sapientbreeze

Across many faiths, the mark of the truly devout is a simple life of service. There is a reason for this: simplicity is one of many roads to walking the Path. While this is perhaps viable in certain circumstances, most people will find simple, austere living impractical. Regardless, simplifying your life is a great way to triage a troubled life.

The Modern Era is best described as materialistic- it’s all about things. People are taught, and therefore believe, that having more things is the path to a good life. Unfortunately, this is a trap… as many have no doubt learned from experience, having more only results in needing more. The more you need, the less fulfilling your life will be… there will always be unmet needs in a life of plenty.

The only antidote is simplicity: commit to experimenting with finding peace with less. As with all aims in walking the Path, we don’t try to discard everything to live like monks. Extreme action will not result in permanent change, and unless you’d like to spend your life living in a monastery, it won’t result in lasting change. Lasting change comes from small, deliberate changes made every day. In this case, try to find satisfaction with less each day.

The best way to begin is to begin the journey towards simplicity is to review how you spend your time in a typical week. Do your best to objectively review what you’re doing, and try to decide on what activities are ultimately bringing you higher or lower. Activities that make you happy for a little while, but ultimately leave you farther from reaching your goals, should be limited or avoided. Start with the things that bring you down the most: find replacements that can fill their place that are simple.

This will require introspection, but here are some ideas on simple joys to fill your life with:

• Taking walks, particularly outside
• Hiking in a park
• Biking around your neighborhood
• Spending time with loved ones
• Sitting outside, by a lot fire pit if possible
• Reading or listening to books/podcasts
• Tending to your home (clean, organize)
• Working outside your home
• Start a creative project
• Write a journal or even a memoir
• Self care (meditation, exercise, stretching, etc.)
• Spend time with your people

Be kind to yourself – it is unrealistic for anyone to suddenly replace doom scrolling on their phone with yard work. Don’t judge yourself: you are a product of the times, and it takes far more work to break free rather than continue as you are. The Path is not one of least resistance, but rather one of heightened resistance. You will be tested, because there is great power in routine and blending in with the herd. When you start to stand apart, you will find yourself swimming against the current and facing challenges for every step. This is why you must take one cautious step at a time, and breathe. One small change, let it settle, and check in to see how you feel.

Let’s take ownership for how we choose to spend our lives. What are you engaged in that is most negative or brings you down the most? Commit to stopping for a week, and if that scares you, begin with merely postponing it. Replace it with something positive… exercise is ideal, particularly if this activity is addictive. Find yourself a treadmill, or run outside if it’s safe to do so. Pushing yourself in a good run is a great way to breathe through the withdrawal that comes from dropping toxic habits. After a week, you will feel the difference.

As you seek to bring simplicity to your life, you will inevitably stumble back into prior activities. This is natural, but not something we should accept without introspection. Seek to understand why. Often, this is related to external stress, and the activity itself is a pattern we follow to deal with stress. Seek to build a healthy set of habits to engage in when life gets really stressful… you need a plan, or you will always be one stressful moment away from falling back into bad habits. Find activities that help center you, and if possible people that you can trust to keep you on the Path. Strength from others in a time of need is priceless.

The more you choose to let go of activities thay rely on material possessions, the happier you will be. This is not to say that you must never use anything electronic… this means that YOU decide what is ultimately good for you. Perhaps you’re a gamer, and a couple hours of video games help sooth your soul. You must be honest with yourself, and experiment with less to see how you feel. Often, the most addictive habits feel like necessary activities until we experiment with letting them go. If you feel afraid to take a break from an activity, that is a warning sign of addiction. Breaking addiction leads to untold joys, but it might be the hardest thing you ever do.

This is ultimately about you, and your Path. If you are honest in your pursuit of being the best version of yourself, then you owe it to yourself to try everything. This is but a piece of walking the Path, and don’t feel like you must cast everything aside day one. There is no one here to impress, it is just you living your life. If you want to live a better life, then this must be done for yourself, and not rushed or taken on lightly. Surrender your bad habits one at a time, and work on how to replace them with habits that bring you higher. In time, you will feel lighter and more peaceful than ever before. Happiness, its already here and available to you… all you must do is put down everything that you hold onto that is making you miserable.