12 Ways To Simplify Your Life

“Simplify your life. You don't grow spiritual, you shrink spiritual.”

― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

As Cliff Claven, the postman character from the old Cheers sitcom might say, it’s a little known fact that ancient Mesopotamians knew the secret to happiness is living a simple life, which is why they carved dinosaur faces on cave walls.

If the first half of Cliff's claim is true, then logic would suggest that the secret to feeling miserable is living a complicated life. The truth is that we live in a complicated world, where technology has advanced far faster than our ability to keep up with it. It’s a hurry-and-scurry kind of lifestyle for most of us, full of traffic snarls, confusing tax forms and the race to the next blue light special advertised by one of the big box chain retailers on Black Friday. Advertisers scream at us in radio and television commercials as we wait in the fast food drive-through window on the way to drop the kids off for band practice. It’s enough to drive people to drink, literally, or at least drive them to seek anti-anxiety medication from their physicians.

There are some 100% natural, spirit-healing steps you can apply to reduce stress and soothe your soul, and that is to simplify life as much as possible. The following list includes 12 ways you can learn to relax, breathe a little easier, and enjoy life a lot more.

1)    Turn your cell phone off. How many of us will travel long distances on Thanksgiving, only to spend the day checking for Facebook updates, rather than focusing on family time? Our parents and grandparents got along just fine without carrying a mobile distraction device everywhere they went. There was no such thing as an answering machine or voice mail in their generation, yet everyone somehow managed to survive. Believe it or not, many people actually communicated face-to-face with friends and family and rumor has it that some even knew their neighbor’s names and even delivered text messages in person on one another’s front porch.

2)    Quit multi-tasking. Stop whatever you’re doing and focus on doing one thing at a time. Cooking spaghetti sauce on the stove while working on that office report on your computer is a great way to fail on two levels at once. You’ll end up with a burned dinner, a half-baked office report, and frazzled nerves, all of which will lead to more complications.

3)    Just say no. Don’t commit to donating your time and energy to the local charity bake sale unless you have both the time and the desire to participate. If you do have the time and desire, then do it. It’s that simple. Learn to say no and mean it. If the other person refuses to take no for an answer, let them know you have other obligations or are simply not interested. If they continue, repeat yourself only once, but use conviction. A simple “Thanks, but no thanks” will do just fine. 

4)    Apologize when necessary. We all make mistakes and we all step out of line at one time or another. When we do or say the wrong thing, we hurt the other person, and that hurt will grow into resentments on their part and guilt on our part over time. Bite the bullet, swallow your pride, and apologize in order to restore peace and to sleep with a clear conscience. Clean up the mess you’ve made on aisle 9 before someone gets hurt. The sooner the better, of course, but better late than never also applies.

5)    Don’t live in the past. When we re-visit the past, most of us tend to get stuck into woulda-coulda-shoulda mode. We convince ourselves we could and would do a lot of things differently, given the opportunity to turn the calendar back. This view of life only complicates our thoughts and leads to stress. Visit the past just long enough to learn how you will do things differently the next time and then get the hell out of there. Living in the present is a far simpler and vastly more satisfying place to spend your time.

6)    De-program from the status quo. Who amongst us is qualified to tell anyone else how they should live? Just because we’ve been told that a college education, working a 9-5 job, buying a big house and raising 2.5 kids are the keys to happiness, doesn’t necessarily make it so. Some of the happiest people on earth have never had a car payment or climbed the corporate ladder, but find great pleasure living the simple life.

7)    Accept people as they are. This can be a tough one, especially for a parent. We all want the best for our children. But what we think is best for our kids and what they want are not always one and the same. A simple way to accept their choices is to first accept that, while our children are a gift in our lives, they come with a birth certificate, not ownership papers. Guide them and love them the best you can, always, but accept that one day they will grow up to become adults with their own free will to live as they choose. Want to change someone? Start with the one person we can change, which is yourself.

8)    Prioritize. One of the best ways to simplify your life is to create a list of priorities and list them on paper, in order of importance. For example, your priorities might include continuing your education, finding a better paying job, and a dream vacation in Maui. Sit down, jot them down and decide which comes first. Will it be in the order listed here or will your priorities be different?

9)    Stop worrying about what others think. Not one of us walking the earth has all the answers, nor really knows any more about life than the next person, although some like to believe their knowledge is superior. Until God himself shows up to explain the meaning of life, it’s pointless to fret over others’ opinions. Listen to your own inner voice and follow your own path without fear of what others think. Keep it simple by not allowing anyone’s opinion of you to rent space in your head.

10) Make “me” time every day. Plug in your headphones and listen to your favorite music, spend a quiet hour at the library, or enjoy the pleasure of your own company by taking a long walk alone at the beach. Find a quiet spot to meditate, polish your nails, write a daily journal, or find other activities that will help you re-connect with your soul.

11) Cut ties with negative people. Most of us have heard of setting boundaries with people that would choose to trample on our privacy and destroy our peace of mind for their own selfish reasons. Boundaries are fantastic, but what do you do when those same people refuse to respect them? Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do in that situation, except to cut all ties and keep on walking without looking back. Until you do, your life will be anything but simple.

12) Think before you speak. A wonderful way to avoid stress, misunderstandings and the resulting complications is to stop and think before you speak. This is not difficult to do if we are truly listening, rather than planning our reply before the other person has even finished talking. Thinking from the heart, as well as the head, is a wonderful way to keep your words (and your life) simple.

All happiness results from a flow of love to you and from you. All emotional pain results from a blockage of love to you and from you.

- me

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