From around the world, and from a range of different sources spanning from spiritual traditions, to common aphorisms and words of wisdom, you’ll find the idea of “simplicity” coming up time and time again.
The idea of taking a step back and simplifying your life isn’t exactly the kind of thing that anyone is likely to have made it to this point in their life without already having heard a good number of times.
Nonetheless, a lot of the best and most meaningful and applicable advice is also – perhaps fittingly – some of the simplest and most “obvious.”
Here are a few ways in which a bit of simplicity can help you to lead a more prosperous and enriched life.
By helping you to be more present
A lot of the issues that we experience with regards to our well-being, productivity, and sense of perspective on a day-to-day basis, have at least something to do with not being properly present in our own lives.
Being too caught up in obsessive and repetitive negative thinking in the form of rumination is known to contribute significantly to low mood and anxiety, and can be a major underlying factor that contributes to procrastination, and difficulty focusing.
Often, rumination is fed – or at least streamlined – by excess complexity in our lives and surroundings, which then sends our minds off on a series of different haphazard associations.
Taking steps to simplify your life may help you to be significantly more present, and this may have a variety of real benefits in and of itself.
By helping you to maintain a calm awareness of what’s most important
One of the most negative things about excess complexity and clutter, is that it can make it difficult to properly pay attention to the things that are most important and meaningful to us in everyday life.
In all likelihood, everyone can think of at least one occasion when they didn’t pay proper attention to their loved ones, or to their more meaningful goals or interests, because they were preoccupied with something as mundane as replying to emails, or fine-tuning some work document after hours.
Taking steps to simplify your life – whether by reducing the number of projects that you pursue at any one time, or by decluttering your home environment – naturally reduces the number of things in your field of focus at any given time.
This, then, makes it easier to properly maintain awareness of the things that are truly important.
By helping you to stress a bit less
In life, there are unfortunately all sorts of different things that can occur which can be highly stressful and difficult to deal with, including things like financial issues that may motivate you to look for personal loans.
While simplicity can’t solve all of life’s problems and challenges, it can help to reduce the amount of stress that you contend with on a day-to-day basis.
Experiencing a sense of overwhelm and complexity naturally tends to lead to elevated stress levels, and make it more difficult to achieve a sense of balance and perspective in day-to-day life.
Simplifying features of your everyday life and routine, however, can give you significantly more breathing space, and can make it easier for you to take a step back and to recharge as and when appropriate and required.