Is Your Life Too Busy?

Is Your Life Too Busy?

Simplicity matters.  The ability to recognize whether you’re choosing to live simple or in a frenzied manner will certainly make a difference in how your life unfolds.

I understand we live in a culture that is on “fast-forward”. Many children and students are rushing around day in and day out, and quite honestly most people are tired.

They’re frayed around the edges.  I can see it in their faces.

It was Confucius that said,

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

There is much truth to that, but I admit when I first read that, I think, “Is life really simple?” 

Well, it can be.  It is for some people, and some cultures around the world, because they choose a simpler life. 

So, how does one go from the fast-track to a simple, slower track?

First, make the intent. Purpose to make some changes in 2018, and I don’t mean scrawny changes. Big changes. The kind of changes that involve shedding some heavy weights and measures. The kind that allow you to take back control of your life, and your passion and purpose.

Make a Not To Do List

Sit down today and make a “Not-to-do” list.  What is it that you’re doing that you don’t have to do? By scratching off those things one by one, you’ll free some of your time up, but not so you can waste it on things that drain your energy.  How about taking that time to do things that fill you up? Feed your spirit?  Things like spending quality time with your loved ones, meditating, praying, sitting in silence under the stars, gazing at the magnificent sky. Taking a workshop or class that empowers you. Or simply doing those things you say you wish you had time to do.

“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.” Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau is quite an inspiration.  He spent two years in solitude in a small cabin in Maine to live deliberately and ethically, and he received so much wisdom that he’s offered to the world. And, it’s not like he didn’t want to enjoy life or was simply running from reality. He says, “I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life.”  

Now, maybe you can’t go off on a vision quest, but you can make some changes that can result in a simpler life. You can let go of some time-wasters. You can purpose to slow down, simplify, and live more consciously.

I think of what the Apostle Paul shared with the Corinthian church in Romans 8:6-8.

“Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God.”

The one who lives a simpler life, a more peaceful and joyful life, will not be obsessed with “self”. Will not be living the ways of the world, as they do lead to a spiritual dead end. Rather, those that keep their inner eyes fixed on God/Spirit/Jesus/Universe will live a more spacious, free life. 

And that, my friends, is a beautiful way to live.

If you need help making some changes, reach out.

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” ― Ernst F. Schumacher