The Spiritual Practice of Simplicity
/It’s 6:30 in the morning, a cozy sweater wrapped around me feeling the coolness of an early October morning. The sun’s coming up over the mountains in the distance, I hear the gurgling waters of the creek nearby . Sitting here with my first cup of coffee, I take in the stillness and beauty of the early morning. Before I check my email and review my to do list, I take this time to sit and have gratitude for this day before me. This is the time of day (before all the static starts), when I sit in silence, breath and listen to my heart.
I think about how I’ve simplified my life in the last few years and how it’s created more room for clarity, connection and creativity. I believe that simplifying your life, will enhance your wellbeing not only physically but mentally. Simply put, simplifying your life will change your life. You may find that embracing simple will work its way into your heart and into your psyche, it will open up space and leave you room to breath. Simplifying will create less efforting in your work and in your relationships, you may find a deeper sense of inner peace. We all want more time and space in our every day. We all want more peace and happiness. At the end of the day we all want the same thing, having purpose in our lives, joy in our hearts and a deep connection to ourselves and others.
“Simplicity makes me happy.”
When we were all asked to shelter in place last year, we had to adapt to the situation and change the way we work and live. After realizing it was going to be more than a few weeks and the reality of covid hit hard, many of us felt the need to organize and rearrange our living and work space, it seemed necessary for our sanity. We were all forced to adapt to a new way of living and working from home. If I can add a bit of optimism in these difficult times, and not to minimize the loss and suffering many people have endured, I would say one of the positive things that has come out of the pandemic is the necessity to reexamine our lives.
I want to share with you the ways I’ve simplified my life, how releasing items I decided I no longer needed cleared up so much space physically and mentally. Let me just state that I’ve never been a collector of things, you’ll never see me on an episode of hoarders. But I did move earlier this year, twice in a time frame of two months, so I was inspired to pair down more than ever. Here are some ideas for you to clear out space, I hope this motivates you to organize and simplify your life and therefore feel the tremendous benefits from it.
“Living simply makes loving simple.”
Create a capsule wardrobe. A capsule wardrobe is a limited selection of interchangeable clothing pieces that complement each other. These are often classic pieces that do not go out of style and are primarily composed of neutral colors. A capsule wardrobe allows you to create a variety of different outfits with a small selection of clothes. It feels amazing to open up your closet to see a well organized and clutter free space. As many of us are now working from home, at least part of the time, there are probably a lot of clothes and shoes you just don’t wear anymore.
Donate your clothes to homeless shelters, schools, churches and textile recycling centers. Kathryn from Going Zero Waste has some great tips on where to recycle clothes and shoes.
When you buy something new purchase from eco conscious companies, there are a lot out there now who are making organic, fair trade clothing with eco friendly manufacturing processes. The clothing industry is a large contributor to the climate crisis. A 2021 report from the World Economic Forum identified fashion, and its supply chain, as the planet’s third largest polluter (after food and construction), releasing 5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”
Cut down on paper: Get rid of paper in your life, most everything is digital now, opt in for paperless bills. I keep my notes and to-do lists on an app called milanote, there’s also evernote, both have a free version. This cuts down on paper in my home and keeps all my notes organized and in one place and I know exactly where to find them. And here’s a great resource to finally stop that constant stream of junk mail that invades your mailbox on a daily basis.
Books. Curate your book collection, keep your favorites and donate the rest. Here is a helpful guide from Becoming Minimalist with twenty places to donate used books. I donated some of my books and only kept the books that I know I will go back to, mostly non-fiction, art, poetry, mindfulness and spirituality. I now have a nicely curated collections that I can display on my book shelves.
Photographs. This is a tough one which I haven’t quite mastered yet. There was a time in the olden days, before we all stored photos on our phone, when we actually printed out pictures. I have a few photo albums I will probably always keep, because I took the time to curate and put together. But what do I do with my boxes of random photos? Do I ever go into that box? No. There’s the option to digitize the ones you want to keep, here’s a helpful blog post from the Mindful Mom on the topic. But this poses another problem, these photos are probably not recyclable due to the chemicals coated on the paper, here’s a resource on how to recycle pictures.
Kitchen Pantry. Nothing feels better than to have a well organized cupboard. We tend to accumulate so many cups, dishes, pots and pans over the years, half of them we don’t use and they’re just taking up space. Make some room in your pantry and donate your unwanted dishes. Your old cups, plates, bowls, silverware, and more can make a big difference in the lives of America’s Veterans and their families, you can schedule a pick up from the good people at pickup please.
Ask the question, can I live without this? when its gone will I even think about it? (probably not).
Media Intake: We all struggle with this one on a daily basis. I don’t watch the news anymore, I don’t have cable and in my new location I cannot get a signal for regular TV, this is a blessing in disguise. This has given me more time in the early morning hours to have a more meditative morning routine before I start my work day. I know where to find the news when I want to (nytimes online). Having the news constantly in the background, in my humble opinion, is seriously harmful to your psyche. Like most of us, I am continuously checking instagram and I am aware of it (most of the time). I am making an effort to only use it for my business and only follow people who are putting out good things in the world. You can simplify your feed by cutting out the negativity.
“Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy”
In conclusion, when your surroundings are clean and uncluttered your heart will feel light, your head will feel clear. Silence and inner peace is always there, its always within you. When you have that space and stillness, you tend to find the clarity and wisdom within yourself as opposed to seeking the answers outside yourself. You’re the answer to your question! And that my friends, is the ultimate form of calm and confidence.
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