By Erin Cavanaugh
Co-founder
Building a start-up at any stage in life is daunting, throw in young children, remote learning, quarantining and zoom-pitching-investors any given mix any given day is down right head spinning. Depending on the day, I feel I’m either failing or succeeding with no in-between as a CEO, a wife, a daughter, a mom, a friend and myself. Who knew spending so much time at home could be more demanding than being in an office?
With each day delivering a looming resemblance to a Groundhog’s Day I needed to make a change. My usual go-to move is to hit snooze, snooze, snooze (exhausted from working into the late hours) then jump out of bed rushing from task to task. The year I've set my intentions around finding beauty, ease and mindfulness prompting me to look forward to my day. Really, there has never been a better time for more simple routines with simplicity and purpose. A simple routine doesn’t have to mean rigid or lacking in joy. In fact, my answer is the opposite, I find a calm simplicity coming from surrounding myself with beauty, ease and mindfulness. I do this by injecting favorite pieces into my routines.
A favorite to me is something that brings joy. Maybe it is for the right look or right price, but ultimately favorites are discovered because of the way they make us feel. A simplicity of favorites can be applied to any to-do’s helping us find joy in our routines. Now more than ever our routines need to contribute toward our happiness not stress. By finding and focusing on function I’ve applied favorites to my everyday routines like showering, morning meetings and getting dressed! The results: products we use during our daily routines can mean all the difference between joy and a dry monotony of going through the motions just to tick off the list.
Because! Think about it, if you LOVED your workout outfit, toothbrush or whatever is in your refrigerator, would you look forward to that pilates video, getting ready for bed or making dinner? Favorite products usher in simplicity because of: 1. their function, paired with 2. the emotion they evoke. A friend recently told me that during quarantine her products became much more to her than merely products. They became favorites in mini rituals of self care, bringing joy. Now, I don't advocate putting your happiness in a candle, blanket or serum. But I do believe I only have room in my life for a mindfulness that brings a purpose. Do you ask yourself the purpose behind each purchase?
The trick is to avoid settling and make the time to mindfully surround yourself with favorites. (Making the time is a completely different journey / article!) While I started doing this for my own personal needs I came to the realization the idea of favorites connects so closely to the ethos of See ROSE Go. How did I not apply this to my life earlier?! At See ROSE Go we live for effortlessness. We talk about an ease and dependability of the perfect white shirt. Yes, a happy simplicity comes from surrounding yourselves with favorites like clothing, so you can never go wrong. You have the comfort of knowing the outcome. EVERY. TIME. And knowledge is power. Just think of the mind space saved if you never again gave attention and worry to the age old question, “What to wear?” Our time is valuable and better spent on what matters more.
Surrounding myself with beloved products helps me look forward to my mindful commitment because I enjoyed the process. There are simple everyday steps I took back from the monotony of crazy train and made them joyful and consistent for me.
Even my morning meetings. I make a delicious dream-worthy french press, (recipe below) with my new beautiful MOMA press (it makes me smile ; ) put on my favorite white button down (b/c I LOVE it paired with my gold layered necklaces and I'm all about outfit repeating) and sit on the couch (better lighting in the morning) not my desk to start out. It’s little, it’s small, it’s simple, it makes me happy and sets me up for the day.
Still a work in progress, It’s not perfect and the craziness some days does ensue. I’m making the promise to myself to gain control of how I experience the day-to-day and how I then turn around and treat others. Starting with adding joy of simplicity into my routines.
As promised - My favorite coffee recipe, let me know what you think!
Ingredients:
Combine coffee, water, cinnamon and brown sugar in a French Press and stir. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next morning, press the coffee base and pour over ice, until about 3/4 full. Add Milkadamia milk to taste. For extra joy, I use my new handheld milk frother. Eip!
Lastly, experience blissful coffee drinking to help usher in a morning full of Zooms or Microsoft Teams, etc...
You're wellllllcommmee ; )
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