Getting Back to the “Good Stuff” – 7 Actions to Reset Your Life Through Minimalism
Would you like to start again? Have a fresh go at life and the things you choose to enjoy and do?
Our lives are way too full of: physical possessions, commitments, expectations, desires and wants, and a focus on past and future thoughts.
We all experience them, and we are all affected by them to various degrees. Meetings, invitations, emails, instant messaging, courses and training, hobbies and interests, books to read, music and spoken word to listen to, entertainment to see, and relationships to maintain and improve.
A too full load of obligations and responsibilities leads us to:
Always being busy but never on top of things.
Pursuing short-term pleasures at the sacrifice of long-term goals closer to our dreams or purpose.
Never being in tune with what’s really important: calm, reflection, relationships, meaningful work, taking care of our health and our wellbeing.
Owning too many possessions, resulting in clutter we have to be responsible for, maintain, clean and sacrifice physical and mental space to fit it in our lives.
Rarely scratching the surface of all the things on our “To Do” list.
Spending too much money and getting into too much debt
Like a garden, the flowers of life get crowded out because we forget to weed out the clutter back to the things that make life meaningful, beautiful, and worthy of our space.
We consciously or unconsciously fill our lives with distractions from the present moment, sometimes because we don’t want to face the realities that life brings.
What It Means to Get Back to the “Good Stuff.”
By cultivating a positive and meaningful life we need to encourage what we want to grow in our life’s garden, and weed out the clutter and distractions that hide the beauty:
Weed out your possessions by get rid of the extraneous clutter that burdens you and find joy in owning little.
Weed out your commitments that you no longer feel strongly about: the committees, social groups, clubs or hobbies.
Weed out the junk you search through on social media and the internet. Flicking through feeds and short vids has now become the deadliest of temptations to distract ourselves from living our own lives. Limit your time online and choose only the things that improve your learning and progress.
Weed out being too productive — choose to do things well, rather than to do them half-heartedly just to tick off your “To Do” list.
Weed out the hobbies and activities that you don’t have a strong like or passion for.
Weed out your many aspirations and only choose those that will have a meaningful outcome for you. Often, we live our lives to impress others through the things that we do. Choose only the activities that bring you true pleasure. If you love painting, don’t do boxing training if you’re under the impression that your impressing others with how you are. Box because you love it for the challenge, fitness or moves.
7 Actions to Reset Your Life
Do you want to wake up each day with the ability to get up and straight into your favourite activities?
Reduce your life deliberately to a nearly clean slate. Here are just a few ideas:
Keep things simple to meet your needs. Own just enough clothing to get you through a week, that will cover all weather to keep you cool, warm or dry and enhances your appearance and matches your personality.
Focus on Meaningful work by getting the mundane tasks out the way first thing.
In your bathroom only have soap, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a shaver, deodorant and shampoo. Some soaps even double as shampoo.
Listen to and love your family and friends as a matter of priority. People are more precious than things.
Keep your food simple and nutritious, a healthy staple of ingredients and spices: vegetables, rice, grains, fruit, nuts and legumes. Keep your cutlery and dinnerware simple and get rid of the kitchen gadgets, accessories and excess pots and pans.
Reduce your hobbies to only one or two things for which you feel the most joy, satisfaction or meaning when you do them.
Use bodyweight, free park gyms, your bicycle and your legs and arms, or join a gym to keep fit. There is no need for exercise equipment in your household unless you specialise as a semi-pro or pro athlete with dedicated equipment.
If you could start with a completely clean slate, what would you choose to do?
Allow enough time in your life for relaxing. Many of us need constant distraction because we fear having to face silence, solitude and reflection as we are scared of the realities of life. Real life is found in nature, not in human illusions and fabrications.
We can’t always live simply, and we all face hardships; however, there is no need to self-sabotage and self-create hardships through attachment to material possessions and pleasing or impressing others.
Letting go of attachments helps you to let go of your ego too and appreciate the only thing that is real in your life, this present moment.
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