I am a minimalist by nature. I hate clutter. It makes me feel overwhelmed and it’s hard for me to focus with a lot of extra stuff around. I love getting rid of things – to a fault. I have often thrown away things that I still end up needing just to clear space. But the idea of letting go is so freeing. I believe you can “declutter” any area of your life and keep it simple. Less stuff to think about means being more present.
Whether it be what you are eating, how you spend your time and money, how you talk to yourself, how you take care of yourself and the people you love. All of these things are so important to live a fulfilling life, and they are all connected to each other. The idea of decluttering or letting go can be applied to anything.
We often live in a state of attachment. In Buddhism, attachment is the root of all suffering. We attach ourselves to people, thoughts, material goods, or anything else, and then when we ultimately lose that thing, we feel lost or broken. The idea that we can simply enjoy things as they come into our lives while they are there, and then let them go when it is time is truly a lifelong journey, but the more we can learn to let go or detach from what is not serving us, the more free we become – physically and mentally.
When we let go of expectations on how we should look, feel, act, or how things should go, we let go of all the weight of those expectations that we carry around. By letting go, we create the space for what is meant for us to come in to our lives, and more often than not, it is something far greater than we could have ever imagined.
It doesn’t need to be complicated. Living a meaningful life can be simple and easy – especially when you are committed to taking small steps to create positive habits that can transform how you feel and how you live. Your health and well being is an investment not an expense.
Every day you have choices that will reflect in your life, and it can be summed up by one of my favorite quotes, “You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of your choice.” It may be harder some days to choose what is best in the long run, but by making the better choice even when it is hard is exactly how you become stronger and eventually those choices you make will become automatic.
At the risk of sounding like a spiritual guru, love is the answer and love always wins. Loving yourself, loving what you do, loving the people around you and loving life are constant choices we must make, and by making some of those choices very simple and easy to do consistently, we create more space in our lives for love.
I’m going to make a blog post about several different areas of your life and how you can simplify them, but I just wanted to introduce the idea that you can still like a simple, happy life while also making changes and working towards a better version of yourself.
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