Dopamine Decor is What Boosts Your Brain

Me in my home studio (photo courtesy of Kelsey at Ghost Ship Gallery!)

(art above is available- contact [email protected] to inquire)

1. YOUR SPACES MATTER:  Your home’s environment matters for those of us with delicate empathic and creative tendencies!  I work best when I feel nurtured in my spaces!

Science is also finding out that your brain doesn’t care about Instagram asthetics- it wants something else!  Your home should be authentic—not a carbon copy of “Fixer Upper”….express yourself! I love the term DOPAMINE DECOR- because I do believe it boosts our brains when our eyes are delighted by what we surround ourselves with.

via elle decor:  

“The science is clear……spaces designed for personal joy don’t just look better-they actually enhance every sensory experience within them. That means your morning routine, creative work, and even social connections could be more rewarding in a space that triggers your unique pleasure pathways. So go ahead-mix those metals. Clash those patterns. Display that “unconventional” art piece. Our neurons are wired for authentic joy, not curated perfection, and they’re waiting to reward you for it!!  READ MORE for inspo here. 

(art above is available and can be found HERE. )

2. How will you protect your attention in 2025? I am horrified to discover that I spent 1 hour and 36 minutes on socials this week on avg. and that was AFTER setting a limit on my iphone “screen time” settings.

According to AI,  2 hours 23 minutes per person on socials is average. (Teenagers are more like 4 hours per day)

How did we get here????

As Tim Ferris points out,

‘If you don’t have attention,
the time and money you have matter little.
Attention is the mother resource.”

The 15 minute limit that I set for socials forces me to consider (and reconsider every time the limit pops up!) if I want or need to step away. It’s a little annoying to have to hit “override limit for 15 more minutes” if I am trying to create a REEL, but I am finding it valuable.

2025 is the year I intend to spend more time in stillness and speaking on 2025….

3.  A Powerful YEAR END Question to Sit With is:  What were the most TENDER moments of 2024 for you?  I love the word tender because it speaks to things close to my heart…..mostly relationships and connections!  You could also ask, what were the moments that I felt the most connected or loved? Or something totally different?

3 of my tenderest moments were:  
1. Swimming with one of our kids in Lake Superior.
2.  Lying on the warm ledgerock and talking with my husband Mark after swimming in Lake Superior.
3. Swimming with my dearest friends in Lake Superior.

There is something about being in the water together (or resting on the warm rocks after) that makes time stop and presence GROW.

I want to create more opportunities for moments like these in 2025.

Other 2024 peak moments:
-Walking in nature (silently) in the boreal forest near Grand Marais with my husband
-Getting to see the documentary I co-produced with Asher Carlson for the first time in my hometown theatre (happy tears!).
-Watching my sister Maria slay onstage in Chicago.
-Dancing in ceremony with so many beautiful souls in Guatemala.

It’s a powerful thing to look back over 2024.  This is a lovely booklet that is FREE to download that I have used through the years to review my year and set intentions for the year ahead.

4. Quote I loved this week: 

“Artist is still the only unprotected title in our diploma-driven world. You can become one overnight, simply by a decision of will.”
—Simon Carmiggelt, Dutch writer

5. The Mythical View Is Often Helpful When the Future Is Uncertain (Which, I suppose, the future always is!).  Mark and I met an astrologer while we were in Guatemala a year ago. I really like how he writes about the start of 2025…

“Until the Spring Equinox, Neptune and Saturn are still in the deep water sign of Pisces, and Mars has stopped its forward motion in Leo and is moving back into the deeply emotional waters of Cancer. It’s a time of flowing and deep reflection, drinking in emotional health and self-nurturing.

Essentially, relax, take time to turn inside, and flow with the energy of going deep.

After this, by early summer, everything is much more activated, so be kind to yourself and build up your resources through daily practice.

The asteroid Goddesses of Ceres, natures cycles and Persephone feminine wisdom are strongly aspected and needed to be defended and nurtured.

With Pluto now established in the community sign of Aquarius, thinking globally and acting locally has never been more important. Many people are afraid of these changes. Listen with compassion but deflect their fears.

Stay relentlessly positive in your own practice of finding your buddha nature.

This is not a time for the faint-hearted.

~Deva Nirguna (at Lake Atitlan)

6. The 2 most useful podcasts I listened to in 2024.  So many of the people I encounter (including me!) sometimes struggle with wishing other people would behave differently…listen here. 

Mel Robbin’s “Let Them” theory is the thing I’m talking non-stop with my husband, sister and friends about—-it’s a twist on something you already know but the words help!  Listen here. 

Oh I could go on, but I will restrain my extremely KEEN self until next week!

with love,
Sarah

P.S.  Have you received your boundaries workbook alrady? If so, I would be SO grateful to you if you’d write a brief positive review at Amazon- these reviews help authors like me SO MUCH! Thank you!

P.S. Very soon we are going to practice adding one small CREATIVE habit for 30 days…it will be a mini-creative soul retrieval! You can learn more here and register.

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