All around the world, stress is increasing. It affects mental and physical health, with severe challenges to cognitive abilities, behavior, sleep, academic achievement, and health. Some say it is the number one cause of illness and death in our society. Unfortunately, the magnitude of stress is increasing as our lifestyle is not simple and more and more children are affected by it, directly or indirectly.
The art of keeping things simple can dramatically improve your life. It can reduce stress and give you more time for the things that you love. It can provide you with space to learn and space to just be. It’s important to keep in mind that just because you are simplifying, does not mean it will be an easy process.
Rather than be constantly burdened by a complex, busy lifestyle full of constant activity and material clutter start to simplify your life today.
Here are some great ways you can simply and balance your life:
Clear Clutter:
Many overwhelmed people live in cluttered homes. But, house clutter is both an effect and a cause of stress. Keeping it organized and clutter-free can make your home a safe, stress-free place to relax and unwind.
Re-Evaluate Your To-Do List:
Do you have more tasks backed up on your chore list and in your inbox than you can complete in a lifetime? Look through these tasks, discard the unnecessary, prioritize the necessary
Cut Out Negative Relationships
You may not be as aware of the effects of conflicted relationships, like the critical, unpredictable, or competitive friend. It turns out that these “toxic friendships” actually drain us more than purely negative relationships. If you’re wondering how to simplify life, save yourself grief, frustration and drama if you take an honest look at the relationships in your life and decide which are worth maintaining and which should be let go.
Learn To Say No
Many of us don’t treat our time as valuable; we over-commit to requests from work, school, and friends, leaving us with no downtime on our own. Be discriminating about which commitments you choose to undertake and don’t over-burden yourself at the expense of your well-being.
Reduce Your Media Exposure
Unplug yourself and breathe a sigh of relief. Too much media exposure these days can heavily increase your stress.
Create Some Me-Time:
We’ve become so busy with family, work, and constantly being in touch with friends and contacts that we’ve forgotten the blessed peace in solitude. Try to make time every day to spend alone. Go for a walk, take a bubble bath, or just sit and look out the window.
Automate What You Can
Getting some of the daily, weekly, and monthly work of your life into an automated system can help simplify life and relieve stress in two ways: You don’t have to take time to do the work and you don’t have to clutter your mind by remembering to do the work.
Unsubscribe Your Junk Mails
Take an hour to unsubscribe to all the junk mail in your email. Having to delete junk email every day is a colossal waste of time.
Live In the Moment
Mental clutter distracts from your immediate sensate experience (where life actually happens!). When you are absorbed in the present moment the mind becomes immediately more spacious and peaceful.
Simplifying your life is about taking things away. It’s about creating more space for the things that you really love and the things that really matter. Are you thinking about trying to simplify your life? Try a few of these tips and see how simplicity can bring a feeling of joy and peace to your life.
Namaste!
Love and Light,
Manali