Reclaim Your Powerful You! – Day 20
We have created a society that keeps us so busy we have mastered the art of multi-tasking.
How many things are you doing right now?
We have GoogleTasks and Calendars, iPhones and iPads, and hundreds of Apps to help us become more efficient at all of our doing! Our schedules are so jam-packed there’s hardly any breathing room.
We are multifaceted beings living in a demanding society, yet our souls are yearning for simplicity. How do you find simplicity in such complexity?
In our efforts to participate in the world and all of its expectations and demands, we often lose track of what we really want to do with our lives and our time. We get whirled up in a tornado of ‘shoulds’ and feel powerless within its force.
We empower ourselves by consciously choosing how we spend our time.
How do you spend your valuable time?
Whether it’s a minute, an hour, or a day, are lives are literally an accumulation of time. Thus, we create our lives by deciding how to spend that time. As a precious commodities – time as well as ourselves – we can honor them by using them wisely.
Simplicity, though not the only answer, is a powerful doorway to conscious living, while allowing both the time and space to renew your soul.
Here are ten ways to create a more simplistic life. Consider it a Simple, Simple Living Guide for beginners:
1. Set your intention to create simplicity. Be willing to release your hold on doing everything. Trust that your life won’t fall through the cracks. Remind yourself of this intention, whenever necessary.
2. Turn off – or get rid of – the TV. Our media emphasizes a harried lifestyle and sets high expectations on us about how we should live, look, and be. Television also consumes a hefty amount of our time with shows we don’t even like!
3. Turn off your phone’s ringer. Cell phones – and most home phones – collect the caller’s ID. Let your voice mail or answering machine take the message and call back when it’s convenient for you. (Do you dare give up that cell phone, or confine its use?!)
4. Only do the things that resonate with your body and soul. Stop volunteering for ‘shoulds,’ or doing things you absolutely hate. Hire, or delegate, the work out. Learn to say, “No.” Trust everything won’t fall apart if you aren’t taking on certain tasks.
5. Slow down. Wake, eat, dress, drive, and move through life a little slower. Leisure in bed before getting up, take the scenic route home, eat your meals sitting at your dinner table, and allow yourself to do one task at a time.
6. Bring yoga and/or meditation into your life. Though certainly not panaceas, these practices are designed to slow us down and bring our body, mind and heart into balance.
7. Take nature walks. Whether you stroll through a nearby park, or take a hike down a rugged path in the wilderness, nature walks not only require us to move at a human pace (as opposed to the speed of our frantic thoughts!), they also connect us to the simplistic qualities of the natural world.
8. Create a balanced calendar. Use different colors to schedule the types of activities you plan. This allows you to have a quick visual review of how much time you dedicate to your Work, Play, Home Life, Spirituality, Physical Well-Being, and other activities.
9. Stop chasing money. When the economy is challenged, it can be hard not to panic, feel the need to work more, or scheme up ways to make more money. A simpler solution is to release what you don’t really need, like 300 TV channels and all but one of your kids’ after school activities. Perhaps the Universe is scheming to make you simplify.
10. Take leisurely getaways. Create frequent, yet simple, outings for yourself and/or your family. Indulge in a spa weekend, go on a silent retreat, snow-shoe through the woods or picnic on the beach. Don’t try to do and see everything on just one trip.
Obviously, this isn’t an all-inclusive Simple, Simple Living Guide. Rather it is a list of suggestions for ways to simplify a busy lifestyle. The last thing any busy person needs is another to do on the looming list. Ideally, implementing just a few of the suggestions will help you reduce the size of your list and bring more simplicity to your life.
