Simple Pleasures, Everyday Joie de Vivre.

A value driven life is a purpose driven life, values run deeper than water, becoming conscious of what really matters to you in life can help you navigate the sometimes choppy seas. Values vary from one individual to another so you might want to work on your own list as you read through this. Here are some basic values that all or most will have in common. Family. Family values are so important we wouldn't have a word for it because it's so special, but you know that word is love. This incorporates a heap of things that nurture you during your childhood and carry you through life as an adult. Caring, making sure everyone is fed, and clothed, and has the equipment they need. Support, encouragement, entertainment, tutoring, contributing financially, coaching. Nurturing, encouraging, taking on responsibilities, growing. Activities, doing wholesome things together. Attention, listening, understanding, providing constructive feedback. Friendship Similar to family bu...

Photo by Annie Spratt on unsplash Christmas is a joyous holiday celebrated all over the western world. A time for friends and family to come together in a spirit of community and giving. You hear things, like not to bother with Christmas, that Christmas decorations are culturally offensive, or that it's a waste of time and money, a mere retail hack that turns over billions of dollars. Which can make those who are less fortunate feel really bad, especially if they have kids. Or Christmas can turn into a crazy holiday frenzy, with family feuds, overspending and over-consumption of food and alcohol. For ease over the holidays it is  best to have a plan. In early december you need to plan for the following. Send or respond to your invitations. Gift shopping Deep Cleaning of the house. Shopping for cooking and dining goods, wine glasses, etc. (if necessary) Christmas day outfits, (laundered, ironed, hung up) Christmas tree and decor. Decorating the tree etc....

On Friday  80,000 people gathered in the Domain in Sydney to protest about climate change because we need our leaders to enact sweeping changes like using less fossil fuels and banning single use plastics in order to save our planet. Even if plastics weren't destructive to the environment, I fail to see how we got into such a bad habit of mindless waste. Reusing containers is cheaper and more conscientious, and now we have to, to save the planet. So what can we do?  There are plenty of things we can do as individuals to address the problem. Like adjusting your politics according to environmentally friendly practices; Installing solar power; Investing in wind power and other environmentally sound companies. There are also small changes we can make at home. Here are some suggestions on how to live it: Turn off appliances that you are not using which have those little power lights on them. Use a cake of all purpose soap for all of your cleaning needs. Bu...

Thank You for the image to Zack Callahan on unsplash. Whilst every situation is different and needs timing and there is no one magic bullet to make you happy or successful, self-confidence covers a lot of ground. Self-confidence is different to self-esteem, in that self-esteem is an evaluation of yourself, and similar to self-efficiacy, which is your belief in yourself to accomplish things. Central to these is self-confidence, which also includes confidence in general. Being low in confidence can lead to poor performance and poorer mental health. Being over-confident can lead to narcissism. So whilst it is definitely in your interest to develop self-confidence, you should also check in with reality every so often. Confident people report higher motivation, better performance and are better at dealing with stress, they take risks and set realistic goals that they can reach. Confident people are percieved to be more knowledgable than those with low self-confidence. You may...

If you haven't heard of etsy, you should head over to etsy.com and check it out. It is full of curios vintage and handcrafted goods, you are bound to find something and fall in love. Etsy has many original items to choose from, and handicrafts from a vast array of of talent. If you are looking for unusual gifts, antiques or quirky stuff, or something tailored perhaps, this is the place to go. I am just taking this week to share some of my etsy favourites, here is my top ten. 1. A fluer de lys ring.  So precious and beautiful. Yes put that in my stocking please. From here 2. A Cheese Cloche, yes cheese. There is something so classy about this dish.  From here. 3. A French rolling pin. I can get with this. You can get with it too! Is it for precision baking, yes maybe that's it. It's nice anyway.   It is here .  4. So I can really get back to my roots. Art inspired by cave painting. My god it looks just like the original. Y...

      unsplash-logo robin arm      Well, tao of joy has covered quite a bit on body and soul and soul searching does bring up questions of what is conciousness, different states of conciousness, energy, life and even life after death. But what about what we can do for our brain? Your brain is your mission control for your nervous system, it recieves input from your senses and outputs it to your muscles. Some people say, your brain is like a muscle and you can train it as such, to do more and be more.  Indeed, the message we keep recieving from fully functioning centenarians is to use it or lose it. Recently, something has been discovered called neuroplasticty, the ability of the brain to be flexible, with many promising outcomes of brain-training, even for instance to recover from a stroke, or sense things in case of blindness. Not only that but some specialist activities have already been researched that can improve your...

Photo credit: Alexandr Podvalny on unsplash.  Disclaimer This article is not prescribing medical advice. Please consult your doctor before use. This article does not presume to cure anything, it is for general guidance only.  Is this article controversial. Okay, say it is. What can I say? That we are in control of own health. That we can take responsibility  for eating properly, getting fresh air and sunshine and doing regular exercise. I mean there is no argument that we need vitamins and minerals to survive. If you want to argue, in my opinion, go and argue with your doctor or pharmacist, they are probably giving you snake oil already. As much as we respect doctors, the will to power lies within. And the best medicines might not even work in every single case. Or you get spoilt by rich food and it all backfires one day. It is time to question all those procucts on the shelves, time to change for the sake of wisdom and our earth mother goddess. ...