Monday, August 26, 2013

Guest blogger: Viviane from Montreal

Hello!  Here's another lovely post from my friend Viviane...  my ex-translator who is not too busy... but that's ok... I understand....  that's life!!! However, I did ask her to write something for me...  cause I know she's became vegetarian and is trying to simplify her life... I wanted someone "new" to all that to testify... and she is really young also!!! 


here's a picture of Anakin looking at his new found window - furniture been removed form there!


I always loved food. I love cooking so much! When I was young, I would help my mom bake cakes, cookies, bread. She makes everything from scratch! Even today, she is still an inspiration to me. I was raised in an average family, eating traditional food and, of course, a lot of meat. The thing is, I never really liked meat. I would eat it because I was used to eating it. Every time I would eat meat, even as a kid, of would force myself to eat half of the portion… and sometimes, I couldn’t even finish that half. It would always end up in my parents’ plate, or in my dog’s bowl. The only meat I would really enjoy, was chicken. But I hated it if it was too thick. Like a chicken breast, for example… As for the side dish, the salad and the dessert? No problem! I could eat a ton! I’m still like that…
I met Nathalie in July 2011. I got an internship in a biomedical engineering company as a translator. Nathalie was sitting right beside me. I’m a very shy person, so I don’t talk much. She doesn’t talk much either! It took a while for me to start talking to her. She told me she was vegetarian and somewhat, I was interested by her lifestyle, even though she was very private about it. I told her that I didn’t really mind meat, that I could probably stop eating it without having any regrets. She then introduced me to the “Meatless Monday” movement. How interesting! I didn’t always do Meatless Monday, it was more like a “Couple of random meatless days a week”. I started to discover why eating meat is not so good… A couple of months later, I was browsing Netflix with my fiancé. We decided to watch the documentary Food Inc. After that, my perception of meat changed. I didn’t “not care about it” no more. I didn’t want to eat it. But for me, meat was an easy thing to cook. When I didn’t have time to cook, most of the time as a university student, I would just grab pork or chicken in the freezer, unfreeze it and cook it. In the weeks/months following that, I would still eat meat, but not as much as I did. Then, an afternoon, on my way to a university class, I received an email from Nathalie. She sent me an article talking about the health benefits of a plant based diet. I found it very interesting. On my way to university, I couldn’t stop thinking“what if”. What if I became vegetarian? OK, it’s not a plant based diet, but it’s still a good start. OK! I had to do it! 15 minutes after reading that article, I decided to challenge myself! I would not eat meat for a whole week and see how it goes! You know what? It went so well that I didn’t eat meat in 8 months! And I don’t miss it!!! My fiancé didn’t think it would last. But it did. And I don’t think I will ever go back to how I was before. I’m still trying to figure out how to eat everything I need to, because it’s not easy. It never was, even as an omnivore. Recently, I decided to subscribe to a vegetarian meal planner. It tells me everything I should eat every day, and proposes recipes based on the weekly specials at the grocery store! Ain’t that nice? So now, I eat everything I need: fruits, vegetables, proteins, dairies, grains… And I save money! I now make almost everything from scratch, like my mom JI feel very proud of myself. Because of my life change, my fiancé eats less meat than before. Sometimes, when he thinks my vegetarian meal is not enough, he cooks himself a steak or a sausage to eat with it… I don’t mind! He still eats less meat. I’m happy to be vegetarian, I’m happy that my fiancé eats less meat, and I feel great! And my dog is now a tofu fan! I really think that he prefers firm tofu to steak! What a great dog ;)
I think I owe a lot to Nathalie, for helping me to become a vegetarian. She didn’t tell me to do it. She just pointed out some directions. Where to start. It helped a lot. I have never thought about it before, even if I’ve been working and hanging out with a vegan co-worker for 2 years before working with Nathalie…
I read every blog post she writes. I am not into the minimalist stuff though. I love buying new cooking appliances, clothes, toys for my dog… Still, every time I read what she does, I can’t help but looking around me. I live in a 2 bedrooms apartment with my fiancé and my dog. I have so much stuff!! After reading a couple of her minimalist posts, I decided to do a big clean up. Not only for me, but also to give more space to my big 70 pounds dog. I managed to get rid of 75 books, 20 DVDs, clothes, etc. I removed a big piece of furniture that was blocking the window. I placed my dog’s bed by that window, and he can now enjoy the view! He loves it J
Thank you Nathalie for your blog posts! You inspire me a lot, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one JI hope you guys enjoyed my story!
Here's Viviane's business card... in case you need a translator eventually!!!

I am always happy to hear from you... do not hesitate to contact me!!!

Don't forget to check out my Facebook page.... or personal profile... connect with me on twitter or google +...

love and peace,
nath
xox
www.thissavvylife.blogspot.com
http://www.nathaliebrisebois.com/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=734016786
http://www.facebook.com/FanofLifeHappens
https://twitter.com/NathalieBriseb1

Friday, August 16, 2013

Gest blogger: Rita from Portugal

Here's another great post from a guest to this blog... but a great blogger from Portugal!  The link to her blog can be find lower...  Rita is this amazing woman who, without her knowing it... and without knowing each other, other than virtually, had a huge impact on my life!!!  For that I will always be thankful to her!



I have always been an organized person and I never accumulated too much clutter at home. In fact, I’ve always loved to through things away. In 2010, after I finished my PhD, I decided to redecorate my home and then I realized that I still had too much stuff. The furniture I had wasn´t right anymore, but it was still hard to get rid of it… One day I became aware of my emotional attachment to stuff… and I realized how ridiculous that is! Stuff is just stuff. More important are people, experiences, memories. And so I started to sell/give/throw away stuff that didn’t belong anymore in my home. I began with the furniture and then my clothes, books, kitchen stuff, work stuff, kids’ toys…  I got rid of more than half of my clothes and downsized from 60 pairs of shoes to 20. Everything in my home was submitted to a rigorous examination. Do I love this? Do I need it? If the answer was no to both questions, off it went…

At the same time I traveled to a Greek island for work and there I spent my nights reading Leo Babauta. That’s when I had my epiphany and decided to become a minimalist. I realized that a minimalist life was the kind of life that suited me. Minimalists seemed to be rather happy people, with no stress, no worries, no keeping up with the Joneses – and I wanted that for me and my family. When I got back to Portugal I decluttered even more, not only the physical stuff, but also commitments, appointments, responsibilities. I built up the courage to say “no” to things that didn’t interest me or didn’t add value to my life, both at work and in my personal life. I started doing what I wanted to do, not what other people expected me to do. I established priorities and organized my life accordingly to my priorities. I started to live my life, in the present moment.  

And then I discovered yoga.  I’ve always been into sports, but quickly I realized that yoga is much, much more than a physical activity. It’s a lifestyle. And minimalism is a part of the yogic lifestyle. Yoga teach us how we should deal with other people and our attitude towards ourselves, through a set of moral codes (Yamas) and personal observances (Niyamas). Two of those rules are called Aparigraha, to have only what we need, and Santosha, to be content with what we have – this is minimalism, a modern name to some of yoga’s ancient teachings.

So, a journey that started with decluttering some stuff soon became a lifestyle. Now I have time to myself, to my family, to my work. I’m not busy and I seldom hurry. I take life slowly. Now I live a mindful, healthy and peaceful lifestyle. And I’ve never been happier.



Rita Domingues is a minimalist, aspiring yogini, blogger, marine scientist and mom to two boys from Portugal. She is currently enrolled in yoga teacher training and practices yoga on and off the mat every day.

What about you?  What was the deciding factor to your decluttering??? 

I am always happy to hear from you... do not hesitate to contact me!!!

Don't forget to check out my Facebook page.... or personal profile... connect with me on twitter or google +...
love and peace,
nath
xox
www.thissavvylife.blogspot.com
http://www.nathaliebrisebois.com/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=734016786
http://www.facebook.com/FanofLifeHappens
https://twitter.com/NathalieBriseb1

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Wedding anniversary

Picture of a picture frame from our Wedding
9 years ago my lovely husband and I got married... and at that point we were not in the best place in our lives but we did love each other very much...  I had just been diagnosed with MS ( 10 months earlier) and until that day I was afraid the love of my life may ran away.... scared of me being sick... had I know better, I would have understood that he would do all he could to get me out of this!   And he did!

Let me backtrack a little....  when we started seeing each other openly, lots and lots of people thought or told us that it would not last past 2 years....  past the honeymoon phase....  that it didn't make sense... we had too much different backgrounds...  we both had kids with someone else...  He was from the country... I was from the city....  He had no education... beside the school of life... and I had a bachelor degree in science... and no school of life!  He was an operator... I was management...  when I met Real, he actually was my employee....  :-) Actually, our differences, I believe, is what made it work... we complement each other so well...

And there we were, with all those differences and an MS diagnosis for me.... on our wedding day!!!  And looking happy... and we were REALLY happy!!! And we still are 9 years after that day...
And those wedding vows could not have be any truer...

For better and for worse ---  worse is checked! We in the better now!
In sickness and in health ---  checked
For richer for poorer ----  poorer is checked! Still waiting for richer! lol
Until death do us part.... 
Not that we've got married in any religion (it was a civil wedding - 25 people including us!) but religion aside I love these vows, they represent to me all that a marriage is... 

Since that day, we've had many more issues to deal with... we both had health issues, both had job loss to deal with, went bankrupt, adapted to a reconstituted family, we moved quite a few times....  all the things that are REALLY hard on a couple.... but we managed... and we stayed close... and we learned to love each other in good times and bad times...even more...  it was not easy... and we were not always that smiley... but we never doubt it was worth it... This kind of love is once in a lifetime!!!  And to this day, there is no one else I'd rather be with as soon as I have free time...  we do everything together...  he's my husband, partner, best friend, lover, accomplice and "partner in crime"...  we can chat for hours... or just stay silently side by side... we love almost all the same things... and learned to love our differences...

To 60 more years of love and happiness.....

I am always happy to hear from you... do not hesitate to contact me!!!

Don't forget to check out my Facebook page.... or personal profile... connect with me on twitter or google +...

love and peace,
nath
xox
www.thissavvylife.blogspot.com
http://www.nathaliebrisebois.com/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=734016786
http://www.facebook.com/FanofLifeHappens
https://twitter.com/NathalieBriseb1

Monday, August 12, 2013

Guest blogger: Suzanne from Germany

Let me introduce you to Suzanne... a women from Germany I "met" because we both have MS...  she bought my book and we discussed it... and became friends...  We both have the same vision of MS...  a positive one... we refuse to let it guide our loves and who we are....  Suzanne was diagnosed at a really early age....  and here's her amazing story:


Thank you, Nathalie, for inviting me to your blog as a guest-writer. My name is Susanne. I’m 45 years old and live together with my husband and my three kids in Germany.
 

I started my life with MS when I was 19. I had just finished school and was preparing to go to university, when one day I suddenly couldn’t see with my right eye. It started in the morning, and in the afternoon it felt like a big grey wall in front of me. I went to the doctor, he sent me to another doctor, he sent me to… I ended up in a hospital. Not the funniest time in my life.

I had a new crisis the year after, involving my right eye again. The doctor, who treated me, told me:  “If you continue in such a way, I still give you half a year.” She didn’t give me any details of what she meant with this. I decided not to follow her instructions.

At that time the first books of Rüdiger Dahlke came up in Germany. He is a doctor and said if you had a disease it was because your soul wanted to say something, but you didn’t listen. These ideas were totally new to me. I ran into one of his books, read a little bit, but didn’t buy it. But the idea of my helpless soul trying to let me know something has never left me again. I closed a contract with my soul. We would find a way to communicate with each other, without destroying my body.

My personal way to health began. It was a long journey with many different small steps. Beginning with yoga exercises when I was a teen, long before the first signs of my MS showed up. Then I was trying homoeopathic medicine during my studies. This homoeopathic treatment built a good basement for all the further steps, I suppose.

Some years after my degree in archaeology, when my eldest son had already been born I met a woman which was responsible for another big step in my development. Hanna was a “teacher of health”, and she educated people in becoming “round” which meant healed in this case. I learned to meditate, to use breath as a therapeutic means and to accept me, as I was, deeply traumatised from my father’s early death, when I lost all my faith in life and myself at the age of thirteen.
 

In spite of my education to a master of health I had two more severe crises.

After another very bad one some years later after the death of a very close friend I spent five days at the intensive care unit. At the end I had to remain in different hospitals for at least three months. I came home to my second son’s first birthday, but I still wasn’t strong enough to hold him in my arms. Every time I had a crisis the disease stopped me from running into the wrong direction. Even at that time.

My last crisis came seven years ago. I had left my long-time-partner. It was a very difficult time with lots of emotional stress. Friends of mine asked an amchi (doctor in Tibetan medicine) from Nepal to come to Europe. He examined me, and gave me some small globule made from Tibetan herbs from the Himalaya. In the night after I had taken them for the first time, something very peculiar happened. I woke up in the middle of the night with a very strong feeling of love to myself floating through my whole body. What ever had happened, this feeling has never left me since then. It felt like a dam which had broken.
 

That taught me, it is all about loving ourselves. If we learn to accept us as we are, we don’t need any disease to show us the way.

 I love this post... about loving yourself....  I really think that we all need to come to accept and love ourselves for who we really are...  and do the same with our past...  we HAVE to accept it as we cannot change it!!!!
Suzanne and I both had our last crisis 7 years ago.... althus our path are not identical, we are both into yoga and meditation... I always thought this was an important part of my healing...  and still do...
Hope you enjoyed this post!

I am always happy to hear from you... do not hesitate to contact me!!!

Don't forget to check out my Facebook page.... or personal profile... connect with me on twitter or google +...

love and peace,
nath
xox
www.thissavvylife.blogspot.com
http://www.nathaliebrisebois.com/
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Monday, August 5, 2013

How is it ever over? Decluttering...

my next living/bedroom

in October, as mentioned in this post I thought I was done decluttering...  but is it really possible.... here we are a little over 6 months later and I decluttered some more.... still

and in a July's post, I even shared with you pictures of my minimalist home.... you can check this post here ...

however, checking out pictures of my own home... seen in a different eye made me realise that I am not yet where I wish I want to be... but it also made me realise that I am far from where I was....

I use to have a home so loaded with stuff... that when we sold the house to go into a 5 1/2 apartment we sold and/or gave roughly half of all out stuff... if not more!  I cannot show you pictures of that home because they are not "digital" and I do not have a scanner....  plus they are somewhere in a box... which makes me realise that I still have to declutter some pictures... I did... but I think I still kept to much!  but I digress...

Now looking at the pictures back in July, I realised that my apartment is still quite big... and my husband and I want to make more changes... eventually... of course, there are not just 2 of us... my son lives with us every other week and we have to adapt and respect him and his desired lifestyle too... we have to come up with an acceptable compromise! And our lease is not up for another year so it gives us time to figure out what we exactly want!  We are tired of moving.. we lived in 5 different places since we're together, this adds up to 6 moves in 11 years! (with the initial move in together), so we want to look for the proper place for us to live and since we now know what we want it will make it easier...

Having me take the pictures had me and my husband talk... and discuss.. and come up with criteria for our next place...

Our criteria would be:

1) even deeper in the city
2) One bedroom - for my son - a big one.. so he can sleep, work, play the guitar, watch TV and play video games -  the sleeping area would be, somehow, kept apart...  there would be a division so that sleep time is sleep time! Kind of his own bachelor pad but without the kitchen! 
3) would love to have stacked washer and dryer in a closet - not visible
4) nice kitchen because I spend so much time there
5) living room would be our space (check out the picture above - that would be similar to what we want...) - no TV, huge wall unit hiding bed, closet, laptop area...  There would be one love seat for both of us...  my electric keyboard and space to meditate and do yoga... perhaps we would keep the rocking chair...  but most of our furniture would go...
6) a huge outside terrasse...  that would be kind of extra space during the nicer months to read, meditate, do yoga and have some plants...

So this is it!  This is what we really want....
And if you starting to "get" me... you do realise that there will be one more move... once my son becomes truly independent and lives on his own...  and there would be no more closed bedroom... 
Then we would save lots of $$$... and space.... and electricity... but we're talking years... 

I am always happy to hear from you... do not hesitate to contact me!!!

Don't forget to check out my Facebook page.... or personal profile... connect with me on twitter or google +...

love and peace,
nath
xox
www.thissavvylife.blogspot.com
http://www.nathaliebrisebois.com/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=734016786
http://www.facebook.com/FanofLifeHappens
https://twitter.com/NathalieBriseb1