This is something I have been asking myself a lot lately. When you are stuck in a habit, that habit starts to feel like the norm. And the norm starts to feel like the "right" thing, the answer, the way you should live your life. You keep going through each day in a state of fog, half asleep and definitely not aware of the beauty of each moment.
For me, the norm can be summed up in one word: busy. I'm a Type A personality. I can't slow down and just enjoy the moment I'm in - I'm constantly thinking about the next thing I HAVE to do. The next thing I WANT to do. The next thing I SHOULD do. Multi-task, multi-think, multi-everything.
I grew up in a bigger city where this pace of life was pretty normal, as well. Two years ago, my husband and I moved to his hometown, a smaller town in northern Minnesota. The day-to-day is much slower - people actually stop and talk to each other in the grocery store. It's beautiful and I couldn't pick a better place to raise my daughter. But I always feel like I don't fit in completely - I need a Target. A Starbucks. A martini bar that has live jazz, forgetting the fact that my hometown has one and I still spent every night in front of whatever was showing on Food Network. I don't NEED these things, nor should I want them. Simplicity is beautiful. I mean, look at this! How can you not relax when you can look at this everyday?
I've lived in this state for as long as I can remember. Nothing is simple. If I'm cooking dinner, it has to be a four course meal of completely organic ingredients. If I'm going to workout, I better just get my TT200 yoga license and train for a 5K. If I'm watching a movie with my husband, I'm also playing with the baby, reading a book, and on my phone because I absolutely cannot wait until tomorrow to find out what the ingredients are in that salad I want to make for the potluck next month.
But here's the thing: I'm not getting more done in less time. I'm wasting away the precious moments I have with my infant, with my husband, with my friends, with myself.
It is time for a change. It is time to simplify. How do I plan to do this? My goal is to research different solutions that have worked for others to bring life back into balance - spiritually, mentally, and physically. I want to simplify my time, yes, but in order to do that, I need to simplify not just the physical things like my finances and my clutter, but my expectations (of myself and of others) and my mental clutter.
This blog will be an outlet for me to write down my experiences - a chance to document the things that work and make life sweeter and the things that fail. Hopefully, I'll have some experiences to help others, too. Because the time we have is a gift and I'm choosing to not waste a single additional second.
Have you simplified your life? What worked for you?
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