Simplicity, Minimalism and Harmony
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” — Gandhi
As I sat in meditated this morning, I started pondering on what is this thing called Simplicity? It appears to have become a buzzword with no clear definition for our daily lives. I was also pondering the difference between SIMPLICITY and MINIMALISM. Are they the same? In my world they are not but have some similar qualities. So, I started thinking about ways that I want to simplify my personal life. I have always been a person that wanted to decrease my family’s carbon footprint. Would simplifying our lives/home help with that? I would recycle wherever we lived. I grew my vegetables with organic soil, only bought organic fruits and vegetable when available and affordable on our budget but was that enough? I later would go to the local organic farmers market to support our local farmers, decrease the fuel cost of transporting food and it helped me to be able to afford more. Was that enough? Then I decided to buy us “healthy” water bottles and filter our own water to decrease the plastic bottles in our home. All of these were wonderful approaches to being environmentally conscious but didn’t seem to address the SIMPLIFYING aspect, if anything it was more work. No more convenience foods and buying those plastic water bottles meant cooking from scratch and filtering the water myself.
I think that Simplifying one’s life is very individual. I am just now realizing that part of my simplifying is to look at all the ways I spend my energy and time. Is it in harmony with my life’s passions? It certainly wasn’t, I found myself doing a lot of shuffling of stuff, cleaning, and feeling as though I didn’t have time for anything important. I looked at how I was spending our money and found I was trying to fill a void in my life with things (and of course with internet buying its really easy). I found my schedule had something on it to do almost daily so that too was an energy drain. Just who is in charge of this one precious life I have anyway? Who is making the commitments on my calendar?
This brought me to really looking deeply at what is important to me. When I get to the depth of it my personal relationship with GOD and the peace of mind that I have when I am consistent with my time spent in the silence was top on the list. Other things I found I wanted more time for was writing, having heart connections with others, serving others in ways that helps raise the consciousness of this place we call earth. Things can’t replace these activities, thus the physical simplifying of the things (side effect is spending less), clearing the calendar if it doesn’t help my soul thrive began. My home is starting to look a little less cluttered now that I have been clearing things daily. This is a work in progress, but the simplifying is so freeing. It allows time for us to menu plan, only have the clothes in the closet we really wear, move in the kitchen easier now that we aren’t shuffling items we rarely or never use just to name a few.
I am asking myself if my actions and thoughts are in harmony with my life purpose of serving, being a soulsoother for others, consciously honoring this precious planet God has graced us with and being the best version of myself I can be. By no means do I have this mastered, but the first step is the awareness of what I really want to create in my life.
My definition of SIMPLIFYING is releasing all that doesn’t serve our highest vision for our individual lives. Each person has their own vision. My question to my readers is, are your daily activities in harmony with YOUR vision? If not consider what steps you might take to be in harmony with your life’s purpose.