Life is busy. Of that there is no doubt. Most people are becoming increasingly busy with work, social, family, leisure and a stream of social channels taking up our head space and attention with incoming messages creating more information to process daily. There is a major increase in stress and many people are juggling so many roles that life has become overwhelming and difficult for many both young and old. The processing power of the brain is being required to deal with tens of thousands of impacts every day with messages, news, advertising, emails, facebook and an explosion of social media channels. Simple living as a concept is getting harder to achieve compared to how our parents and grandparents lived but it has become increasingly necessary.
Living simply with a ‘less is more’ approach is becoming more desirable as people are realising that life is richer when we have more time. I moved out of the city with my son a few years ago to move to an island. We moved out of a big house in London and headed off with 2 bags each. The change in lifestyle and feeling of freedom was incredible. It was scary thing to do to let go off the stuff, old habits and places, but it felt good. We quickly found that we couldn’t remember what all the stuff was that we had before. We kept the special momento´s, letters, gifts from loved ones and books. But the rest – it went. With it came liberation from all ´the stuff´. Life transformed and new adventures kicked in. What was important changed and with it the whole experience of daily life. An adventure began.
The idea of keeping it simple is becoming increasingly more important and desirable in this busy world. I loved reading the recent best selling book, Marie Kondo’s guide to decluttering, ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’, an international bestseller on finding simplicity. Marie writes in a way that is simple but she has some really out-there ideas. She writes that everything around us has an energy, she recommends that you talk to your clothes as you put them away and thank them, say hello to your home and thank it as you come through the door. She could have easily been at risk of being considered mad and eccentric, but people have warmed to her ideas and love the concepts she writes about. The concepts do work and decluttering has a big effect.
I go through our house twice a year, choosing a room a day, to declutter, get rid of things we don´t need and make the space as simple as possible. Everything we have in the house holds energy and carries with it a charge of some kind. Getting rid of things to make way for the new is something that resonates strongly with me. I love the idea of keeping it simple, regularly updating and clearing out. It feels good to get rid of ´stuff´and make way for new experiences. Shifts always happen when new space is created.
When we get efficient at making life simpler, we feel like we have more time, more space for creativity, greater freedom and new experiences. The simpler my life is, the happier I am. Less clutter, less things to clean up and more head space. It´s not always easy to clean up life and get things simpler. We have jobs, responsibilities and many things that come up to get in the way. Taking a step back, having a good look and doing a habits audit is useful. Bring in some time saving hacks into the week, drop things out of the calendar and scheduling some down time like you would an appointment can make a significant impact.
A simple life is a healthier life. When we look closer at how to bring the beautiful and simple things forward into life, dropping out of the busy frame, we begin to experience life with a new pair of eyes and better good feelings. When we check out of this life, its the experiences and feelings we remember.
