Starting New With 1 Less Thing

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As each New Year approaches, we instinctively identify ways to improve ourselves for the coming year: resolve to sleep more, eat better, exercise with frequency, practice patience. In many cases, there are habits, relationships, experiences, or even objects we first need to let go of order to make room for our new, well-intended path for the coming year.

In the spirit of starting new, we have launched our “1 Less Thing” initiative at all 1 Hotels. Donation boxes are placed in every 1 Hotels guest room to allow guests to de-clutter and simplify, or even just create more space in their suitcase, by leaving behind gently used clothing which in turn will be donated to Housing Works.

Here are a few ideas for how to create space, set intentions, and start 2018 with positivity and perspective in your own life:

1 Less Thing: Clearing your spaces
Even if you’re not visiting a 1 Hotels property sometime soon, de-cluttering and simplifying is considered by many as therapeutic, or even life-altering. The old adage of “a cluttered room is a cluttered mind” rings true. There’s a lot to be said about clearing out your spaces, giving “stuff” away, and recycling or finding new uses for what is no longer needed — and there are a lot of ways to go about it. 

While we enter a new year, consider taking some tips on tidying up from One Kings Lane’s Editor, Cate La Farge Summers, based on her interpretation of Marie Kondo’s, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.”  

1 Less Grudge: Clearing your energy
Letting go is important. Choosing to forgive and forget clears energy and opens up the space to let new people in. Of course, it’s not as simple as just setting the intention or even making a declaration. It’s process that requires acknowledgement of your feelings around a situation (regret, pain, sadness, etc.), releasing of those emotions by talking about and accepting what caused them, addressing that release with the other person or people involved, then celebrating the release, even with something as simple as a handshake or a written letter.

Try it. It feels great.

1 Less Outburst: Clearing your mind
Meditate, meditate, meditate. Find a technique and a schedule that works for you — there is no one way to meditate, after all.

Here’s what some of our friends and partners have to say about the purpose and positive impacts of meditation:
V Art of Wellness, Healing Power of Meditation 
Holstee, A Three Minute Meditation
mindbodygreen, How to Meditate in 10 Easy Steps (Infographic)

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