It seems that every year one of my new year’s resolutions is to simplify my life. I buy books about de-cluttering, look at websites for tips and employ a new collection of organizing boxes and bins. All I ever end up doing however is moving my stuff around; I just can’t get rid of it. Several years ago, while preparing for a talk about simplifying our lives, I came up with a really great list of 189 ways to do it. While reading through the list and trying to “simplify” it, I realized that my cluttering problem runs deep and infiltrates everything I do, even my efforts to simplify.
I’ve come to understand that while tips and ideas about simplifying are helpful for most “normal” people, for those of us with hoarding issues, they don’t quite do the job. I had to look deeper at why I hold on so tightly to things I don’t need. In the process I’ve learned that simplicity requires courage – the courage to let go and to trust that we’ll be okay. If I’m holding on to physical clutter, there’s a good chance I’m holding on to emotional clutter as well. Clutter, I’ve learned involves layers of stuff like grudges, bad habits, distorted beliefs or ideas that cover and cloud who we really are.
True simplicity is the result of living an authentic life, where we’ve figured out who we are and what is really important to us and we stay true to that. It’s about paring down and tossing out all the things that distract from who we are. It’s the constant process of determining what is really important to us. Living an authentic life is living our own life, not somebody else’s. It’s learning to live by our own light.
Living an authentic life is living a life we love and requires that we be connected to our true self, that we be in touch with our deepest passions and desires – our inner light. We can start by asking ourselves what we really love. This should be a pretty straightforward question, but it seldom is. After years of being influenced by the media, magazines, peers, family, we sometimes lose touch with what we really feel. We lose touch with the source of our contentment and peace. Simplicity requires the courage to walk away from the world. It requires that we stop reading the magazines, surfing the internet and watching popular television programs which portray unrealistic images of women. We must shun the messages featuring expensive tastes designed for success. We must wean ourselves from the opinions of others – however talented, creative and celebrated they may be. As we tune out the world, we will become aware that many of our preferences and opinions are not truly our own. When the clamor of the world is silenced we can begin the journey of listening to our authentic self, telling us which way to go.
True simplicity is a conscious life choice which illuminates our lives from within. As we look within we will find the list that is right for us at this moment in time. Each of our lists will be different because we are all unique and different. Below are the resolutions that feel good to my true self. I share them with you only to encourage you to make your own list. I encourage everyone to simplify your life because simplicity frees us up to do the things our spirit longs to do.
1. Limit my media consumption. Turn off the television and internet.
2. Simplify my wardrobe. Get rid of the things I don’t wear.
3. Limit buying habits – Do I need it? Will I use it? Do I love it?
4. Learn to say NO.
5. Establish simple routines.
6. Create a weekly dinner menu.
7. Eat healthy and exercise.
8. Establish quiet time every day to meditate, ponder and pray.
9. Spend time with people I love.
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