A Simple Life, Is A Good Life
If you want to live a life of vitality, joy, and harmony, consider going against the grain.
In this rapidly advancing technological age, it's become easier than ever to fill our lives with distraction. Because everyone else lives this way, most of us don't pause to consider the consequences.
Let's take a moment to do so.
How does the typical person in our modern Western culture act?
- We wear busyness as a badge of honor.
- We average over 7 hours of daily screen time.
- Our schedule is filled with tasks that don't fill our cup.
- Stress, anxiety, and fulfilling society's expectations are the norm.
- Laughter, kindness, joy, peace, playfulness, and generosity are the rarity.
Within this distracted life,
- We aim for quantity over quality.
- We are heavily influenced by those around us.
- We focus our attention outwards and consistently seek the quick fix.
- We frequently experience FOMO and subscribe to whatever the next popular trend suggests.
- If we find moments to pause and reflect, a sense of discomfort and dissatisfaction begins to arise.
For many of us, we don't bat an eye when we see someone in a hurry, their eyes to the ground (or on their phone), and their face riddled with tension.
Yet when we see an adult smiling, dancing, singing, or being goofy, we think, "What's up with them?"
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Is there another way?
Enter, the Slow and Simple life.
What does this life offer?
Embodying a Slow and Simple life, the gift offered is Clarity.
Clarity leads to Understanding.
Understanding leads to Compassion.
Compassion leads us to Joy and Peace.
When our energy is not sapped by distractions, we're left with a reservoir of focus. With this focus, we can hone in on our priorities and move toward them.
In doing so,
- We find a path of fulfillment and connection.
- We let the opinions of others fall to the waist side.
- We understand the value of the slow and steady approach.
- We seek to understand ourselves by shifting our attention inward.
- We uncover and begin abiding in states of joy, peace, and presence.
- We recognize that moving towards our goals takes practice, patience, and persistence.
Why aren't more people living this way?
- Humans learn by example. This lifestyle isn't commonly modeled in our culture.
- There's a tricky price to pay for the ticket toward this life. (though it's worth the price!)
- This price of admission is a willingness to embrace discomfort, discipline, boredom, and challenging emotions.
As we begin walking this path we'll naturally discover and fall into action aligned with what's most important in our life. It will feel uncomfortable at first, but like with all things, practice makes progress.
3 ideas that correlate to Slowness and Simplicity.
1) Less is More.
2) Quality is Queen.
3) Life is a Marathon, not a sprint.
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We'll wrap things up with an exercise, which if resonates, can act as an invitation into the Slow and Simple life.
When speaking to ourselves or others, instead of using the phrase "I don't have time," simply shift your language to "It's not a priority."
When you claim you don’t have time for something, what you’re actually expressing is that other things are more important. By instead speaking forth the latter, you'll gain awareness of where you place the importance of all aspects in your life.
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As we close, I'd like to make it clear that there is by no means a right and wrong path. They are simply different available flavors at the ice cream shop called Life.
Enjoy the scoop :)