I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve caught the “minimalist bug.” I don’t usually tend to be a “trendy” person and minimalism has a certain trendiness to it at this point, but that’s not why I do it. Minimalism and simplicity go hand in hand, and as I’ve been on this journey, I have found so much joy. I know, it sounds just a little bit crazy…less stuff, more joy? YES. It actually works.
Because I was already prone to look at life through the lens of efficiency, the idea of simplicity seemed very natural to me. But what I had come to realize, is that life had become soooooooo complicated. In other words, life was BUSY.
A couple years ago I realized that I had become way too busy, but I didn’t necessarily know how to simplify, uncomplicate, and not be so busy. People would ask me how I was and I never really answered how I was, I would just answer “busy” on autopilot. I grew to really hate that I answered that way, but it had become so automatic and I didn’t really even have another answer for how I was because busy just was my life.
Granted, there are seasons in our lives that are fuller than others. I’m a wife, a mother of four, and I work in ministry, which has a tendency to be 24/7 and is definitely more “busy” at different times in the year than others.
I began my minimalist journey a couple years ago, but this was more focused on “stuff.” I still have further to go on this journey than I’d like to admit, but I’m a work in progress.
More recently I’ve been pondering minimalism in terms of simplicity in all areas of life, not just simplicity in terms of stuff. After all, simplicity is efficiency, right?
These are some of the areas that I’ve been thinking about how to simplify:
- Meal planning/Cooking
- Grocery shopping
- Cleaning
- Laundry
- School lunches
- Budget
- Schedule/Calendar
- Morning/night routines
Sometimes there’s just so much time spent in thinking about these things or deciding when to do them, how to do them, what to do, how to prioritize…you get the point. Wasting time like this is inefficient.
Don’t get me wrong…I haven’t simplified all these areas, but I’m working on it and understand the value of things just being on autopilot and getting done without having to put much thought or energy into it. That is why I want to establish systems and routines.
As I’ve been doing this, I happened to listen to a podcast where one of the women talked about simplifying her heart and her thought life and this got me thinking even more deeply about what occupies those areas.
How much energy do we spend thinking about past hurts or problems in our lives or people that are challenging our patience—whatever it is that is going on in your life, your mind, your heart—that maybe needs to be let go of?
Sometimes my mind can be like a cow chewing cud. I mull over conversations over and over—either that I imagine myself having with someone, or that I had with someone and what was or wasn’t said. Super inefficient, but it’s a huge struggle for me. #confessions #thisissometimeswhyicantsleepatnight
SO, I’ve been trying to be more intentional about capturing these thoughts and putting a STOP to them.
As for our hearts, they can get cluttered with pain, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, malice, envy…lots of ugliness that can creep in and take residence and clutter up what should be a pure heart. Simplify, let go, forgive. This has been a simplification focus of mine as well. Just like reviewing conversations, I can review the wrongs done to me by others. When we’re hurt by someone, it can be incredibly difficult to forgive and let go. In all honesty, there are things right now that I don’t want to forgive and let go of. But one day I was thinking about the hurt and got really angry that other people had the kind of power over me to cause that kind of pain, tears, time, and energy spent thinking about it. The fact that I had been wronged wasn’t affecting the other party, it was only affecting me. This realization motivated me to start praying for them and speaking out loud that I was going to forgive them (even though I didn’t “want” to). It’s a journey, along which path I sometimes still fall, but tomorrow is a new day with new mercies to try again.
What area in your life do you need to simplify? Will you join me on this simplification journey?