Living Simple: Five Steps Towards A Simple Life Installment Five

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” Thoreau

Today’s lessons are not about frugal tips for saving money. No, today’s lessons are all about enjoying the gifts of life, and simplifying things so you can enjoy the life you have been given.

Modern society is all about hurrying to do things. Errands, chores, jobs, responsibilities, all done at a break-neck pace so you can find time to eat and sleep. That, my friends, is not living; that is existing! It is high time to put a governor on that personal engine of yours and slow down to a healthy speed limit.

When was the last time you put on the brakes and enjoyed living? When was the last time you took a few minutes for yourself, and employed all of your senses so that you could appreciate all that is around you? If you had to stop and think about your answers to those questions, then you are way past due for a tune up and this article is for you.

Kick off your shoes, get yourself your favorite drink, and internalize a few of the suggestions that follow. It just might be the beginning of a new life you have been secretly craving.

If you are a parent of growing children, this may require that you get up a half hour earlier, but the time lost in sleep is time that will help you prepare for the hectic day ahead.

Begin a morning ritual that has, as its main goal, to place you in the proper frame of mind. Some will swear by yoga; others will say that sitting in the garden and listening to the birds chirping will achieve this goal. Whatever it is that floats your personal boat, find time first thing in the morning to do it.

Once you have established that ritual, do it faithfully each and every morning. This is your time and nothing can interfere with it. This is the time when you clear your mind, and once cleared, this is the time to fill it with positive thoughts and thoughts of affirmation. This writer is a big believer in PIPO…Positive In/Positive Out. In other words, your actions are directly related to your thoughts. If you envision a positive day ahead of you then you can live it. If you envision the good in life then you will reflect that outlook.

The day ahead will be hectic enough; don’t you think you deserve thirty minutes of relaxation before you begin that day?

We are all creative in one way or another. Some may be gifted musically; some may be painters or writers or have craft talents. I can hear some of you saying that you have no creative talents, and to those of you who believe that then I say develop some! When I was a child I learned to crochet! Believe me, please, when I say that if this writer can crochet then anyone can crochet! I remember very little about it now, but I do remember finding a certain amount of peace and satisfaction when I was making those pot holders and placemats for my relatives.

Tapping into our creative self is a wonderful way to decompress and let the anxieties and angst flow out of us for a time. Shut your brains down, go with the flow of creativity, and you just might find that you are more refreshed and able to deal with the requirements put on you by everyday life.

Forgive me for being a bit colorful, but I need to share an old saying with you. “When you have one foot in the past, and one foot in the future, you are peeing on today.”

Today is all you have, so concentrate on it. If any of you firmly believe that you are guaranteed tomorrow, then we need to get you in touch with a good psychiatrist, because I have to tell you that you are guaranteed nothing but this very minute.

If any of you can tell me the value in fretting over the past then I’m all ears. The past is gone, and blaming yourself for the past, or fretting over past decisions, will serve no purpose other than to rob you of the enjoyment of right now.

So much of our lives are spent worrying about something that hasn’t even happened yet, or whipping ourselves for past mistakes. What a complete waste of time! In effect we rob ourselves of the joy of living when we do those things, and our minds are so active with worthless nonsense that we can’t find any mental relief.

The time is now, so live in it!

What is enough? How many things are enough? How much money is enough? How many commitments are enough? How many errands and chores are enough?

“Faster than a speeding bullet; more powerful than a locomotive; able to reach tall buildings with a single bound. Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane….no, it’s Superman!”

Well, I’ve got some new for you: there was only one Superman and it wasn’t you! The problem with doing too many things is that you are doing too many things! Duh! Double Duh!

Life needs to be enjoyed! Life needs to be appreciated, and you can’t appreciate it if all you are doing is more and more and more. Look up the word “enough” in the dictionary and then apply it to your life. Once you have grasped its meaning, and once you are living according to its meaning, then you will be Living Simple.

No man is an island! Those words were just typed by a man who once believed he did not need other people. What a load of cow manure!

We all need people, and I’ll take it a step further and say that we all need people for happiness. We are a herd species, and we find comfort in our relationships with others from our species. Companions give us compassion; companions give us support. Part of the problem with today’s society is the fact that, out of fear, many people have built up protective barriers around themselves, and have refused to be a part of a community.

Embrace community! Meet your neighbors and get involved in community affairs. Organize block parties, or a neighborhood dinner. Introduce yourself to new neighbors! Let’s get back to the days when neighbors could be counted on, days when there was a real sense of community and everyone had each other’s back, through good times and bad.

Living Simple is all about getting back to basics, and what could be more basic than relationships?

This past weekend, Bev and I lived the simple life. We worked in the garden, took walks, played cribbage, visited with neighbors, and enjoyed family. I would venture to guess that our total expenditure for the two days was $20, not counting groceries. We did not need to spend money for entertainment; we were the entertainment!

Life does not have to be complicated, but isn’t it amazing how we seem to insist, at times, that it be complicated?

I leave you with the words of Henry David Thoreau:

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”

2012 William D. Holland (aka billybuc)