how to live a simple life Archives

Children: Simplicity in Action

10 August, 2014 — Posted in: Simplicity Leave a Comment

2677226728_4746c31095_b Have you ever watched a four-year-old squat down in the middle of wherever they happen to be and stare at the worm in the rain puddle or the pretty sea shell on the ocean floor?

A child sees and wonders, “How did that worm get here? Who lives inside that sea shell?”

I want to continue our topic of simplicity with some thoughts on living each day as if we saw everything through childlike eyes of wonder and awe, because that’s where the magic lies.

It’s not difficult, but it is a choice. And our choices are the outward manifestations of what we view as important.

Here are seven small things that you can do to bring about some of that child wonder – that simplicity.

Cut down on the noise graffiti. Turn off the TV – if not for the full night, then just for the one hour during dinner. Sit and talk with those that are important to you. Connect with them, instead of some nightly TV drama character. Hear them. See them. Be in gratitude for having them in your life.
Be in solitude for ten minutes every day. Talk a walk around the block. No cell phone, just you and the trees. Or if you are surrounded by little people all day long, put them in the stroller and take them with you. Or enjoy a ten minute solitude break at work. Close your door. Sit in a different chair away from your work station and just breathe. Tune into your body as you ask, “How am I doing right now? What’s going on within me?” Bring some attention to your inner needs. Be a good friend to yourself.
Play – dance – sing in the car – blow soap bubbles – hug a tree – drink hot cocoa. Do something nurturing and fun just for you, each and every day.
Sleep! Get your eight hours of sleep each night. If that’s not possible, then spend twenty minutes each day in meditation. Studies show that the deeper levels of meditation are as rejuvenating as sleep.
Ground and fill in with golden suns. These two energy tools will help you flush away the thoughts, feelings, criticisms of other people and replace it with your own energy. The more we fill in with our natural life force, the less room we have for the inner critic to roam. Remember that children do not have inner critics- only adults!
Be grateful. Wake up each morning and say thank you before you get out of bed. And each evening say it again. Be thankful for all the little parts of your life. What you think and feel is what you will be. Your thoughts attract back to you more energy of the same frequency. Be in wonder as children are – expecting the good and joyfully awaiting the next adventure.
Know that your thoughts and feelings have power. Much more power than you realize. How you think and feel affects the quality of the energy that surrounds you every day. What type of energy do you want to live in? Peace, calm, tranquility or anger, jealousy and frustration? Choose your thoughts well for they act as beacons bringing you in touch with the events, circumstances and people that are of that same vibrational family.

Simplicity is possible. We just have to want it.

We are continuing this discussion of simplicity, ease and joy in the bi-monthly newsletter. We dive deeper into the topic of the month, and I provide additional material and an exclusive meditation – just for you! Come join the discussion: Subscribe

Kindergarten: All I Really Need To Know

5 August, 2014 — Posted in: Simplicity Leave a Comment

2885861465_8b4101648a_z ……(yes), I learned in Kindergarten

I often will go back to some of the books that had special meaning for me. This one, All I Really Need I Learned in Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum, was published in 1986 by Villard Books. Here’s a snippet from pages 6 and 7:

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don’t hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world. Watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

Life is so complicated with emails, to-do lists, constant noise and confusion. Every once in a while we need to remember what life is really all about –

The being – the wonder – the feeling of joy.

Be that today.

This month we are delving into how to live a simple life. Here on the blog, and in our twice-monthly newsletter, we are searching for ways to stop the noise in our lives so that we can hear our Spirit, our inner voice, speak to us. Come join us!

Being Yourself – That Is Enough

15 July, 2014 — Posted in: Simplicity Leave a Comment

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In her book, Simplify Your Life: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Things That Really Matter, author Elaine St James says this: “Have you ever stopped to think about how much energy you spend – and how much you complicate your life – by pretending to be someone other than you are?”

She suggests that we sit down and go through all the major areas of our life and decide how each would be different if the only person we had to impress was ourselves.

Here it is:

Exercise: Being Yourself – Always and Only

Sit in meditation. Close your eyes and breathe in, bringing all your awareness to the center of your head. Exhale and imagine your grounding cord reaching to the center of the earth. Inhale and center, exhale and ground.
Now bring your awareness to the following question: How much of my life is lived the way others want me to live? Think about the house you live in, the car you drive, the activities you engage in and the job you have.
See a scale out in front of your closed eyes. On the left is zero and on the right is 100. Ask the scale to show you the percentage of your life that is spent in pretense. Asked another way: how much of your time and energy is spent striving to be something that you are not?
Don’t be disturbed if you see a fairly high number on your scale. There is no judgment here. We all pretend, to some degree or another, to be what we are not. This is just a check-in, a way for you to gauge whether the life you are leading is full of other peoples’ wishes and dreams, or your own.
As you come out of meditation, begin to write about what you’ve discovered. Would you change something if you could? Would you live in a different home? Have a different job? Hang with different people?

What you do with this information is up to you. It could be that you find three or four things that you could change about your current circumstances to bring you into alignment with who-you-truly-are.

Or maybe you find that this exercise is just too scary and you put it off for another time. That’s OK too.

Living up to someone else’s expectation of who we should be is physically and emotionally draining. It’s hard to get to simplicity if we are constantly struggling to hide behind the mask of who others want us to be.

Simplifying – Simply Being Me.

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Saying Yes but Meaning No

22 June, 2014 — Posted in: Simplicity Leave a Comment

Simplifying our life is really all about setting boundaries and sticking to them. Determining what’s important to us – to ourselves and our families – and not allowing other peoples’ needs to interfere. This is hard. This is difficult. And this is important.

Saying yes but meaning no happens because we want to please the other person, either to gain their approval or to prove our worth to them.

Each time we do this we place more value on how they view us than we do on how we view and value ourselves.

Think back to the last time you said yes when you really wanted to say no. Close your eyes and imagine yourself right back in that same situation. How did your body feel? Did you feel energized or drained? Did you feel full of love and helpfulness or did you feel full of shoulds and must dos?

As an example, I have a hard time saying what I truly want when I know that the other person feels differently. I want to please them. I want them to like me. Every time I say yes when I really mean to say no, I feel my life force energy actually moving out of my body and aura and into theirs as I think, “Yes, I’ll agree with you because I really, really, really want you to approve of me.”

Has this ever happened to you?

If you are leaking your energy out to others in shoulds and must-do’s, then you are depleting your own life force – and that’s not healthy.

Before you say yes when you really want to say no, stop and breathe. Give yourself time to think and ask yourself why you want to say yes.

Are you seeking their approval?

Do you feel guilty just thinking about saying no?

Does this yes fit within your priorities? (Don’t know your priorities –see this post.)

Allow your intuition to be your guide. If your stomach is queasy and your energy is suddenly depleted, that’s a sure sign that this request is not in alignment with your own needs.

There’s nothing wrong with putting yourself first. Remember what the flight attendant always says, “Place your own oxygen mask on first, then help someone else do the same.”

Above all, don’t feel guilty about saying no! Practice. Have your phrases ready. Make a list of how you would say no, and use that list.

Simplifying your life is learning to let go of those things, those people, and those shoulds that are not life-sustaining. This is when saying no and sticking to it is such a powerful tool. It’s major league boundary setting.

It all boils down to self-worth. How much do you value your time and your priorities? Are you looking outside for validation or are you looking within?