Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
We all need to refresh and reset sometimes. Spring cleaning is about decluttering and making space to showcase the things you love most in your life. It allows you to really focus on your wellbeing.
When we created the Kindspace voice app for the Amazon Alexa smart speakers we wanted something that would provide people with wellbeing support and useful information but also make it accessible and fun. It is a wellbeing app with a difference.
The content within Kindspace has gone through many iterations and has matured as time has gone on. I probably shouldn’t confess this, but when we launched on the Amazon Alexa smart speakers in November 2020, the Tip of the Day wasn’t actually a set tip, it was just a tip chosen at random from our database. A database that was at the time very small. Today we have over 500 tips across 12 different categories and two extra sections just for special seasonal content or content for specific days like the world and international days that we celebrate globally.
In this blog, I wanted to give you a preview of the work that we’ve been doing to relaunch the Tip of the Day feature with a new interactive calendar. I feel like we’re giving Kindspace a good spring clean.
The tips database has grown fantastically since we launched, and as the database grew, I was then able to allocate tips against the days. This meant that I was limited with what content that we had available at the time and while I was able to maintain a good variety from day-to-day, I always felt like the content could be more intentional. Working on developing Kindspace has been a juggle alongside our other business activities and the calendar wasn’t high on our list of priorities, but now that we have some new team members it felt like it was worth going through the process of reviewing and reallocating all of the tips.
We brainstormed as a team to come up with ideas and settled on new themes for each month and have pretty much completed the mapping exercise to decide where the tips should go. We have an exciting new web-based resource coming soon where you will be able to access the Kindspace tips in a calendar on your desktop which we’re hoping to have ready for March!!!
The new year can present a good opportunity to almost push the reset button. While you can have a fresh start any moment you choose, there is something special about the start of the year or a new month or week that can spur you into action. Often we start with such good intentions but don't create a plan to properly support our endeavours.
A big part of this journey into a new season in your life is your mindset and not being too hard on yourself. Change is inherently challenging to navigate. Our January tips will help guide and inspire you with ideas of little steps that you can take to form new positive habits or break habits that you feel no longer serve you.
To get you started here is an inspirational quote from the author Mary Shelley “The beginning is always today”.
In the 1990s, soft rock band Wet Wet Wet released a cover of the song Love is All Around which was used on the soundtrack to the film Four Weddings and a Funeral and spent 15 weeks at number one in the charts. When we talk about love we don't mean romantic love but the love that guides you and your relationship with yourself and others. Connecting with love takes real effort. It can be hard to let love in sometimes. How you feel about love starts with how you love yourself.
Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar describes this perfectly “Find the love you seek, by first finding the love within yourself. Learn to rest in that place within you that is your true home.”
This month take the time to see things, really see things and appreciate how precious life is. When you do this you will radiate love and it will bring you a feeling of inner peace.
Some people love cleaning and organising, some people hate it. Like so many things in life that we find difficult, just the thought of getting started can bring about feelings of stress and overwhelm. We can feel like we lack motivation, when in fact just getting started will motivate you to do more. Getting rid of physical and mental clutter can be a very freeing and cathartic process. Spring cleaning can give you space to work through emotions and streamline your life so that little life admin things feel less of a burden.
At this time of year you can use spring cleaning techniques not just to freshen up your home but to overhaul lots of areas of your life. Perhaps there are relationships that are sapping your energy due to the maintenance they require, or your digital world is robbing you of time to unwind and connect with nature.
So why not make it your mission this March to spring clean your life with a little help from our daily tips.
The human brain is amazing, and it is in our creativity and ingenuity that we can truly excel. Creative endeavors can be personally very fulfilling and in the modern world act as an outlet from work stress. Being creative can allow you to escape reality and heal from trauma. It can help you to express your feelings and work through difficult emotions.
Being creative can change your perspective on life, and help you find your tribe - the people who are passionate about the same things you are. Being creative can be very freeing as long as you accept that it is more about the process than creating a perfect outcome. The wellbeing benefits of being creative are wide-ranging. When participating in a creative activity you can go into a state of flow that calms the mind. When you are learning something new it improves your cognitive function.
Perhaps you've stifled your creativity or felt like you don't have time to follow your passions. April is the perfect month to reignite your passion.
What do you think of when you hear the word Discovery? Is it going on a journey? Is it finding out something surprising? Is it probing into the unknown? Discovery can be as simple as trying something new and pushing your comfort zone.
Over the course of this month, we're encouraging you to practice discovery in all its forms. Self-discovery is a practice that can be a way to better understand your strengths, values and goals. It can help you to question your beliefs and gain clarity on challenges you might be facing. By discovering more about the world around you, it can help you to appreciate different cultures and points of view. The wellbeing benefits of exploring nature and being outdoors are vast.
We'd love to know what you discover this month. You can share your stories with us over on Instagram @createyourkindspace.
Living intentionally is very closely related to being mindful or present. For some, it means being aware of the choices that you make and how they shape your future.
When you practice intentional living you might find yourself letting go of the things that don't align with your values and creating new boundaries. Most importantly intentional living looks different for each individual and will evolve as you grow as a person. It's about trusting your instincts, living the life that you want to lead and paying less attention to what others think.
This month we'll help you to bring intentional living into your day and share some tools that will support you to identify what matters most to you and which areas of your life might require attention.
In 2020, researchers from Queen’s University in Canada tracked the thoughts of 184 participants by gathering brain activity using Magnetic resonance imaging. The study published in Nature Communications concluded that the average person has around 6000 thoughts per day, Now while this number is lower than previously thought it remains true that our thoughts are overwhelmingly negative and repetitive. A lot of what we worry about never happens and can hold us back.
So how do we empower our minds to push past negative thought patterns or limiting beliefs? Awareness and bringing attention to your thoughts is a great place to start. Are your thoughts grounded in truth? Are they even helpful? To function at our optimum our minds need support and this month we have some great tips to help you get to a state of mind where you can flourish.
It's at this time of year that summer starts to fade and we start thinking about getting things in order. In the fields, cereals are harvested and the ground cultivated to prepare for next year's crop.
This can be a great time of year to take stock of your wellbeing levels and review the habits that underpin your physical and mental health. Wellbeing is holistic and both the way you think and the things you do have an impact.
If you're looking to refresh your routines then this month's tips will serve as great inspiration to get back on track with your wellbeing.
Our lives are so busy and we often have responsibilities for others that it can push our own needs to the bottom of the list. You might be feeling stretched too thin to even entertain the idea of taking some time for yourself. However, self-care is never selfish nor is it as simple as treating yourself to a bubble bath. We know that it can be hard to carve out time and ask for the time you need.
Your attitude to self-care also requires you to act with self-compassion. With that in mind, here's a beautiful quote from American writer, artist, publisher and speaker Brian Andreas “There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it is enough to be taken care of by myself.”
For even more inspiration throughout September our daily tips are here to remind you to take time for yourself.
Joy can sometimes feel like an elusive emotion. For many of us, we push joy out of lives through our busy-ness and sometimes even due to feelings of “this is too good to be true, surely something bad is about to happen”. Brene Brown calls this “foreboding joy” where we flip these joyful feelings almost instantaneously and start catastrophising about all the ways we could lose this feeling.
This October we’re encouraging you to look for joy and nurture those feelings. Just as negative emotions can spiral once you start to find joy those feelings will start to grow until it’s almost as if joy finds you.
November marks both Kindspace’s birthday and World Kindness Day. To be kind is to act with generosity and compassion for others. When we are kind it is not for personal gain but because we truly believe that the world will be a better place if we all look out for each other.
There is no greater strength than kindness. It creates a ripple effect that inspires those around you. This month we share ideas from our Kindspace community about how to spread kindness in your life.
What does kindness mean to you? How can you inspire others to use their kindness?
December can feel like an overwhelming month with all the buildup to the holidays. Maybe you feel a tinge of sadness for the things you might have lost or feelings of inadequacy creep in as you look back on the year.
There is so much to celebrate at this time of year, but it’s easy to lose sight of what really matters. Take the opportunity each day to focus on yourself and stay grounded in love and wonder for what is a truly beautiful time of year. We’ll help you through with some practical tips to help you find calm in the chaos and make your December one to remember.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by a task or goal? Did you procrastinate or did the voice in your head try to convince you that the vision was too out of reach to even try? Breaking things down into little steps is one of the most powerful ways to create new habits and achieve your goals. Small steps have a compounding effect. But you must remember that initially changes may be imperceptible. Consistency is key you need to stick with it. Don't beat yourself up if you miss a day here and there.
The real joy of adopting a small steps strategy is you will feel your confidence levels rise and you are more likely to stick with the changes over the long term because they feel more manageable.
Our tips this month are designed to help you on your transformation journey and boost your motivation and enjoyment of the process of change rather than being fixated on the end goal.
I hope that you agree that the new themed structure feels much more purposeful and aligned. Remember that you can access Kindspace anytime on your smart speaker, just say "Alexa, open Kindspace", no download required.
The calendar is available online via a site called Genial.ly which we love using to create fun interactive content, just click on the button above to add it to your Basket for free and we'll send you the link. We really hope that you love it and can draw inspiration from it even if you don’t have an Alexa smart speaker. We’d love to know what you think and if you have a favourite wellbeing tip or piece of advice that we could feature within Kindspace.
We have lots more updates and new features that we’re working on, but please let us know if there’s anything else you’d like to see, we love to hear your ideas or if there are any of our development activities that you'd like us to prioritise. To find out more check out our roadmap, by clicking here.
Find more great content here:
For the past 20 weeks, I’ve been posting TikTok videos where I share a different journaling idea each day. It has been quite a voyage of discovery for me, not only because of the awkwardness of being on camera every morning in my dressing gown but also because some of the writing prompts have caused
Read MoreLoneliness Awareness Week is an annual campaign hosted by the Marmalade Trust that raises awareness of loneliness across the UK and encourages people to talk about it. The campaign aims to reduce the stigma of loneliness and encourage people to connect with others. Loneliness was one of the main motivations behind the development of the
Read MoreKindspace is a voice application (also known as a Skill) for Amazon Alexa, which helps you to track and improve your wellbeing. It is easy to use with just your voice, making it a great option if you are getting fatigued after using screens all day long on your smart phone or computer. And we
Read More