RazzWorks

Pursuing your life goals can be frustrating at times. You may question if you’re enjoying life and wonder about your own happiness. Now might be the time to try good simple living.

As we grow up in today’s society, we tend to misinterpret the true meaning of happiness. From an early stage in life, we tend to learn or associate being happy with being successful at something or having more. This ‘more’ can mean different things to different people. Success, happiness, and more for a majority become blurred together as if they all meant the same thing.

Through different stages in life’s journey, we may think things subconsciously like ‘to be happy means: lots of friends, popularity, really good and successful at playing an instrument, making more money or being successful in a career or business, traveling more or to greater places, owning bigger and better things.’ Now I’m not saying you can’t be truly happy in any of these circumstances. I’m merely indicating that for many happiness eludes them because so much time, energy, and resources are spent, and in the end, as fun as the journey might have been deep inside they somehow realize they aren’t truly happy with their lives.

What is it that many of us missed then? One little thing. True joy or happiness is not from the outside things we collect or acquire. Happiness and joy are cultivated by the little choices we make on the inside. Choices like how we choose to respond to people, and situations in life, what we choose to believe in ourselves, and how we choose to spend our time. The choices in how we treat ourselves and others along our journey in life.

So, simply put happiness or inner joy is not created by things, people, or circumstances outside of ourselves. Rather by how we choose to think and feel about ourselves, and how we choose to respond or react to the pressures of life.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you need to give everything up or don’t strive for anything. As a matter of fact, I strongly recommend that you strive for greatness in life. Whether it be in a hobby, skill, career, sport, or something within. I am only suggesting that along the way you practice good simple living to decrease the stress of thinking and worrying about the things that really don’t matter in the end. This way we can have a better clearer focus on the things that do matter most to us, so we can truly be happy and be able to enjoy life more fully.

Why consider a simpler lifestyle?

LESS STRESS
The number one reason why we all should consider good simple living is the simple fact that it would make things a little less stressful in our lives. We are bombarded with complicated issues that interfere with our ability to enjoy life. Solving problems, and always being on your toes dealing with complicated issues whether it’s circumstances or people and relationships can become very taxing on the mind.

So working on ways to have a simpler lifestyle increases opportunities to enjoy moments, the more moments we enjoy, the happier we start feeling over time. So hence the longer we keep practicing good simple living, the less and less stressed we become, making it a bit easier to deal with issues that come up. In the end, you start truly feeling inner joy and happiness.

WOW! Amazing 3 More Benefits of Good Simple Living

BETTER Stronger FOCUS
One of the common things that happen to us, is how the outside world tugs and pulls on us in various directions. We end up spending our mental energy on multiple things, at times so much so that we can feel like we’re drifting through life. Whereas taking the time to make our lives a little simpler causes us to start focusing on the things that truly matter.

You get a better sense of control over the direction you most want to spend your time and energy on. As you start choosing what is important to you your life will become more meaningful, and you start enjoying it more and more. This is because you are becoming more and more focused. What you focus on is going to be different for everyone.

Some of the common areas include things like your wellness, whether it be physical or mental. Perhaps for you, it’s going to be the relationships you nourish with friends, family, or a significant other. It could be your hopes, dreams, and desires, aiming to be great at something. Or to focus on the little things that give us peace of mind and enjoyment. Whatever it is, you will have a clearer focus on what direction you want to go when you choose good simple living.

LESS DRAIN on your Resources
Spending life always trying to accumulate more very seldom makes one feel fulfilled. Most likely it will cause you to feel more spent. It becomes a drain on your emotional wellness, as well as, at times, physically, and a drain on your finances. Making life a little simpler means you stop trying to collect so much stuff. It’s just stuff, and the means you use to acquire all these things do not bring real joy. Slowing down your efforts to accumulate more gives you the time to enjoy what you already have. Enjoying whatever riches you already have allows you to start appreciating things greater, which is less draining on you physically, emotionally, and possibly financially as well.

Your SELF-AWARENESS Improves
One of the greatest benefits of choosing good simple living is the fact that you become more self-aware. It occurs because you slow down and think things through. You enjoy moments of time greater. Which means you become more aware of what is important to you. You come to know and understand your feelings and things you need to work on. You reflect on things further. You pause more often. Then a circle begins to happen. The more you pause and reflect the better you come to know and understand yourself, along with finding out the things that do truly make you happy or help you enjoy life. Just working on making life a little simpler for yourself improves your self-awareness as time goes on.

I would like to point out that choosing to simplify your life does not mean you have to give things up or do without. It’s not about having less. If anything I believe it’s the exact opposite. It’s about gaining. Gaining a better understanding of yourself and discovering what is truly important to you. It’s about gaining extra time for the things that give you enjoyment in life. Gaining a better appreciation for the good things in life and taking a moment to enjoy them, whether it be friends and family, hobbies, or striving for greatness in your life.

The gaining of true self-worth and the confidence to pursue the things that truly enrich you. The greatest gain is self-empowerment because you’re making conscious choices of the direction you choose to travel along your journey of life instead of being swayed by the opinion of others.

A Simple Start to a Simpler Lifestyle

In the event that you are new to the concept of good simple living. Here are a couple of ideas for you to consider to give yourself a place to start. Ultimately how you choose to cultivate a simple lifestyle for yourself will be completely up to you. After all, the true underlying principle is all about making conscious choices for making your life simpler so you can be better able to truly enjoy it.

Give yourself a Cyber break
With this, you are going briefly remove the distractions that pull your eyes down into the virtual digital frontier. At the same time, I recommend you put your devices on mute as well. How long you wish to do this is purely up to you. You can, in as little as 300 seconds, enjoy a sense of awe. You simply shut off your notifications, emails, videos, games, or whatever it is on your phone, tablet, laptop, or any other electronic device that loves to scream out “Look at me!”.

Then for the few minutes, you chose you can close your eyes or stare out into the horizon. Basically, you choose a time to give your eyes and ears a short break from the internet / digital world. Who knows you might decide to do this once a day, and then sit, relax, and enjoy your favorite beverage in peace and quiet.

Relax and take a breath
Make a point to pause, sit, and relax. If you are super busy all the time, then you really should give this a go. You choose how long you want to do this. 1 min., 5 min., or 20 min. It’s your time so it’s up to you. As to what to do, well, you could just take a few seconds and observe how you feel, think, or just what’s going on around you.

You can relax and just pay attention to your breathing pattern. Or you could simply take time to be in the moment and take everything in. You can even use the time to do some mental reflection. Maybe think about what’s truly important to you or what success means to you.

Benefits of a simple lifestyle

BETTER stronger FOCUS
LESS DRAIN on your resources
Improved SELF-AWARENESS
Less STRESS

What you Gain from it

Summary of a Simple Lifestyle

A quick recap of what we covered. In today’s world, many of us get caught up in success and the accumulation of things. In the process, we tend to misunderstand what it means to be happy or fulfilled. Ending up with this fuzzy idea that stressing ourselves out chasing success, fame, or wealth is the meaning of joy and happiness, failing to understand that true joy, happiness, and fulfillment is something gained from the little choices we make internally throughout our lives. It’s not an end goal but rather the result of little choices we make for ourselves regarding what we value and matter most.

Choosing to live a simpler life is to pause and reflect; slow down a little bit, while pursuing your goals, dreams, or striving for greatness. It’s a way of thinking, so you can enjoy life’s good moments more. In return, you get the benefit of less stress from the bombardment of life’s difficult issues and problems. A better focus on what truly matters to you. Less of your energy, emotions, money, and resources are being drained. A stronger knowledge of yourself, being more aware of how you feel and what motivates you.

Finally choosing to live a more simple lifestyle does not require you to give up on things but rather it rewards you with many gains. Self-discovery, time for enjoyment for what matters, appreciation of what is good in your life, self-worth, confidence, and self-empowerment.

The easiest way to begin is to simply pause from the internet and distractions in life, sit, breathe in the air, and simply observe your surroundings, what’s going or what you are thinking or feeling. Simplicity, simply pause and observe, how simple is that?

We, here at RazzWorks, would love to hear any stories you have where you simplified your life in some way, and don’t forget to tell us how you benefited from that choice. Also feel free to go ahead and share this on your Facebook, Twitter, or others if you like.

Razz