Learn how to live a simple life with some easy to implement steps. Living a simple life can help you reduce daily stressors and live a more relaxed, fulfilling lifestyle.
When you think about simple living, you might think that it is all about reducing your possessions and living a less hectic lifestyle. Be it Pinterest boards or lifestyle magazines; we tend to see the term simple life thrown around everywhere today.
I mean, who hasn’t read about Marie Kondo promoting simplicity and minimalism? Or these amazing minimalism quotes?
But simple living is more about a lifestyle, rather than just the action of just getting rid of stuff. It’s also the action of improving yourself every day, learning to live (and be happy) on less and appreciating the simple joys of life.
What is Simple Living?
Now you would think that simple living would be a strict lifestyle you need to follow, but in reality, not everyone will follow this lifestyle in the same way.
Some people choose to clean their garage, while others would prefer to declutter their garden. All you need to know that simple living is all about finding that less is more and quality always trumps quantity.
It is all about valuing things that make you happy rather than giving importance to material status or societal beliefs. In simple terms, a simple life includes cutting down on things and streamlining your possession, as well as living a more intentional life.
Life should be driven by what is most important and gives you purpose rather than your status or possessions. Life is also about pairing back so that you have some space to breathe.
It is finding joys in the little things because you learn having more doesn’t give you happiness. When you find joy in the simple things, you also know to find contentment in solitude, contemplation, and quiet moments.
Related: How to Live With Less
How to simplify your Life
Simplicity is, in some ways, about eradicating the trappings of society by taking actions like downsizing your house, cleaning your space, and donating the things that you don’t require, which helps to create a more relaxed and less stressed life.
The majority of the people have been gravitating towards this lifestyle by implementing trends like Marie Kondo’ing and the tiny home movement. The new normal (US) lifestyle includes burnout (think 80+ hour workweeks and constant doing), so people are looking for ways in which they can slow down and eliminate this burnout, myself included!
Related: How to beat the Monday blues!
When you slow down your life, you can also reap some health benefits, including reduced anxiety, stronger immunity, and slowed aging. Consider implementing some of these ideas for simplifying your life to start working on improving your health and physical well being.
Simple life can also mean not having a plethora of obligations which either don’t meet your goals or make you feel productive (or that you just don’t enjoy!). Focus on doing the things that you love to do and challenge yourself.
You also may want to start simplifying your life by organizing your life.
Minimalism and Reduced Possessions
Living simply and minimizing your consumption can enable you to work less and get more meaningful work done if you are spend less money on the things that you don’t need.
In addition, you don’t need to live paycheck to paycheck or max out your credit cards. Simple includes things like small house movement (try these tips on downsizing your home), buying secondhand (love this option) and selling off things you don’t need. Learn how to get rid of that debt!
Follow Dave Ramsey’s 7 baby steps to get rid of debt, save some money and pay off your home!
Try to focus more on gratitude and be content about the things that you are blessed with. A simple lifestyle is all about getting away from luxury and indulgence but don’t worry; you don’t have to eliminate it completely. You can still feel rich while living cheaply.
Read about the difference between being rich vs. wealthy – you’ll be surprised to know it’s not more money!
Simple living means having a clean home instead of having a home loaded with junk which you don’t either need or use. A cluttered house tends to cause people anxiety, even if they don’t know it. Here are some genius cleaning hacks to help you get started 🙂
If you start living this lifestyle, then you should choose to get rid of anything and everything that you don’t use regularly. Learning how to live a simple life not only saves you time but also reduces your expenses, which is an awesome benefit!
Tips for Simplifying Your Life
Lower the Digital Noise
Our smartphones featuring enormous technology are both a boon and curse. Some of the cons of digital media include stress, envy, loneliness, anxiety, and depression.
When you are in front of the screen for hours at a stretch, you are most likely to lose control of communication skills and empathy (we’ve all seen those nasty comments on Facebook no one would ever say to your face). Learn how to detox from social media.
You can choose to unsubscribe from all emails that don’t contain useful or meaningful information. Furthermore, you can choose to make a schedule to reply to emails instead of checking your mailbox after every half an hour. Indulge in some digital and social media detox every few days.
By detox, we mean you need to delete all the social media apps from your phone or log out of all of the social media. When you are on a detox, you can focus on your passions, and I promise, you won’t miss social media after a coupe days!
Be Content With What You Have
Have you ever noticed that once you buy something you really wanted (ahem…those beautiful shoes), you feel good for a short while, but it is fleeting?
I’m right there with you. Because for the most part, material items will never make you happy more than temporarily. Of course there are exceptions, like my ultra super soft robe that I wear every day and it makes me feel so good.
But in general, material possessions do not equate happiness. Happiness comes from within and should be treated that way.
Try not to get wrapped up in the new car Sally down the street has, or that beautiful house Steve just bought. Don’t try to keep up with (or even beat) them. It is unlikely this will ever bring you any kind of happiness.
Don’t think about the things you don’t have. Find happiness in life’s simple pleasures by maintaining a gratitude journal, and when you keep an eye for details, you can genuinely experience gratitude.
Above all, if you truly want to enrich your life, you can choose to invest in experiences, not things. I find that experiences are what makes me the happiest in life.
I love my memories of wandering the streets of New York City with my boyfriend 3 years ago much more than the shoes I bought. I mean, I don’t even remember the shoes, or clothes, or any “things” that I bought. Just the wonderful experience.
From a financial perspective, try a no spend challenge to help identify areas where you can reduce your expenses and simplify.
Organize Your Home
If you are a beginner who wants to lead a simple life, then you should start the process by decluttering your space. When you clean and organize your home, physical possessions don’t dominate you.
You can start small rather than doing the entire house all at once. Something simple, like going through your clothes, will encourage you to tackle more challenges in the future. Also, you can donate the items you don’t need anymore or have a yard sale.
The you can move onto to cleaning out your fridge, pantry, garage, closets, etc. Just start with one area at a time.
We live a very de-cluttered lifestyle and I am actually constantly going through things to get rid of. We are also very conscious about what we buy and whether we actually NEED it or not. This eliminates any excess stuff.
This may sound odd, but I find creating a monthly meal plan helps keep me organized, as well as saves time and money every month, allowing me to keep it simple.
Enjoy the Little Things and Express Gratitude
I believe everyone would benefit by waking each morning and thinking about what they are grateful for. This helps set the tone for the day and may help keep you from going down the path of buying material things to make yourself feel better.
If you want to increase your happiness then you should jot down everything that you are grateful for as it is one of the most powerful practices which helps you in warding off those nagging feelings that your life is not enough. It is easy to feel that your life is lacking something in comparison to others when you are constantly seeing ads and other people’s posts on social media (see above, take some time off of social media!).
You might be one to experience feelings of low self-esteem or sadness from time to time, but practicing gratitude always help to boost the mood. **If you have serious symptoms of depression, please talk to a doctor right away.
Above all, be aware of everything you have and you will also envy others less. I know this isn’t a problem for everyone, but I have felt envy from time to time in my life and it helps immensely to take a step back and think of all the things I have. There is no need for jealousy!
Start by using these journal prompts for self discovery if you’re not used to journaling. They are incredibly helpful to get started.
Avoid Multitasking
You should avoid indulging in a plethora of tasks at a time as multitasking often causes a lot of stress, and it is not one of the most productive ways to get things done. Multitasking has been proven many times to be far less efficient than focusing on one task at a time and doing it effectively.
Your productivity is going to dip down drastically if you are continuously switching between apps. Thus, you can quickly prioritize your time by giving importance to time and ensure you follow a routine. This is one of the many habits of successful people.
And if you are not bogged down with task after task, you will have more time to breathe and center yourself before starting in on the next task. And I swear, the tasks get done so much quicker than when you try to multitask.
I started doing this about a year ago (I was a problem multitasker thinking I was super efficient). My productivity jumped drastically once I started to sit down and focus on completing one single task at a time.
And in that, my stress level declined as I started to feel less overwhelmed with the tasks at hand.
Read 7 reasons you should stop multitasking.
Stop Expecting Miracles
Patience is key. Some believe that by implementing some of the above steps, they will miraculously be able to quit working and live a happy, free life.
Living simply is something you must continue working on day in, day out. It’s a constant work in progress, and your inner self is always changing.
So be a bit patient with yourself and the process and know a better future is to come!
In Conclusion
Learning how to live a simple life can have huge benefits on your well-being. Life has become so loud and noisy and full of stuff. Detoxing from social media, ridding your house of clutter and things you don’t need, and focusing on what is truly important in your life is what simple means.
Focusing on experiences instead of stuff. Being grateful for everything you have as there are always those that have less.
Have you taken steps to live a more simple life? What are some of the ways you have gotten started? Comment below and let me know!
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