GREAT IDEAS: SIMPLE LUXURY

Being mindful to notice the intricacies of the world around us takes discipline but is such a worthwhile exercise. It doesn’t need to be time consuming, or requisite of silence and panpipes music and you can even involve kids; what a life-shaping lesson for them to learn early and one I am grateful to have been taught as a kid.

My mum likes to get up early, go outside wrapped in a blanket and watch her garden wake up. Sunlight creeps over previously shadowed leaves, the chooks come out from their coop, birds come to drink from the pond, and insects advance from their secret night shelters to begin the day’s work.

Indulging in simple luxuries is a perfectly legitimate way of bringing enjoyment into your life. These treats don’t have to be expensive or involved, but being mindful of moments of pleasure is rewarding for the soul and is a way of keeping at bay feelings of complacency about how good life is.

Some ideas for moments of simple luxury:

  • freshly laundered sheets and shaved legs (my all-time favourite thing)

  • going out for a coffee on your own

  • fresh flowers

  • a swim in the sea

  • the smell of freshly-cut lawn

  • wearing matching underwear

  • escaping to bed early to read and fall asleep when you’re ready to

  • being still enough to hear and enjoy the bubbles popping in your sparkling water

  • a walk beside the ocean

  • play board games with friends

  • the smell of a new book

  • the smell of an old book

  • receiving snail mail from friends

  • watching chooks peck around the lawn

  • giving a (beautifully wrapped) gift “just because”

  • taking time out to create

  • looking back through old photos

  • detecting the first wafts of jasmine in the early spring air

  • having technology-free time

  • a glass of wine with Van Morrison on the record player“LUXURY IS ANY JOLT OF BEAUTY OR WONDER THAT REMINDS US TO LOVE THE LIFE WE’RE LIVING, AND TO NOT SIMPLY LIVE IT, BUT TO DEVOUR IT GLEEFULLY AND SCOOP UP ANY CRUMBS THAT ARE LEFT OVER–TO NOT LET A SECOND OF THIS FANTASTIC EXISTENCE GO TO WASTE.” LINDSEY SALETTA