How Less Gives You More
Professor Harold Hill said — “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.”?Never wish away today.?Instead, make room for what's important.
Finding your happy place takes time.?I still don't know for sure exactly?how?it works and I'm not wasting my time wondering.?Less stuff - minimizing - makes life so much easier.?I'm just going to go with it.?Mostly I think it's a slow, subtle shift in how you think and do things.?My life was so stressful, I felt so helpless that I was at a crossroads.?Selling and giving away over 65% of your possessions doesn't seem like it would help, but it does.?In so many ways I never imagined.?I really do clean less because there's less to clean, which has freed up time.?Things are uncluttered because we only kept what we loved and everything has a place.?Our space is more open, more welcoming, happier.?It's easy to see what we value because that's all that remains.?Regardless of which room you walk into, it's easier.?
Pillow talk should be fun.??The bedroom is one of the happiest places for me now and it used to be overwhelming just to open my closet.?So much of nothing.?Even though I've pared it down, I've established more of what my style is - still funky, bright, mixed patterns - still me, but with more purpose.?I've broken down each category in my closet (casual, dressy, work/church, etc...) and created more of a uniform for each.?I'm not ready (and not sure if I'll ever be) to adopt a one outfit type uniform, but paring down really allowed me to streamline who I am fashion-wise.?In the last week, I've gotten rid of two more 13-gallon garbage bags of clothes and the empty hangars are piling up again, but I also bought 3 shirts for work that are more what I want.?Initially, I was unloading bags and bags of closet stuff, and it's taken about six months to get it closer to what I want.?It's nice to know when you're almost there.
Minimizing is a dirty business.??I'm sort of in love with homemade soaps and lotions.?I make my own body wash, but there's something oddly sexy about having a basket full of soap and lotion.?The smells, textures, and quality of them.?It was one of the weird things I didn't want to use because then I wouldn't have anymore, but I kept buying them here and there.?A few months ago I made a rule.?Use them.?Enjoy them.?Then get more.?One lotion and a couple of soaps are all I really need.?Seriously, what's my problem?"?What's been fun is that I really do enjoy using them.?It'll take me a while to get through the soap, but I'm almost out of all lotion and I'm actually excited about buying a new one.?This is another one of the areas of minimizing where I realized how weird I am.?Otherwise, it felt great to downsize the bathroom.?It's an easy room to determine if you're really using things and since you shouldn't keep makeup very long, it was a piece of cake to dump.?
It's all about the money.?Finances are getting better because our focus is on having no debt, spending less money, waiting to get the things that are really important (hello tiny house on wheels!).?We are more unified in our approach, more streamlined in our desires.?It's part of the paradigm shift that seems to happen to those of us who minimize.?Sure, vehicles need to get fixed, debt takes time to pay off.?The time will pass anyway, so we might as well use it to chip away at the negatives in our finances.?It's exciting to pay things off, get things fixed, and plan for the future.?
Indecision is a bad decision.??In my life, finally, I had nothing to lose.?It's said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a change.?What I was doing was creating stress.?Since I know everything can be replaced, I wasn't afraid to get rid of things.?I had moments of being sentimental, of hanging on for just a little longer but in the end, I got rid of everything that needed to go.?I know there will be more here and there, but when you start to hit the sweet spot of balance, it's bliss.?Take the leap and DO something.?At least you're moving forward.?
Get out of survival mode.??That's where I was.?A revolving hamster wheel of work, appointments, kid stuff, cooking, and cleaning.?I started resenting cooking because my kitchen and my life were so cluttered and overwhelmed.?I didn't recognize what it was that was off or why, but I knew I shouldn't feel overwhelmed all the time.?It felt like I was living a parallel life that I didn't quite want and I lost a lot of my happiness.?My initial instinct was to cut people and things I enjoyed out of my life and hole up.?Life is too short to live being unhappy.?There are so many things to do, people to love.?
Now with more time and less stress, I"m doing so much more of the things I enjoy with the people I love.?Don't live in survival mode wondering when you can get off the ride.?Less gives you more. So, step off and live your life.
---------
Jenn is Mom of 18, Transformational Coach for Christian women, host of At A Crossroads with The Naked Podcaster, Author, Runner, Minimalist, & Healthy Lifestyle Advocate
Rate the podcast
https://ratethispodcast.com/thenakedpodcaster
领英推荐
?
Website
12-Week Coaching Program
Free training
FB private group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/crossroadscoaching