415: The Life Nourishing Benefits of Welcoming Art into Our Sanctuary (and how to curate your own collection)
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
Release Date: 12/03/2025
No. 4 Un Moment de Méditation — Less Thinking, Deeper Breathing
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
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418: Neighboring — How to Do It and Why It Will Enhance the Quality of Your Everydays
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
"There's a sense of comfort and safety that can come with knowing [our neighbors] — and building a safe and caring community is a valuable way to stay connected to the place you live." —Diana Opong and Janet W. Lee, in their article "" Being a good neighbor is a daily practice in awareness. Both in what and who surrounds us, as well as how our own choices might affect others. Tune in to episode to discover 7 ways to strengthen your neighboring skills and also discover three significant life benefits when we put them to practice. Find the Show Notes for the episode on The SImply Luxurious...
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No. 3: Un Moment de Méditation — An Ease in Everyday Life
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
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No. 2: Un Moment de Méditation — How to Heal
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
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417: How Our Relationship with Ourselves Sets the Tone for the Health of All Relationships
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
“The relationship we have with ourselves is the most important relationship we will ever have, and we will have to continuously work on that relationship to break through the barriers that prevent us from true emotional intimacy with another person.” —Jillian Turecki With a new year's beginning, the idea of love may be dancing about on our intentions list. But in order to successfully experience real love, we need to build a foundation to be able to identify it, choose it, and then nurture it. Jillian Turecki's successful podcast shares advice on how to build healthy and...
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No. 1 Un Moment de Méditation — Courage and the Mind
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
Welcome to the first mini-episode of TSLL's new limited series, Un Moment de Méditation/Moment of Meditation. Find the complete text on The Simply Luxurious Life blog -
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Introduction to New Mini Series - Un Moment de Méditation/Meditation Moments
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
A new limited series begins in 2026, offering guided meditation to help listeners deepen their mindfulness practice. Learn more by listening to this trailer. Un Moment de Méditation is a weekly limited series that will run for one year, sharing one mini-episode each Sunday afternoon, about 5 minutes in length. This new mini series is in addition to the regular episodes of The Simple Sophisticate podcast that will continue to be available on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month. I invite you to enjoy me when we begin on Sunday, January 4th, both here, where you enjoy your...
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416: How to Find Peace — The Joy and Necessity of Solitude
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
"The moment being alone stops bothering you, your whole life levels up." With the holidays upon us, I have come to discover an unexpected gift of enjoying my own company during this time of year - the realization of what I most enjoy about the holidays. And here's the catch: when it is chosen, it is liberating. It's clarifying, and as the quote above acknowledges, it is life-elevating. This doesn't mean we are alone 24 hours a day, or even live alone. What solitude, regularly savored, gives us is the life we say we want, but either haven't yet realized or haven't yet trusted to be dependable...
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415: The Life Nourishing Benefits of Welcoming Art into Our Sanctuary (and how to curate your own collection)
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
"Art is a language without words." —Kate Bryan, author of Why art? Why bring it into our lives? Why spend our hard-earned money on it? We often hear about the skyrocketing headline-making prices of paintings being sold at auction, but what's the point of purchasing something if the entire reason is to accrue value to sell later? The primary objective, Bryan shares, in writing this book, is to remove the assumed 'closed doors' or air of snobbery about art that she admits the art world itself has constructed. But, and she makes a strong argument, art, seeing it, appreciating it, making it, is...
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414: The Art of Trusting Yourself (And Why It's the Key to a Joyful Life Journey)
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
"The more you practice reflection and appreciation, the more you build a reservoir of evidence that you can draw from in difficult times. You start ot see patterns. You start to recognize that while life has its ups and downs, you have consistently found a way to navigate them. You start to trust yourself more deeply. And that trust—that bone-deep knowing that you can handle whatever comes—is the foundation of true inner peace." —Daniel Chidiac, author of What if I told you that your inner compass knows the way to your most fulfilling way of living is as certain as the sun rising...
info_outline"Art is a language without words." —Kate Bryan, author of How to Art: Bringing a Fancy Subject Down to Earth
Why art? Why bring it into our lives? Why spend our hard-earned money on it? We often hear about the skyrocketing headline-making prices of paintings being sold at auction, but what's the point of purchasing something if the entire reason is to accrue value to sell later?
The primary objective, Bryan shares, in writing this book, is to remove the assumed 'closed doors' or air of snobbery about art that she admits the art world itself has constructed. But, and she makes a strong argument, art, seeing it, appreciating it, making it, is part of being human. And to cordon it off, to claim that it is only a pastime for those with oodles of money or interest to acquire art of the upper echelons is preposterous.
You may be wondering, Why is Shannon talking about this subject? What does art have to do with living simply luxuriously? With living a life of true contentment?
It is precisely because true contentment is grounded in presence, seeing, clearing, and appreciating the everyday that the choice to bring art into our homes helps us savor each and every moment even more. When we bring works of art into our homes, we bring in a moment in the artist's life as they saw it. Their capturing of this ordinary moment in time, however they depict it, is a reminder that there is "beauty and marvels in the everyday". Even if we cannot or do not want to even try to be a literal artist, by gazing at their art, having it be present in our daily lives, we are continually reminded to see the gift in each day - to consciously look for it, take note of it without taking it for granted, and to savor it.
Today, I would like to encourage you to consider, if you haven't already, acquiring an art collection to display in your home. Of course, how and where you display it, most likely throughout your home, will be up to you. Conveying your tastes, interests, and values in what each work depicts reflects a collector who engages with life in the present and brings their self-knowledge and quiet confidence to what captures their eye.
Find the Show Notes on The Simply Luxurious Life blog https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/podcast415