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How to Neaten Up Stuff via Sachs’ Practice of Knolling

(Video link here.) At Things Organized Neatly, a website about exactly THAT, we found this terrific except from Ten Bullets, artist Tom Sachs‘ essential principles — “his code” — for employees working in his studio. Here he outlines something he called “knolling”, an action we’ve always done but never had a word for. Sachs’ interpretation is…

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Practice: Quiet

A friend recently told us about her practice of taking an occasional day of silence; she shuts down intrusive electronics like her computer, tv, phone, and goes through the day without uttering a word. The neighbors in her smallish town know that when she wears a button saying “Honoring Silence”, they need to do just…

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Practice: Re-Envisioning Everyday Objects (Christoph Niemann)

One of the most delightful Instagrams we know of is Abstract Sunday, an ongoing array of illustrator, author, artist Christoph Niemann‘s stunningly imaginative work. Our favorite theme is his re-envisioning of the most ordinary everyday object — a banana, scissors, a twig —into something totally unexpected, charming, and illuminating, like his wondrous Bouquet of Abandoned Ideas,…

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The Practice of Seeing Through New Eyes (Proust + LSD)

This quote reminded us of a stunning video of a 1950’s housewife who took part in an early LSD experiment. As the drug takes hold, she glories in the colors she sees and says “Everything is one. Can’t you see it?” Without taking LSD, we find there is still a great deal of unexpected beauty to see IF we practice noticing what’s around us.

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Ornithology Wall Mural: Proseck’s Practice of Seeing

(Video link HERE.)  There is something enchantingly low-tech and intimate about artist James Proseck‘s painstaking process of making this wonderful, public wall mural: painting bird silhouettes a la Field Guide series of nature books. His technique is very interesting and could easily be applied to the walls of any interior or exterior space – bedroom, dining…

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Life Practice: Making Amends

Artist Holton Rower taped this sign in his studio years ago: a simple, powerful practice to constantly clear misunderstandings or hurts. Recently, we read literary critic D.G. Myers description of a practice he’s taken up since hearing of his diagnosis terminal prostate cancer:

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Productivity Practice: Do 1 Hour of Creative Work Before Anything Else

Recently, while skyping with Improvised Life’s web developer Jason Lange, he told us of a technique he had been trying out to keep work moving forward on Share, a film he was making. For months, he’d been getting side-tracked by “paying-work”, expending all his energy on it during the day only to find himself without any…

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mindfulness practice 101: hang a reminder you’ll see first thing

Not being the best of meditators, we rely on Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh to gently guide us in mindfulness practice, which, he points out, you can do anywhere, anytime: washing the dishes, walking, cleaning the house, listening to a friend.  In The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation, he outlines…

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