The Power of Living In the Now Series

Simplify your Life

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We live in a materialistic world, always wanting more and more stuff. But did you know having all this stuff clutters your mind along with your space. It keeps you from enjoying what you have, wastes time and weighs on your mind the amounts of money you’ve spent on everything. Simplifying your life is a trick to help you make mindfulness easier in your life.

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” – William Morris

Eliminating nonessential possessions. But simplifying also means taking control of finances, your time and your commitments and routines.

Here are 5 great ways to help you do just that.

• Learn to say “no” more often. Sometimes we want to accommodate others at the expense of ourselves. But this doesn’t actually help you or anyone else in the long term. It drains you, fills up your time and makes you less joyful. Be discriminate in your commitments.

• Clear the clutter. You’ll feel lighter when you get rid of things you don’t need. Grab some boxes and go through your home, from bottom to top, closet to closet, drawer to drawer, garage and storage areas sorting out everything you have. Trash what’s broken, useless, stained and donate what’s still good. If you don’t use something or look at it more than once or twice a year, it’s probably time to give it to someone who will enjoy it.

• Simplify what’s left. Now that you’ve done away with the unnecessary stuff, it’s time to re-organize what’s left into a workable system. Use closet and drawer organizers with labels. Color-code your clothing so it’s easy to see what you have and grab what you want. File papers you have to keep and scan the rest into a software program on your computer.

• Downsize. Do you really need all the space you have? Is it just a trap causing you to fill it with useless things? Consider getting a smaller place. Downsizing saves you money, energy and resources and is often easier to maintain.

• Stop multi-tasking. This scatters your energy. You can’t focus on what you’re doing, and it takes longer to do three things at time. Divided attention keeps you from living in the now.

Living in the now means finding joy in everything. Simplifying your life in every way allows you to focus on the moment by decluttering what’s taking up your time and focus.