“It is only with the heart that one can see
rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de
Saint-Exupery
It was the weekend and after a long day of
work in the newspaper, I was finally home. My TV was open, my tablet in my
hands and all my fantasies about a SPA during the evening or just a feet
massage while reading some magazines evaporated. I was too tired to do
anything. I have just hanging the phone with a friend of mine when I had an absurd thought in mind, I have a lot of clothes but I
always feel that I have nothing to wear.
On my Facebook ,I wrote something that
summarizes this idea: “I have faced a lot of challenges in my life, I
witnessed many crossroads and for most of the times I managed to make a
decision except for one thing .. it takes me hours to pick the outfit of the
day, my wardrobe is full of clothes but I have nothing to wear!”.
Every single
day I was helpless in front of my wardrobe. I am not a shopaholic (even if my
fav movie is “The Devil Wears Prada” and I adore watching the movie ‘Shopaholic’),
and I don’t really give much attention to brands if it is a Prada a Calvin Klein
or a Channel (I extremely want to buy the black small channel bag but anyway)
what it matters is that an item suits me and I feel good wearing it. However, when I
thought about all of that, I figured out that this sentence reflects a lot of my
daily habits and routines: starting from different levels of appreciation to misusing
creativity and the abundance of clutter.
The
meaningfulness of getting rid of clutter for happiness was one of the brilliant
ideas that ‘The Happiness Project’ has shared. However, since a young age I was
someone that loves to buy: clothes, food, accessories, decorating items and
every time that I empty my closet and get rid of unusual stuff I feel better;
then I learnt that clarity and newness is totally related to emptiness. I
decided then to write a series of articles about that: how this expression a
lot of women repeat can reflect a whole philosophy if we just learn to see what
it reveals.
I have a lot
of projects going on now, one is my friendship project (which I will discuss
in a seperate article) consisting of reviewing all of relationships and starting
new ones. I also work on my nagging tasks project (all the things that I need
to do and kept off) My financial project, however, consists of new strategy called
SPEND SLOW : I decided to work with 2 specific techniques to keep it going (I
will discuss it in a seperate article too). So my SPEND SLOW project requires that
I minimize my spending and start saving. And here we go the whole challenge and
dilemma: CLOTHES. Besides the fact that I like everything I see on stores
especially expensive items, I shopped today from a second hand market. However,
my clothing style is based on wearing different styles everyday. It really
depends on my mood and also my thoughts; or looks that I want to try (childish
look for today). So I opened my closet and started to create new styles
(styling videos on YouTube helped a lot), because spending is under control.
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The goal was
to use one item for several looks and it worked like magic. This image of me
using my mind to see more options than the closet has to offer, taught me the
first lesson: There is always something more plus appreciate what you have and
be creative. Our eyes are extremely important in this process of perception and
what we have to do is to just pay attention. I remember when I was at college;
unusual and ordinary things caught my eyes, those which usually do not catch
anyone’s eyes. A tree, the sky the sun : normal things that we usually do not
see, I used to see and appreciate them , however after a while when I got a job
and my schedule became ‘fuller’ (busy girl) I did not recall that I have done
that but a few times. This closet thing made me aware that I should use my
heart to see and not my eyes, in order to be able to see other’s potential or
the possibility to learn more or appreciate the moment more than before.
Beauty is everywhere we need only to pay attention, that is the point.
Using my
heart to see is my task for the next week, I will let 'him' guide me, inspire me
and let me see the important and the magic beauty of an ordinary scene.
Thank you
closet!
