Decluttering a bedroom space, Digital Zen Alarm Clock

1.Furniture: Less is More

Solutions:
■ Invite a friend with a fresh set of eyes over for a streamlining session. Move everything out, then open your mind to new arrangements. Bring in the pieces you love most until the room seems adequately furnished but not overly stuffed; the remaining furniture is probably unnecessary.  Choose a Zen Alarm Clock for the space next to you bed on your table.  Pick the Digital Zen Alarm Clock that has a lid that can be closed to further declutter your bedroom space.

Bamboo Digital Chime Clock, closing the lid to the clock helps declutter your bedroom space

■ Think about what you can donate, use elsewhere or sell. Candidates for the chopping block may include exercise equipment, a dresser, even your television. Family manager coach Beth Dargis of Holland, Michigan, singles out dressers as occupying too much space in a room. (What’s more, their long, low surfaces invite clutter, she says.) Whenever possible, Dargis recommends replacing a dresser with a highboy, which holds roughly the same number of items but with a smaller footprint.

■ While everything is out of the room, consider spiffing up your walls with a fresh coat of no- or low-VOC paint (VOCs are volatile organic compounds that outgas into the air). If you want to change your window treatments to hemp or organic cotton, this is an ideal time. At the very least, give your bedroom a good, thorough cleaning before moving furniture back in.

2.Clothing: The Hidden Culprit

Anytime you declutter a bedroom, you invariably run into a surfeit of clothing, shoes and accessories. This accumulation is the root cause of a number of ills. “People cram in another piece of furniture instead of going through their wardrobes and getting rid of what no longer fits,” says New York interior designer John Loecke, author of the Organizing Idea Book (Taunton, 2006). Many times, Loecke has seen couples introduce substantial armoires to their bedroom space to accommodate one person’s wardrobe because the other’s has overtaken the closet.

zen-like bedroom

Solutions:

3. Streamline Bedding

Sometimes the bed itself—including all the attendant bedding and pillows—can create visual clutter.

how to declutter your bedroom space

Solutions:

4. No Place for Your (Home) Office

Solutions:

Daily Rituals

Bamboo Zen Clocks, progressive chime clock and timer

adapted from Natural Home Magazine, November/December 2009 by Wanda Urbanska

Now & Zen – The Zen Alarm Clock Store

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(800) 779-6383

Toyokuni Utagawa, Flower Arrangement

By skillfully managing your attention, you’re able to both experience life in a balanced way and stay oriented in a positive, productive direction. John Milton might have been thinking of the power of focus when he wrote: “The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.”

Like consciousness or mind, attention is a complex neurological and behavioral business. There’s no tidy “attention center” in the brain. Instead, an ensemble of alerting, orienting, and executive networks collaborate to attune you to what’s going on in your inner or outer world in a coherent way that points you toward an appropriate response.

Along with performing the Apollonian task of organizing your world, attention enables you to have the kind of Dionysian experience beautifully described by the old-fashioned term rapt—completely absorbed, engrossed, fascinated, perhaps even “carried away”—that underlies life’s deepest pleasures, from the scholar’s study to the carpenter’s craft to the lover’s obsession. Some individuals slip into it more readily, but research shows that with some reflection, experimentation, and practice, all of us can cultivate this profoundly attentive state and experience it more often.

Considering attention’s importance, it’s surprising that until recently, science has come up with few strategies to improve it. Most new strategies have a “back to the future” quality derived from their origin in meditation, secularized and made amenable to scientific study. These cognitive regimens can strengthen attention and are both free and safe, all of which must appeal to the 78 million baby boomers and their aging children, who are equally concerned about maintaining their mental and physical health.

Bamboo Alarm Clocks & Meditation Timers

Deciding what to pay attention to for this hour, day, week, or year, much less a lifetime, is a peculiarly human predicament, and your quality of life largely depends on how you handle it. Moses got his focus from God; Picasso from his nearly supernatural creativity. We have other motivations and gifts, and most of us have to go through a more complicated process to find the right things to focus on. We must resist the temptation to drift along, reacting to whatever happens to us next, and deliberately select targets, from activities to relationships, that are worthy of our finite supplies of time and attention.

Perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned is that it shouldn’t take a crisis to show you that your life is the sum total of what you focus on or to make you question that your well-being depends on what happens to happen to you. After running that tough experiment, however, I have a plan for the rest of my life. I’ll choose my targets with care—writing a book or making a stew, visiting a friend or looking out a window—then give them my rapt attention. In short, I’ll live the focused life, because it’s the best kind there is.

Excerpted from Utne Reader, March/April 2010 from the book Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher

Although meditation can be done in almost any context, practitioners usually employ a quiet, tranquil space, a meditation cushion or bench, and some kind of timing device to time the meditation session.  Ideally, the more these accoutrements can be integrated the better.  Thus, it is conducive to a satisfying meditation practice to have a timer or clock that is tranquil and beautiful.  Using a kitchen timer or beeper watch is less than ideal.  And it was with these considerations in mind that we designed our digital Zen Alarm Clock and practice timer.  This unique “Zen Clock” features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings the meditation session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal.

Zen Alarm Clocks with Chimes & Singing Bowls

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Shinsui Itō, Before a Mirror (1916) Ukiyo-e

People in need of a creative boost should take a long nap, according to new research highlighted by ScienCentral. The researchers found that naps increase people’s ability to solve problems creatively, but only if the nap includes REM, the deep sleep when dreams occur. REM sleep happens only after about an hour of sleeping, so a long nap is recommended. According to researcher Sara Mednick, “if you take a nap with REM sleep, you’re actually going to be boosting your ability to make these new associations in creative ways.” Mednick has tried to put her findings to good use by taking a nap at least three times each week.  A good way to peacefully end your nap is to use your Zen Alarm Clock with progressive chimes.

adapted from Utne.com by Bennett Gordon, September 2009

Zen Alarm Clock in Maple Finish with Maple Leaves Dial Face and Chime

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Eisen Keisai, Woman Getting out of a Mosquito Net

It has happened to all of us: You sit up in bed after a doozy of a dream and wonder What did that mean? Mankind’s fascination with dreams has a long history. In fact, one of the world’s oldest surviving documents, an Egyptian papyrus, contains dream interpretations. Most ancient cultures believed dreams were communications from deities or departed souls. More recently, psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung paved the way for using dream analysis when treating patients, believing dreams could shed light on the workings of the unconscious mind. Today, many medical and psychiatric professionals believe dreaming can help us move beyond depression and grief and even identify underlying health issues.

As long as you are sleeping, you are dreaming. That’s right, everyone dreams—even if you don’t remember your nightly adventures. “Most dreams occur during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which replenishes certain neurotransmitters,” writes Deirdre Barrett, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, in her book The Committee of Sleep (Crown, 2001). Since you enter the light sleep stage characterized by REM every 90 minutes, you’ll likely have four to five dreams a night, assuming you sleep for eight hours. “Interfering with REM, and thus dreaming, interferes with creativity, problem-solving capability, memory, and, in extreme situations, even immune function and body temperature,” says Barrett. You don’t have to remember your dreams to reap some of the benefits, but if you can recall them, your dreams could tell you a lot. “But stay away from dream dictionaries that would have you believe that one symbol means one thing,” Barrett warns. Instead, she recommends Our Dreaming Mind by Robert L. Van de Castle (Ballantine Books, 1995), which focuses on dream theory and learning to work with your dreams. If you really dive deeply into your dream life, the payoff is multifold. You can tap into more clarity and creativity, feel less depressed and stressed, and maybe even be able to predict disease.

Boulder, Colorado—an innovative company has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock early Monday morning), and transformed it into something to actually look forward to. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently and gradually, making waking up a real pleasure.  Rather than an artificial recorded sound played through a speaker, the Zen Clock features an alloy chime bar similar to a wind chime.  When the clock’s alarm is triggered, its chime produces a long-resonating, beautiful acoustic tone reminiscent of a temple gong.  Then, as the ring tone gradually fades away, the clock remains silent until it automatically strikes again three minutes later.  The frequency of the chime strikes gradually increase over ten-minutes, eventually striking every five seconds, so they are guaranteed to wake up even the heaviest sleeper.  This gentle, ten-minute “progressive awakening” leaves users feeling less groggy, and even helps with dream recall.

adapted from Natural Solutions Magazine, August 2009

Dream Kanji Zen Alarm Clock with chime in Dark Oak Finish, a wellness tool for remembering dreams

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1638 Pearl Street

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(800) 779-6383

Choki Eishosai, Sunrise at New Year

It’s hard to learn from your dreams if you can’t remember them. But even if you draw a blank every morning, don’t fret. Follow these steps, recommended by Deirdre Barrett, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School, and Andrew Holecek, a dream workshop teacher at Colorado’s Shambhala Mountain Center, to enhance your dream recall.

• Get seven to eight hours of sleep a night. The more you sleep, the more dreams you will have, increasing the likelihood you’ll remember one of them.
• Throughout the day and right before you fall asleep, remind yourself of your intention to remember your dreams.
• Keep a pen and paper by your bed. A dream journal can encourage recall and, at the very least, help you document any fragment you do remember upon waking.
• When you first wake up, don’t move. Lie quietly and reflect on any image that comes to mind. Sometimes a whole dream scenario will come back to you.
• Be mindful during the day, not just about dreams but about everything going on around you. The lucidity you cultivate in waking life will translate to your dream life.
• Set the Zen Alarm Clock to wake you every two hours throughout the night. When the chimming alarm sounds, write down as much as you can remember about the dream you were just having.

Boulder, Colorado—an innovative company has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock early Monday morning), and transformed it into something to actually look forward to. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently and gradually, making waking up a real pleasure.  Rather than an artificial recorded sound played through a speaker, the Zen Clock features an alloy chime bar similar to a wind chime.  When the clock’s alarm is triggered, its chime produces a long-resonating, beautiful acoustic tone reminiscent of a temple gong.  Then, as the ring tone gradually fades away, the clock remains silent until it automatically strikes again three minutes later.  The frequency of the chime strikes gradually increase over ten-minutes, eventually striking every five seconds, so they are guaranteed to wake up even the heaviest sleeper.  This gentle, ten-minute “progressive awakening” leaves users feeling less groggy, and even helps with dream recall.

Now & Zen’s Chime Alarm Clock Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

Zen Timepiece, an alarm clock to wake you from napping with Tibetan bowl/gong

koi

“I wish I could show you

When you are lonely

Or in darkness,

The astonishing light

Of your own being.”

-Hafiz

Honey Japanese Maple Leaves Zen Alarm Clock, calming alarm clock

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Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes: The Dream, 1883

Sleep Type: The Human Alarm Clock
You crash as soon as your head hits the pillow, but wake like clockwork at 2, 3, or 4 a.m.

What’s Going On?
“We all wake up briefly — two to three dozen times a night — without awareness or memory,” says Paul Glovinsky, Ph.D., coauthor of “The Insomnia Answer.”  If you’re all too aware of your awakenings, a number of things may be going on.  Simple conditioning, a la Pavlov’s dogs, could be to blame.  Your body can be “on the lookout for that awakening, especially if there’s a clock in the bedroom,” Glovinksy says.  Also consider stress: You may fall asleep out of pure exhaustion, but as soon as your sleep needs are slightly quenched, anxieties wake you up again.  For some people, says Rubin Naiman, Ph.D., director of Sleep Programs at Miraval Resort, the body’s inner clock, or circadian rhythms, may be malfunctioning

What to Do
Whatever’s behind your awakenings, hiding your neon time reminder is step one.  This would be the perfect time to get the Zen Alarm Clock in the Digital style (so you could close the lid) or the original style without the light.   If you can’t see the clock, you won’t panic as you calculate how many hours remain until daybreak — and how little you’ve slept. “Put it on the floor or close the cover to the Zen Clock,” says Joyce Walsleben, R.N., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine at New York University. “When the alarm chimes, you can get up, but otherwise, you’re in bed to sleep.” For many people, this simple shift alone reconditions their brain.

Boulder, Colorado—an innovative company has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock early Monday morning), and transformed it into something to actually look forward to. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently and gradually, making waking up a real pleasure.

What makes this gentle awakening experience so exquisite is the sound of the natural acoustic chime, which has been tuned to produce the same tones as the tuning forks used by musical therapists. According to the product’s inventor, Steve McIntosh, “once you experience this way of being gradually awakened with beautiful acoustic tones, no other alarm clock will ever do.”

adapted from Body + Soul, May 2008 by Sarah Schmelling

Alarm Clocks for a Progressive Awakening, Zen Clocks in Digital Styles

Now & Zen – The Most Gentle Alarm Clocks with Chimes

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