I started Moments and the curation as a way to not only share my love for Japan and beautiful craft, but also to inspire people to spend more mindful moments with themselves, and add more intentional rituals into their lives. 

We are often pushed to believe that productivity is key in so many areas of our life, and therefore, it is so easy to constantly feel the need or pressure to overdo, or worse, to feel guilty when we do not. Yet we also often found ourselves longing for some slow grounding moments and calmness, and indeed, I would argue that sometimes rest is the most crucial part of it all, which unfortunately can often be perceived as something negative, or lazy even by some, instead of restorative. After all one word includes the other! I believe well-being and self-care has never been more important to maintain a healthy balance in today's modern fast-paced world.

And so how can we create more space for ourselves to pause and reflect into our daily routines?

Whether it is the simple act of making ourselves a cup of coffee or tea (and actually be aware of the whole process from boiling the kettle to pouring the hot water, to watching the coffee drip or patiently waiting for the tea to brew, to enjoying the very first sip. For me it would be the beauty of preparing myself a matcha latte!), running yourself a nice warm bath (and why not adding some magnesium salt or foaming bath), lighting some incense or a candle, diffusing some essential oils or spraying the room with some scented mist (never underestimate the power of scent), stretching ourselves with some gentle movements (or going for a swim), starting a creative activity (painting, taking pictures, knitting, ceramic are a few of my favourites), learning something new, going out to take some fresh air (why don't you go for a short walk during your lunch break?), or purely savouring a moment of utter tranquillity (in silence or with soft ambient music),...

These actions might support us to come back to ourselves and can make us feel better as we take care of our well-being. It does not have to be anything drastic or big, but most essentially something that feels true to ourselves. And the beauty of it is that we do not always even realise that we are already incorporating some of them in our days or weeks, the main difference is that we should try to do them in a more intentional and meaningful way.