Good morning friends and happy new week to you! I want to share a little inspiration from Japan and nature today but first I thought I'd talk about something I sense a lot of you are feeling lately - unmotivated! Personally, I finally feel like I've come out from under a big blanket that covered me from new year's until today! I've been inspiration-challenged and unmotivated, like my creative fuel tank was at 1/4 and slipping rapidly towards empty! I get this feeling each and every January and attribute it to nature's way of saying, "Slow down. Rest up, enjoy the silence in your head because it will soon be full speed ahead!", and well... Nature knows best.

Animals hibernate, trees stand naked with exposed limbs, soil freezes over with no signs of life and yet we always-hungry-for-more humans still push with all of our might to fly forward without any rest or reflection. The moment our body tells us to pause we think something is wrong and freak out. More and more, because I've noticed this January pattern for several years now and am "on" to it,  I think something is right when I feel like doing a lot of nothing. My January down time is something I expect and roll with these days...  Who cares, I reason, I'll get back on my feet soon enough. This month, I caught up on a ton of boring administrative work, read some novels, went to museums and lingered a lot, did horrible expense report stuff and tax stuff and tried to prepare for the year before me. I cooked and cleaned and ironed and felt crabby a lot. I ate sweets and drank wine and just did my downhill spiral January thing. After three weeks of a giant TIME OUT, I woke up feeling like Holly 2.0 today which makes me happy because I know that I've gotten through it,  my groove is back and now I can begin again. I hope you are feeling energized too or are on your way and if not, you'll get there. Don't worry. You'll soon emerge from your little bear cave, too. You need these natural pauses, I think it's good for the mental health over all other things. Learn to accept them and yourself, down time is exactly what you need in order to do your best work when your body says that you are ready.

With that, let's chat for a moment about pure simple living because this is being highlighted by IKEA's Livet Hemma blog as one big trend for 2012 and I have to agree with them - though in my opinion, not necessarily only Japanese-inspired for me but nature-inspired from anywhere be it Norway, the California coast, Finland or the Alps... it's nature that gives us the call to balance and simplicity that centers us. Japanese tend to work with raw concrete, natural woods and light colors in their design and these elements are inspiring rooms in the home in the western world, too. Harmonious natural elements make us happy and for me, these tactile elements help me enormously to connect to my environment as I like to touch a lot - I relate and explore through touch which I am sure annoys every shop I enter because I tend to touch everything. Tactile natural elements are also nice to live around because of their warmth and welcome spirit but for some, the less "busy" an interior is (not a lot of color, clean, simple, etc.), the more inspiration can flow in and around that person.

Do you appreciate this simple, calm style in your interior too? Are you feeling inspired for 2012 yet or still in a creative coma hung over from all of the work you did in 2011? Talk to me people.

(images: Nina Broberg/IKEA Livet Hemma)