random 5-star reviewer. Type the words "Organize Your Closet" in the subject line! If you win, I will reach out to you for your best mailing address and send you a copy of "The Home Edit" by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin!!!

Moving towards a minimal life can actually be daunting for many people. Try incorporating "Tid Bits", much like Tiny Habits so that you can move towards minimalism at your own pace, but make sure you also challenge yourself when needed! Here are Five Tid Bits that you can practice right away:

1. A Little R&R - Learn how to rest and relax and do it more! Embody the term "La Dolce Far Niente." Translated this means pleasant relaxation in carefree idleness, or, the essence of doing nothing and enjoying it! You want to change your mindset to "work to live", NOT, "live to work" and again like our French and Italian brothers and sisters, let's embrace "La Dolce Far Niente!"
2. Express Passion - There are so many ways to express your passion! Are you an activist, a home cook, an artist, a runner, a martial artist, a gardener, a storyteller, lover of board games, do you love to teach others, are you an animal lover? The list is endless!!! Volunteerism is a great way to express your passion while helping others (i.e. other humans, animals or the environment to name a few.) Chip away at the stone facade that was imprinted and carved upon you by society. Unleash your spirit, unleash your desires and eliminate the excess! Go on a journey to find your self! I'm sure it will be the best and maybe even the hardest trip of your life. I can guarantee, it will also be the most amazing and fulfilling journey you will ever take!
3. Prioritize - What are your main priorities this month. Write them out and remember, focus on the 20% that will impact 80% of your life. These priorities are most important to improving your life overall. Let the rest go for now and move them along to the next month.
4. Anxious and Afraid - Does the free time you are creating have you worried. Learn to quietly sit in the beauty of having nothing to do or feeling "bored." What a luxury! Try some breathing exercises, just BE, revel in the warmth of the sun or the icy cold of the wind on your cheeks, or the wagging of your dog or cat's tail, smell your food, smell your beverage and allow the aromas to get into your nostrils, watch your plants grow, watch a sunset you get the picture. Have you ever been in a garden and expierienced watching the plants grow? I"ve actually experienced that in the heat of summer. It was 90 degrees Farenheit and I swear I could feel my rose bushes growing taller as I saw the waves of warmth waft up into the atmosphere - it was a "one with nature" experience I will never forget!
5. Clean Out - This is something that we should all do regularly once we have gotten our space the exact way we like it. Regular clean outs are necessary as new things creep into our homes (or garages - that's my prcrastination station.....uggggh.....I have it beautiful and then it becomes a dumping ground again.....then I make it beautiful.......back to a dumping ground......it's a painful process lol lol....I'm still learning and my standard for a garage space is pretty darn high as well. I mean, it should be for me right? I must practice what I preach!

Adapted from "52 Ways to Simplify Your Life", by Lynn Gordon

A special thank you to SmartSound FX HUMAN CROWD Applause Medium Audience applauding and cheering!!!

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