Do you know, to simplify life is not just for minimalists? It should be for you too, in fact, it’s for everyone who doesn’t want extra life load.
Life is already full of its own baggage with lots of bad and good habits we intentionally or unintentionally pick. That’s a lot of loads, mi girl. A load that presses you down while stealing your time to enjoy every moment, no matter how small it is. At least that’s one thing the pandemic taught me, every moment in life should be enjoyed.
So to simplify life, we need to add extra of the essentials of life and get rid of so many nonessentials that clutter our minds, soul, and body.
Get rid of these bad habits to simplify life
Bad morning habits
However, you start your day is how your day will look like. If you start the day with your phone, you will spend hours checking the phone, and probably seeing something that will trigger your emotions in a bad way. I wonder why we complain that 24hrs in a day is not enough, how can it be?
Instead of getting up, and checking your phone, why not replace it with a gratitude prayer and practice some self-care? By doing this, you’re allowing your mind to process the day’s activity and get prepared for it.
Unmindful consumption
What are the things you feed your body, soul, and mind?
Not just what you eat or drink through the mouth. I mean what you feed your body through your eyes, and ears because they’re the entrance to your subconscious.
To simplify your life, you will need to be mindful of what you surround yourself with in the digital world, these are places we pick up a lot of bad habits, that affect our daily life.
- What kind of videos do you watch?
- What kind of books do you read?
- Who do you follow on social media?
- What kind of blogs do you read?
If all the vlogs, and books, and blogs you daily consume are about people buying stuff, partying, having fun, you won’t feel motivated to work on your goals and simplify your life. Rather your mind will start nurturing it, till it becomes who you are unintentional.
I always give 30 minutes to reading some psalms in the bible or any routine I intended to practice in the morning before using my phone. I feel one-two hour of social media is fine (not all at once). Anything more is that extra life baggage you need to get rid of.
Overwhelming to-do list
You can’t do it all at once nor can you have it all at once, that’s the mindset that leaves us circling in life.
I get it you want to do a lot today, so you wrote down your to-do list with tasks, and you exert so much pressure to finish it. In the end, you might get it all done or not. If you manage to get it done, you might have stressed through it and if not, you feel all worked up for not getting it done.
I recommend this method to help you simplify, take out a small piece of paper or a sticky note and list just 2-3 tasks you need to do.
If you have more than 3, then I recommend you apply the 1-3-5 rule – list 1 main task for the day, 3 medium tasks, and 5 small tasks and do them one by one slowly, with no rushing.
Physical cluttering
I started this year with decluttering starting from my clothes to shoes, and books. I discovered there are things I never needed that took up a lot of space.
If you want to simplify your life, all the physical clutter needs to be removed as much as the mental clutter.
I know you might be finding it hard to sort, considering the amount you might have spent in getting them. Take your time and sort them, one after the other. To feel better, don’t throw them all out just donate them to the thrift store.
Too many goals
We have body goals, career goals, relationship goals, and life goals, all at once! Just let me tell you this, too many goals at once mean no goal at all.
If you want to simplify your life, state your goals which shouldn’t be more than 3 goals for a period of time.
Having to do all things to work out your goal can be tiring, and you end up doing nothing at all. So, cut down on your goals and work on them one by one.
Impulse spending
I’m guilty of impulse buying especially when I don’t want to miss out on a discount, and I end up buying things I don’t need, spending so much I regret later. In my mind, I’m buying to save more through the discount or probably thinking that I might need it later.
Whether you’ve gone shopping without actually knowing what you want, and ended up buying things you don’t need or you don’t want to miss a discount you’ll need to stop impulse buying if you want to simplify your life.
I recommend a quick way to stop impulse buying by answering these questions- ‘Did I need this yesterday?’. Yes or No. If yes, you can buy it. If No, then you probably don’t need it today.
Always borrowing
Have you been so much in debt that you feel, your joy is never complete till you have paid up?
When you constantly stress about money in debt, you find it hard to live a simple life.
Whether you’re in debt, or you feel comfortable with debt, you can never simplify your life.
So work out to get rid of debts at all costs and never be quick to take credit and loans.
If you’re looking for a way to get out of debt and improve your financial situation, I recommend reading this book ‘The Richest Man in Babylon’.
Excess online shopping apps
I know you frequently get so many recommendations on what to buy. And you would often spend hours and hours looking for clothes, not because you needed them. They are there to entice you. Get rid of them.
While getting rid of them, if there are some people who are constantly making you want to buy things after looking at their Instagram stories or YouTube or reading their blogs, just be mindful of them.
And if you feel like you can’t control yourself, simply decide to stop following them or better still block them.
Always yes to everything
Do you always want to help someone? Do you always want to help them fix one thing or the other? You are always saying YES to them. I get it. Saying YES to everyone and everything causes you so much stress in life. Most of the time you say Yes, but you end up regretting it because you exhaust your energy trying to please everyone. Take care of yourself, retain your energy, and declare your boundaries.
Trust me you won’t be missing out on anything by saying YES, and the people who really know you will understand. In fact, you’ll be having more time to prioritize yourself.
Multitasking
Are you one of those that believe, you get it done faster when you multitask? I know you do.
Multitasking is perhaps the biggest myth we believe in that doesn’t actually work.
When you multitask you don’t have full attention to anything, you just want to put yourself through it and get work done.
Imagine moving back and forth from one task to another, one thing to another, just to beat time, causing yourself a lot of mental stress.
If you want to simplify your life, you will practice mindfulness, with less or no multitasking, by being more mindful and enjoying whatever you do at the moment.
Read More – [How to reduce stress by taking it slowly]
Negative self-talk
Negative Self-talk can place your mind in a prison.
How do you view yourselves in your own eyes? What kind of language do you speak to yourself? How kind are you to yourself? Get rid of your negative self-talk if you want to simplify your life.
Read More – [How to overcome negative thoughts].
Gossip and complains
Gossip and complaints are bad habits that add up the mental clutter most.
Stop complaining about people and everything and get rid of gossip and all the channels that bring gossip into your life.
You don’t need extra information about what others are doing or what others are not doing. You need to be more mindful about the information, you allow to sip through your mind because they live for a long time.
Forcing relationships
One-sided love is no joke, don’t force a relationship that doesn’t seem to work. You can’t be in a relationship, just by being there, love shouldn’t be complicated, and neither is there a misunderstanding with issues of the heart. Forcing a relationship comes with so much nagging and emotional abuse, that renders your mental health to nothing.
If you don’t feel the connection, probably there isn’t any connection. Go after what feels natural and free-flowing. Love and friendship are always free-flowing.
Cluttered phone and inbox
How do you feel seeing your phone and inbox cluttered and unorganized? You feel your life is so messy right? Organizing our phones and inbox seem to be a hard task unless maybe we have storage full.
But you don’t have to do it all at once. Just do it folder by folder. And when you have decluttered r phone and inbox, you feel a great relief.
Always rushing
Life should be one step at a time. Being Impatient makes us aggressive and stressed. You can imagine how stressed you are whenever you’re trying so much to beat the clock.
And if you find yourself in such a state(which happens because life’s so complicated), simply take a moment, pause for a while, and ease yourself. Then try to do the same thing in a state of ‘no rush’.
[Read More –How to reduce stress by taking it slowly]
That’s a wrap here.
I know you’re thinking about how to get started. You’ll need to read this post and get determined on simplifying your, give it time, and start living it.
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