Category: Growth & Learning

  • The power of a quiet no

    The power of a quiet no

    If you want to practice saying no to build your internal strength, there’s lots of ways to do it.

    Sometimes saying it to people is hard. Or harder than other things, like your dog 🤣🤣🦮

    One of the easiest though, and I reckon powerful ways to exercise and build your strength, is go shopping for nothing. Go to your local shopping complex, and preferably visit your favourite stores. Walk in, look at the things you want so bad, then walk out.

    Yes, buy absolutely nothing. It’s your power of choice.

    It’s an exercise of willpower and strength. Walk past every area, shop, food store and whatever else, and quietly say no to everything. Force yourself to walk out empty handed. By the time you walk out, you will have said no thousands of times.

    This strength is just like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes.

    If you’ve never done this consciously, give it a try 😋✨

    There are going to be times in our lives (most of us) where we don’t have any money to spare or we’re saving and we therefore can’t buy anything anyway.
    But the trick is, to go and do this when you do have money. When you can afford the thing you want. But you just don’t buy it.

    It’s a freeing feeling. It builds a kind of power in you that’s different from other kinds of confidence.

    When literally every single person around you is buying something, you do the opposite. That is also a confidence builder. When you’re in a location built to siphon your phone wallet, resist. spend money with gratitude.


    This doesnt mean saying no forever ♾️ of course. We need to live, but practicing your NO in varying situations builds resilience and critical thinking. It forces your mind to assess decisions that may have been an impulse yes.

    Your no, is a lifelong tool for life curation. Saying no to things, makes room for the magical yes ✨

    And your yes, becomes a lot more valuable when it comes after all of the no’s that preceded it.

  • Outdoor shower

    Outdoor shower

    Everything is really temporary in life. Everything we own, are connected with or live with, it’s all temporary. The question in life is when does it start to be a part of our life, and when does it end. Some things you own may have a limited life with you, the good ones though are worth the investment.

    One of those for me, is the outdoor shower. Maaaate! I’ve wanted one for years and years, so a couple years ago I bought the $30 shower spout that connects to the garden hose. That in itself is so good in summer. But connect it to hot water … I’m outside everyday.

    The setup is easy. An instant hot water system connected to bottled gas and the garden hose. As soon as water pressure is activated the burner kicks up and you get hot water.

    It’s the best ~~~~ 🥰✨

    To make it mobile, grab a 12v water pump & connect to a deep cycle battery, move the setup into your van / car and put the water inlet into a jerry can or water tank. Hot showers on the road. The kids will never have to complain about the cold showers at the beach.

    Surround yourself with green, put in a privacy screen. So good. I shower with the birds, fruit trees and flowers around me. Luuuuvvv.

  • Lessons from camping gear

    Lessons from camping gear

    Why would anyone love camping gear, lool 🤣 Yeah well, hear me out.

    High-end camping gear brands are pushing the boundaries. There’s a lot of competition and the best brands are fighting hard.

    That’s great for us the consumer. It means we’re continually getting new and better gear. I have titanium coffee cups from mountain designs and some gear from sea to summit. If you spend more, there are of course brands that are a lot more serious and cost a great deal more. For me, I’m happy with the ones I’ve found.

    What’s great about innovation isn’t just the new gear, it’s also the honing in on better functionality of it’s purpose. With each improvement, the gear performs better at something. Whatever it’s designed for.

    Smaller, more compact, lighter more durable is a theme in my life. I like small and high quality. It allows me to reduce my footprint and also move closer to a mobile lifestyle. What I think I’ve found though is, camping gear is so far ahead in design compared to the standard items that we’d normally use at home, that its starting to make sense to swap them out.

    Out go the big ceramic mugs from k-mart, in come the titanium mugs. As an artist that also loves ceramics, it doesn’t mean I’m throwing out my beautiful square mugs from Kyoto anytime soon.

    I love my mountain design mugs. They have a lid!! 🩵✨

    One lesson for me has been, just because something is presented to us in the stores and everyone buys it, doesn’t mean it’s the best option. Consider the alternatives, do the research and find the best option for you. There’s so much out there.

    Smaller means things take up less space, pack away better and they hold less if it’s a container. By putting restrictions on ourselves like plate and cup size, we train ourselves to also consume less.

    When I eat out in restaurants in Perth, one meal is often enough for two and it’s sometimes enough for four people. Reducing waste at home and consuming less, means using smaller utensils and crockery. If there’s less room to plate food, we eat less.

    For everyday use, camping gear rocks. Small, functionally superior and sustainably produced things are hard to ignore. So when it comes to selecting what stays in my life, camping gear is winning more and more.

    And when you think about it, camping really is a funny word. We’re always camping on this earth really, no matter where we choose to live.

  • Boil the bay leaf

    Boil the bay leaf

    There was a thread I was following that someone posted with a throw away comment about, “what does one bay leaf add to anything anyway?!” 🤣 Valid.

    There’s a lot of recipes that have a bay leaf or two in the list of ingredients but they never really explain much what it’s for or what it adds to the dish.

    When you think about it, there’s a bunch of common ingredients like bay leaves. If we take an elimination approach, we’d cook the dish in halves one with, one without bay leaves. Who can be bothered doing that though! 🤣

    But someone had a clever response to this problem, and that is to cook it on its own.
    Yes, put the bay leaf into a small portion of water and boil (or distill it if you have the gear) it until the water is flavoured by the leaves.

    Smart. By understanding the building block, we can start to comprehend what it brings to the mix.

    So yeah, ima try that experiment on the weekend. I wanna know what the flavour is.

    Thanks internet stranger 🧡✨

  • 5 years of swimming

    5 years of swimming

    I think it’s been at least five years, swimming every (almost!) afternoon after work.

    Years ago I decided to take my physical health a little more seriously. I can’t remember the actual reasons tbh, but I wanted regular exercise that was achievable, practical and not too expensive.

    I tried running, but it just wasn’t me. I can run, but it just feels like such an effort for minimal results. Maybe I’m doing it wrong 😂

    I’m so far, not a gym person. Instead, I use the kettle bells at home and I seem to be able to do most of what I want with those.

    My regular full-body exercise though, is swimming and I love it.

    It’s my switch off after work, it’s a cool down , it’s my mechanism for changing over to my time and it’s great exercise for my whole body.

    It is very cold in winter tho! But I’ve found over the years that I’ve gotten stronger and stronger with ignoring the cold. If the ice water is really healthy, then I’m getting a good dose of it. Recent research seems to indicate few benefits though it seems.

    If you’re looking for regular exercise regimes, what works for you and each person will be different, but I can recommend this combination. It works for me.

    In tough times, or when stress has been high, exercise and art have saved me and kept me sane. Regular physical body movement is the best, especially if you need to get out of your head.