“The greatest step toward a life of simplicity is to learn to let go.” — Steve Maraboli
How often do you hear yourself or others say “there’s just not enough hours in a day,” “if I just had more time,” or “I’d be able to have more [fill in the blank], if I just didn’t have to [fill in the blank]”? Do you think this formula of thinking will change your experience?
From birth, we spend most of our life gathering. We gather information, processes, ideals, things, knowledge, disappointments. We collect them all, but rarely are we taught how to assess what we gather and determine its genuine value in our lives. We create a story around everything and place a level of importance or value on each item or idea. Even worse, we collect without even realizing we’re collecting. Oftentimes, so much of what we are collecting is trash. Without this assessment of genuine value, we continue to hang on to each thing, each story, and expand our physical and mental containers for storing them all. It gets pretty full after awhile without a way to “let go” or, as I like to say, “exformation—letting go” (the opposite of “information—taking in”).
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius
It’s easy to see how you can fill your life and mind with so much stuff that the simplicity of living gets lost or forgotten. The way to simplicity has gotten overgrown with life’s demands, creating a barrier to enjoying the moment that is right in front of us. To create a life of simplicity, we can start in simple ways. Start with where you begin and end your days. The bedroom, or where you sleep. Think like a minimalist and have only what you absolutely need in the room. If you live in only one room, organization and tidiness will be necessary. Wherever you lay your head down to rest, keep that space clutter-free, neat and always ready for its intended use. When you awake, let that be the first thing you put back in order. Establishing simple habits like this will significantly improve your life flow.
My husband and I were chatting about a friend who literally embodies the life of a minimalist. He prefers his freedom above all. This is reflected in how he lives, works and moves through life. Most of us are utterly spoiled by our modern conveniences, niceties and socializing. We were marveling at the comparison. Most of us would look at his way of living and wonder why; some might even feel bad for him. This is his choice. To be free from the bondage of needing to live a certain way. He barters his services for things he might need. Many times this includes food. He does have a car, and even a small boat. He just lives off the land more than anything else. I realized in our conversation that this friend actually lives quite similarly to the cavemen who lived thousands of years ago. It was an accustomed way of living for most, once upon a time.
“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.” — Steve Jobs
A few years ago I helped a friend clean out her mother’s home. She had been moved to a care facility and her home needed to be sold. I wasn’t attached to anything in her home. I was attached to my friend’s need to get this project done as quickly and efficiently as possible with the limited time we had. We took an entire house and compartmentalized things into piles of keepsakes, sellables, donations or trash. What left the biggest impression was the number of things I personally touched that had zero sentimental value to me. It was easy for me to create piles quickly (obviously asking my friend her preference regarding larger items). Dated papers, old bills, half empty bottles and such were just thrown away. I envisioned my own house and the things I had. What if someone else were to touch all the things in my house, office and life. Most all of it would have zero value to them, and could easily be cast aside or thrown away. This insight stayed with me once we were done with this project (in a weekend), and when I came back home I started looking at everything I had very differently.
I began de-cluttering my life many years ago and my philosophy now is, if it has to be put in storage, you probably don’t need it. Why? Because whatever you keep with you to live is what is essential, to you. You really can pare it down to the absolutes. So even though the majority of our home is simple, I could see the need to be even more so in my office. Every time I touch something now I envision its level of importance as if someone else were touching it. Would they keep it or throw it away? It really helped to home in on being even more simple and organized in my life. And, yes, a lot more was thrown away!
“The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” — Plato
These are just a couple of examples of how you can look at your attachment to all the things in your life—your items, friends, activities and commitments—and see what are your absolutes. What and who are the things you can’t live without? Those you keep. The rest you compartmentalize and tidy up (this includes how much time you spend with people, and how much you work, etc.). You may not want to live completely like a nomad, but there are definitely some traits that could be applied to simplify your life.
With fewer attachments to things, your freedom to be and live expands. The time you free up by having less will give you more freedom to live in the moment!
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Photo, top, courtesy of Archie Binamira / Pexels
