10 Meaningful Ways To Cultivate Simplicity In Your Life
In a culture of more, better, faster, and stronger, resist the temptation to perpetually add. When we are overwhelmed with choices and responsibilities and busyness, we lose ourselves for the sake of someone else’s dream. Take time to return to your roots and learn about yourself, who you are, what you value, and what matters most. When that vision is clear, it will pave the way for a more purposeful and intentional life that is yours to create. To dim the noise of the outside world and allow yourself room to grow, consider these 10 meaningful ways to cultivate simplicity in your life today.
1. Limit time on social media.
Set app limits, instill no-social days, set aside intentional time to go off the grid. This is the absolute best way to bring inner peace and allow self-growth; by focusing on others, it’s impossible to improve oneself.
2. Make a love list.
Take a few moments to sit down and write out things that bring joy. We are so often caught up in our day-to-day that we lose a sense of what we truly like to spend our time doing. Keep this list as a way to fill your time instead of going online.
3. Reset your space.
Be it your office desk, your closet, or your kitchen drawers, spend an afternoon clearing the clutter. Our environments deeply affect our ability to think and work. Allow yourself to let go of things that have no purpose.
4. Get creative.
Everyone can be creative, albeit in different iterations. Journal, write, draw, paint, or just let your imagination run wild without any external stimuli. Creativity can be anything, as long as you are mindfully making.
5. Utilize time blocking.
Each day, schedule in what has to be done: work, chores, exercise, cooking, rest. When each activity’s time block happens, cut out all external distractions and focus on the task at hand.
6. Take a walk.
There is nothing more soul-filling than getting outside and detaching from reality for half an hour. Listen to a podcast, turn up the music, or simply take in the outside world in its own melody. It’s a universal cure.
7. Do something with your hands.
Take up a craft, paint, draw, build something, clean. There is something inherently satisfying about manual labor or creating something physical. This kind of hands-on work helps to ground our wandering minds.
8. Create routines.
Choose key parts of your day, like getting ready in the morning, cooking a meal, or winding down at night to build routines that work. While it takes a bit of effort on the front end to instill, routines are a surefire way to eliminate decisions in your daily schedule.
9. Make time for laughter.
Spend time catching up with a partner or friend, watch something joyful, be mindful of the amusing moments of the human experience. Be quick to laugh at the small inconveniences that life presents. It smooths the edges of a rough day.
10. Meditate.
There is, perhaps, no better way to return to the simple than to simply sit and be. Taking on the practice of mindfulness through guided or solo meditation will invite stillness into even the busiest of days.
In all these things, the purpose is to return to a sense of who you are at your core. Allow the complexities of modern life to simplify as making the choice to eliminate distractedness and hustle and adopting joy and calmness bring a new sense of wonder and knowing of the self. When we create space in our physical and spiritual beings, we have new room to grow and new opportunities to become more fully ourselves.