Curating refreshment is at the top of my bucket list this summer. I know if I don’t, moments of pleasure will pass me by and I’ll miss out on so much waiting to mesmerize and delight.

Planning refreshment sounds like it should be easy, but I don’t find that to be the case. Maybe it’s the same for you.

Like me, you may find great energy in filling your day with multi-tasking and plenty of accomplishments to check off the list of To-Do’s.  No judgement here; it just means we have to be more intentional in making sure we’re not burning out.

We value ourselves too much to neglect planning refreshing pleasure in our day, around our work and throughout our responsibilities of life. I enjoy the story of an a woman in France who sat outside a café, ordered her typical light lunch, and a café au lait.

After finishing, she asked the server to bring her 15 french fries. When they arrived, lined up and spaced on the plate like the pickets of a fence, she proceeded to slowly cut and savor each piece as if it were the first time she’d ever eaten french fries.

“Isn’t that the only way to curate a life? To live among things that make you gasp with delight?” ― Maira Kalman, My Favorite Things

A refreshed woman is one who values the art of curating.

She knows the state of being refreshed won’t happen without intentionally curating space for it to flow. Of course, she can stumble on moments that refresh because life is full of beautiful surprises, but a refreshed woman chooses to live her life in a way that invites, expects and welcomes these moments as a necessity of life.

She is well resourced with what’s needed to prioritize time for refreshment, and she schedules it along with all other priorities. It’s not left to chance or relegated to the “if I have time” pile. 

Instead, she sees it as a planned pause with a purpose. Because she understands the reward will bring lasting ripples of resilience, hope and joy. [bctt tweet=”Life becomes meaningful in the process of curating refreshment – the highs expand us and the lows don’t break us.” via=”no”]

Curating refreshment begins with our senses.

If you’re new to curating refreshment in your life, one of the best ways to begin is with your senses. Using our senses opens us up to experiencing the depth and layers of refreshment that are often overlooked during the busyness of our day. 

By attuning our awareness to the senses, we also attune to the sensitivities in our body as we experience moments that delight and make our insides smile. Our senses provide a rich tapestry of sensations to connect us to refreshment because as we experience the sensations, our thoughts and feelings also connect to create pleasure. 

We always have access to our senses and all the sensations they create in our body. So often they are overlooked or ignored as we live our days on auto-pilot and crawl into bed depleted, exhausted and dreading the sound of our alarm. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Start curating refreshment in the small rituals of your day.

It takes time to fully immerse ourselves into our senses as we live out our day, but the more we lean into the practice, the more aliveness we experience. We can start small – with simple awareness of the rituals in our day. A warm cup of tea in the morning or afternoon, cupped in the palm of our hands as we take a small break sends toasty sensations flowing through our body, and we find ourselves taking a deep breath, releasing a sigh of pleasure…for that moment, we connect to our aliveness.

We can choose to sit with it, relish in it fully and allow the moment to refresh us from the inside out. This is the art of curating.

We take notice of what’s in front of us. We take a step back and choose it’s place in our day. We ask ourselves how we can use what’s in front of us to refresh and create aliveness.

• Set the alarm earlier to allow yourself to to stretch before you get up, feel fresh oxygen flowing through our bodies and slowly awaken to the day.
• Before showering or bathing, take a couple of minutes to dry brush and feel your skin tingle.
• Blow dry your hair on low heat and allow yourself to enjoy the slow, soothing heat.
• Create a playlist of music that speaks to your inner world in a way you find refreshing.
• Eat your favorite dessert slowly and with the intention to really taste and enjoy.
• Take 2 -3 minute breathing breaks and use the time to breathe deeply for a count of 7 – hold for 1 – slowly exhale for 8.
• Plan for regular walks and focus on one of your senses, taking in all that the experience has to offer.
• Download a feel good book to listen to in the car or on your phone as you go about your day.
• Plan time to watch that movie that’s going to make the tears flow, and feel the cleansing refreshment in your soul.
• Next time your cooking or baking, turn on the music, slow down, smell, savor and relish the time you have to create.
• Enjoy the spa experience of rejuvenating face masks or gua-sha before bed.
• Stroll through your favorite flower shop or nursery and savor the textures, scents and sights.
• Spend time in the early morning or evening breeze and feel the sensations across your skin and face.

It doesn’t matter what you do; the goal is to start. You know what makes you feel refreshed. The point isn’t to add one more thing to your list of things to do, but simply to tap into our aliveness.

Once we begin to access our aliveness, we also begin to realize how numb we’ve been, how much we live in our head, how much of our day is lived on auto-pilot and how disconnected we’ve been from our own body.

Life becomes richer and fuller when we decide to practice curating refreshment for ourselves. It’s an intentional practice that takes time, but the reward is extraordinary.

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