Embracing Freedom

"I've learned that nobody's perfect, and I don't expect myself to be perfect anymore."

-Carly Simon

    When I first began this journey to a more simple life, I started reading all kinds of books and blogs of people who had walked this path before me. In my quest I came across the term minimalism and a new world opened up before me. Have you heard of that term? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, minimalism is “a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity.” When this concept is applied to daily living the results can be very interesting. Extreme lifestyles of people whose belongings fit into one small backpack, who had a very restricted amount of monotone clothing in their closets, or pictures of all white almost bare homes flooded my computer.

    During my beginner days as a traveler on this journey to a more simple life, this concept of minimalism encouraged me to simplify a lot. Motivated, I would grab a box and go through the house putting inside everything I didn’t think we needed anymore. Author William Morris once said, “have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or beautiful,” and that served as a guide to help me decide what to keep and what to donate. I started putting so much of the house in boxes that I think my family feared they were next. I decided however, that my family is very useful and very beautiful, so I kept them!

    Although minimalism was a catalyst for my journey, I soon realized I didn’t like it very much. At least not to the extreme many people were taking it. There had to be a balance. I just couldn’t sell all my furniture or paint it all white like the pictures I would see. I needed some color in my life and it was ok to keep some things. With time I learned that I needed to eventually slow down on my simplifying, make it more me, and be content with the much I had already accomplished. With that in mind I could enjoy life a little more.

    What I learned was a great truth that I still hold on to today. A simple life is not a perfect life. A simple life is a free life! Free from stuff and materialism. Free from super packed schedules and constant stress. Free from others’ expectations. It’s a free life to enjoy family, friends, and to pursue our God given talents and dreams. A life free to serve and make a real difference in the world around us.

    Thankfully I learned that there are also very balanced minimalists who use minimalism as a tool to a better life. When searching for a more meaningful insight into minimalism, I came across a wonderful article by The Minimalists Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus on what minimalism is:

“Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.”

    Minimalism has definitely been a tool for me. It’s where I began and the freedom I’ve found so far has been amazing. If you believe there has to be more to life than the constant running to and from chasing after the wind and you are ready to embark on this journey to a more simple life, begin by simplifying your belongings. We live in a society that encourages consumerism, so it’s very easy to accumulate stuff,  but take a hard look at what you have and decide what you must keep and what can leave the house. You can either sell, donate, or throw away. Go through your closet. You know what clothes you’re not wearing anymore. Go through your kitchen. That’s a place where it’s easy to have doubles or triples of certain things. What about your decorations? Keep only the ones you really like.

    As you are going through your things, start thinking of what you will do with your new “free” time when you don’t have to use it to constantly clean and organize your home. That can be very motivating. Maybe you’ll start reading more. Maybe you’ll decide to go back to school. Maybe you’ll start spending more time with friends. Perhaps you and your family can begin a weekly game night. What about finally begin exercising? Maybe you can begin volunteering at your favorite charity or you can even start your own. You can use your new found time to enjoy truly meaningful moments with God. Whatever you decide to do, I strongly encourage you to let go of the weight of stuff and embrace an abundant free life.

Resources:
The Minimalists in https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/

Choosing an Abundant Life

   

“Life is a matter of choices, 

and every choice you make makes you.” 

—John C. Maxwell

     You've decided that a more simple life sounds wonderful. More time for family and friends, a clutter-free home, more money, and opportunities to grow and do things you enjoy more. So what’s the next step?
   
    Living a more abundant life does not begin by doing a garage sale or donating half of your belongings to charity. It does not begin by emptying your calendar of unnecessary commitments or becoming a master in the art of saying no. It doesn’t begin by planning a trip with your family so you can spend more time together. No. Change happens after one thing and one thing only: choice. As a human being with free choice, you have have to choose change, you have to choose that simple life. Once you've decided this is the way to go, then you can implement change.

   There are a few things that can motivate your decision. Maybe you are feeling unhappy with the materialistic life you find yourself prisoner of. Maybe you're realizing your children are growing and you are missing out on the best of their growing years. Whatever the reason, you have that slightly uneasy feeling that things are not exactly how they should be, so you want to take steps to improve your life.

    You may also be motivated by the fact that you’ve had enough of life in the fast lane. That you’ve had it with sleeping less than the recommended 7-8 hours per night, and that it’s time to move the bags under your eyes to a different zip code. That you’re done working late hours at the office and missing dinner with the family. You must decide that you’ve had it with the clutter in your home and the constant cleaning, organizing, and stuff shuffling.

    I once heard American businessman and motivational speaker Dave Ramsey, speaking on eliminating debt, say that we have to be “sick and tired of being sick and tired” in order to change and become debt free. He was not the first one to say this. Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hammer said this same sentence in 1964 on national TV when talking about the unfair treatment of African Americans in Mississippi. Both personalities in their own way, were tired of how things were going, and wanted to change. And change they did! Just read their stories.

    Whether you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired or you’re just passively wanting to improve your life,  you are finally ready to choose change. For me personally, I had to decide I was done carrying my stuff around from place to place with all our moves in order to begin simplifying my belongings. I also had had enough of frequent colds, allergies, and the nagging gallbladder discomfort in order to change my diet and start filling this one body I’m given with nutritious foods. To simplify my calendar was a more passive choice, but I did it once I realized how it could improve my life. Once the choice to change had been made, it was much easier to carry it through.

    As you read these words, you may be thinking of things that you can improve in your life. As you look around you may notice you can’t see the top of your desk because it’s full of stuff. Or maybe you have your head buried on your phone while your children play alone in the playground. Perhaps you’re just about to add one more thing to your to-do list, or you just realized that the money has ended before the month. In your mind you know it's time for a change and you've decided to choose change. Maybe it’s time to let go of clothes you haven’t used in a long time. Perhaps it’s time to trim your recipe collection or clean your inbox of junk mail. This may be the right time to stop working late at the office. Whatever it is know that abundant living has been promised to you no matter where you live or how old you are, so it's yours to have. Don't allow yourself to be robbed of that promise. Let the journey to a more abundant life begin! It won't be easy, but it will be so worth it!

References:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/remembering-civil-rights-heroine-fannie-lou-hamer-im-sick-and-tired-of-being-sick-and-tired

Simplifying Your Environment

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”  

- William Morris 

     I had been sitting on the floor of my home office working on a scrap booking project busy with my thoughts, when I decided it was time to get a box and go through some of the things that I didn’t need anymore. Once in a while I like to go on a minimization spree through the house as it’s very easy to accumulate stuff. So the empty boxes found a temporary home in my office as I brought things from other parts of the house and placed them inside the boxes. Without even realizing it, soon the floor of the room was full of stuff mixed together with my scrap booking project materials, and the office transformed into a mess. I didn’t think much about it at first as I knew the disorganization was temporary, until one day I felt a stress I hadn’t felt in a long time. I felt stressed not because of my super packed schedule or because of the many difficulties I’d been facing lately. I felt stressed because my home office, which I use daily, all of a sudden was chaotic.
    
     I knew it would be difficult to work in such an environment, so I decided to take action. The boxes found a new temporary home in the garage and will be there until they are full and ready to go to the donation center, and my scrapbooking project, which I know will take me a while to complete, moved to a smaller desk I have in the office. With everything back in place, that all-too-familiar-but-not-missed feeling of stress disappeared. I breathed in deeper. Several years ago I lived with that feeling of stress and chaos constantly, but since I began this journey to simplify my life, which has included minimizing the things I own, that stress has been replaced with a sense of calm in the home. I like it better now and I don’t want to go back!
    
     Do you think our environment matters? Does the environment we live and work in affect us mentally, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually? According to an article on Psychology Today referencing a study by the University of New Mexico, environmental clutter affects us negatively in many ways. Lower sense of well-being, unhealthier eating, poorer mental health, and less efficient thinking are some of the ways we are negatively affected by a cluttered environment. I would add, from personal experience, increase in stress, decrease in productivity, and decrease in energy.
    
     The benefits of a healthy environment are many. Living in a clutter-free environment increases productivity and creativity. Since I cleared my kitchen counters from most appliances, decorations, and what-nots, I am more creative with meals and have a lot more fun inventing new recipes. We eat a lot healthier too. A clutter-free environment gives us a sense of inner peace and less stress. It affects our physical well being as well. Just think of less dust for example. As a clean and germs freak, I love this! Another benefit of a clutter-free environment is less time spent cleaning and organizing, which means more time to use on things that are more important or that we enjoy doing more. For me it has translated into more time with family, with friends, more time serving others, and more time reading and writing.
    
     Why am I sharing all this? My journey to a more simple life began several years ago when moving from Alaska to Texas. We were forced by circumstances to leave behind many of our earthly belongings. Though stressful at the time, looking back, it was the best thing that ever happened as it opened the door to a new path and a more abundant life. This journey began with having fewer material things and it has expanded from there. From my experience, this is the best place to begin. When our environment is free of clutter, there is space for other more important things. Like I said before, I have by no means arrived at the perfect simple life, but I know I’m headed in that direction and the journey has simply been amazing!

     The Bible counsel us to seek and pursue peace (Psalm 34:14). Our environment has a huge weight on our sense of well being and peace. Start by simplifying your surroundings. Look around your home and decide what you don't want anymore and either sell or donate it. Anything that is robbing you of peace and energy must go. I'll share how we did it on a future post, but until then I'd like to encourage you to simplify your life and free it for more abundant living.

Resources:

http://creationhealth.com/CREATION-Health/Environment

https://www.becomingminimalist.com/becoming-minimalist-start-here/
 
The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own by Joshua Becker.