The first week of August is celebrated as “Simplify Your Life Week” and what a great opportunity to de-clutter our living space, work space and even our minds and bodies.
When we spend all our time wading through physical and mental ‘clutter’, it drains us of time as well as energy, and all that drained energy adds up to additional strain on resources and, ultimately, additional stress.
When we are mentally unable to manage the clutter in our lives, the subsequent overwhelming feelings may trigger the body’s stress response – resulting in physical symptoms such as headaches and migraines, night time teeth clenching and teeth grinding (bruxism) and irritability. We also become less able to make decisions from a proactive state of mind and are more likely to create additional problems for ourselves.
We’ve listed a few tips below to help you simplify your life:
Declutter forever
Is your house of office full of clutter? Try the KonMari Method and determine which items in your life bring you joy and which ones don’t. Once you discard the latter, you can enjoy the magic of a tidy home or office and the resulting calm and stress-free mindset.
Simplify your schedule & lifestyle
- Don’t overcommit to more responsibilities than you can comfortably manage
- Go through your mail and / or paperwork daily – don’t let it pile up!
- Avoid distractions and limit the time you spend on social media and news sites, soaking up typically negative news stories
- Prepare for each week and day with a to-do list, and do as much prep as you can the night before
Nurture your soul
- Focus on those you love and spend time developing the relationships you have with those you really care about and who care about you
- Be content with what you have in life instead of pursuing material possessions
- Do something you don’t normally do! Turn off your phone and go for a walk or a picnic, drive to the beach. Take a day off and simply enjoy being
Take care of your health
Go on a bit of a detox. Reduce the amount of alcohol you drink and the sugar and fat you consume and keep hydrated. Every day, millions of cells in our bodies die and are replaced by new ones. What we “feed” those new cells can make all the difference in our health going forward, so stock up on plenty of fresh, seasonal food.
If simplicity can relieve us of some of this stress, isn’t it worth taking a little time to proactively reduce the clutter of our homes, our schedules, and our bodies and our minds? Try something new this week, and start leaving behind whatever is unnecessary in your life…
