Sarah Susanka made her name as an author by writing about how the space of a home should be about quality rather than quantity in her book, “The Not So Big House“. A few years later, in “The Not So Big Life“, she applied some of those same principles to architecting a life.
Below are some of Susanka’s ideas that I found useful:
“When you believe that something upsetting in your life is about someone else and not you, stop. It is about you, and it’s happening so that you can learn more about you.”
“Reactivity is always the result of conditioned patterns and confused thinking, and it’s a flag indicating the presence of a filter over reality.”
“The way things are is the way things are and no amount of wishing will make them any different.”
“When you are looking for the right way to go and you can’t figure it out, remember, there is no right answer. Honestly. The part of you that’s trying to figure it out is lost in the appearances.”
“If you try to think your way to understanding, you are bound to get stuck; you’ll end up only confusing yourself further.”
“When we bemoan the state of the world, we’re saying that the ocean surface shouldn’t be choppy. There is absolutely no way to make the appearance perfectly still and tranquil.”
“When you find yourself believing that you are in the right or someone or something in your environment is intolerable, you are experiencing your personality in an all-out fight for survival.”
Meandering 