21 May 18: Shelfies to de-stress

Hello, folks, and welcome to a new week.

Tell me something – what do you do to relax and destress? I was interested to read about the Rest Test survey spearheaded by Durham University in 2016 which identified how people across the world find peace and quiet in their busy lives.
Top of the list was reading while my favourites were ‘doing nothing in particular’ (number 5) and daydreaming (coming in at number 8). Number 10 was mindfulness or meditation and it was this that got me thinking about shelfies. For me, the creation of them is about what I call ‘active mindfulness’ because, quite frankly, I find it hard to sit still for too long. Getting up and actively arranging things on shelves (and experimenting with the colour of the backdrop on my ‘working shelf’, seen here in Mackintosh Mauve by @craigandrosepaints ) helps block out ‘mind noise’ that I know can make me stressed. I don’t know whether it’s because it’s about structure, control or simply loving the satisfaction of seeing objects arranged in a pleasing way (a rainbow arrangement is guaranteed to lower my blood pressure and send stress demons on their way). Whatever it is, I now fully embrace it as my way of being more ‘in the moment’ and recalibrating. How do you destress? And does it involve arranging things on shelves?

Martha, The Colour File x

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