Simple COPING WITH Keeping It Simple!Posted by Currie Mcclure on April 26th, 2021 Summertime and the livin' is simple," may be the opening line to the George Gershwin aria composed for the 1935 opera, Porky & Bess. The summertime season does invoke an easy sort of living; a sense of simplicity. Our clothing is lighter, sunlight shines longer, the weather is milder and we tend to take time to decelerate and appreciate the simple things in life. Maybe we choose to sit with an excellent book under the cool shading of big oak tree or just have a leisurely walk around our neighborhood enjoying the sunshine. Simplicity or livin' easy however, isn't just something to enjoy for just a few months out from the year. Simplicity can be quite a life-style. Simple living starts whenever we become more consciously alert to our choices and how those choices are affecting our day to day lives. Simple living can be achieved as we create a daily effort to reduce and de-clutter our lives which restores the balance to your everyday lives. To accomplish and create the simplicity we desire in our lives, we must take time to reflect and assess the choices we have been currently making to determine if they are consistent with our goal of simplicity. For example, we could say we want more quiet time at home with our family, but we make decisions that keep us away from our home. One of many steps to simplicity would be to set boundaries and to decrease the amount of time spent on needless activities. We can't get away from meeting a deadline at work or waiting at a doctor's appointment. However, we can start by saying no to some things that aren't in line with our desire for simplicity inside our daily lives. Over committing ourselves and saying yes to the many extra curricular activities that people think we must do sabotage our time, taking us further from those things that we wish to accomplish. By putting slow living in the city around our yard we have been clearly defining our personal property. When we say no, we are clearly setting our personal boundaries. De-cluttering our life is another important step towards living simply. De-cluttering our life will not only mean clearing up and cleaning out our physical space. It is also about clearing out and cleaning up our mind in order to bring greater clarity. Our thoughts play a primary role, alongside our actions and our feelings, in creating our reality. The care-free attitude that we embrace in the summer is really a mind-set of living simply. Whenever we incorporate that care-free mind-set beyond summer, by changing our thoughts about our lives, we are relocating the direction toward bringing simplicity into our lives. If our attitude towards life through the summer is care-free, or free from care, then shouldn't that result in believing that we don't have a care on the globe? Shouldn't we believe, if we have that mind-set, that we have the power to take care of ourselves in any situation? Maintaining that care-free mind-set comes when we change just how we think. "What you see reflects your thinking. And you're thinking but reflects your decision," is really a quote from the world-renowned inspirational speaker and author, Dr. Wayne Dyer. Making the decision to change what we think about a situation in our lives allows us to see that situation differently. Simple living involves making new choices and possibly making some changes in our life, too. Once we change our choices and change our thinking, we move ourselves nearer to simplicity and the balance we are looking for in our every day lives. Simplicity may not continually be easy; however, when we make an effort to keep things simple, we can begin the process to living less complicated lives.Like it? Share it! More by this author |