A while back, I received a little booklet from Starbucks to educate the public on how to order a beverage at their stores. It was amazing all the different ways you could order, and at the end of the booklet, they gave an example statement of how to order. My husband and I just laughed because who would have thought ordering coffee would become so complicated!
Isn't it just like us to make life so complex when we could really just simplify? So much time and energy is spent wasted on worrying, when 80% of what we worry about never actually happens!
Some tips to help simplify your life:
1. Stop worrying and start LIVING! Enjoy the days you are given.
2. Identify the one area of life that has you the most stressed and take ACTION steps to relieve the stress. Nothing changes just thinking about it-you have to do something.
3. Ask for help if you feel overwhelmed. Identify your support system and call them!
4. Pray for direction and clarity on how to tackle the complexities and identify how to simplify them.
Live Your Life Out Loud!
Lynn
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8 comments:
Oh how I love keeping things simple. That is one thing I am always trying to do because the tendency seems to be to make things too difficult at first giving us more work then necessary and adding more stress to our lives.
Thanks for your tips as they are great reminders to help us simplify our lives and to truly start LIVING and ENJOYING our life.
This past month has been a great time of praying and getting clarity on my own life which I was letting get out of control and was in need to getting back to truly LIVING and ENJOYING my life.
I love simplicity...always have. Does that mean that I always live a simplified life? No. But I tend to move towards simplified solutions. As a life coach, I have the opportunity to listen to many complex scenarios and so often there is a simple solution. Interestingly enough, so many individuals resist simplicity. Whether admitted or not, there is a drama in the complexities that gives an almost electrical current but so does living out a God-given purpose. This electrical current I'll take.
P.S. Jesus was the greatest simplifier of all times. Remember when He said...Love the Lord your god with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. These two commandments contain all commandments. (My paraphrase, of course.) I love this about Jesus...He knows how to simplify.
My mind can go so many different paths right now regarding simplicity and life, especially as I'm in the midst of a very complicated project. But what keeps coming to mind is how God seems to have graced me with enough simplicity in my life materially to create a great appreciation for the very simple things in life. A good book, a bonfire, a walk with a friend, a cup of coffee with vanilla creamer while I blog - all so simple and yet such treasures in my life. So in the midst of the chaos of a hugely complex and disorganized project I'll take some time to just sit outside for a few moments with the birds, the spring leaves and God.
Ok, how is you women know exactly what to say, that your words seem to fit in with my life each day? Could it be I'm not so unique after all? :D All kidding aside, I've noticed that if I let my children take the lead in something, it is easily demonstrated that the simplest things in life bring the most pleasure. It's too bad we tend to forget that sometimes. Just think, a young child will make a face, just to hear you laugh. If that's not simple, I don't know what is. Look to the children, ladies, they've got a thing or two to teach us, I'd say. A young child doesn't think about what someone will think, or whether or not they will be successful, they just do it. As an aside, to enjoy a simple pleasure, go out and get yourself a red clown's nose, place it upon your face, twirl yourself into the room where your children are and shout "Tada!" I child's giggle is the simplest and most beautiful thing on earth. Try it, it'll make you all feel good, (unless you don't take the simple lesson away with the experiment.)
Oh, Shalene, you are so right. Our children can be our teachers if we only allow them to. And, I agree...we have more commond ground than we think.
Anne, I love your "back to the basics" post. How lovely to simply stop and smell the roses. This was a comment that my mother often used with me.
"Child...stop and smell the roses!"
Shalene, how true about our children! I remember those very slow walks when each stone had to be explored, each ant studied. May we all stop and smell the roses and remind our loved ones to do the same.
Randee, I really like what you said about Jesus being the greatest simplifier of all times. He tried to make it so easy for us to understand, didn't he?!
When I think of simplicity I am instantly taken back in time. A time when tech wasn't even a word much less an abbreviation. Lightbulbs were a luxury. And a phone, forget it. To delve even further...beating laundry on a rock...giving birth to 18 children just to have enough hands for the early morning milking... or fixing a seven-course meal in the middle of the day...Should I go on? Kudos to you, Grandma !!!
Simplicity is really about getting away from the world. Leaving work demands behind, forgetting about the kids' overcommitted schedule, letting someone else worry about dinner. We are entranced by the world's standard of BUSYNESS.
God doesn't call us into busyness. He calls us into business. His business. Think about the feeding of the 5,000 (and then some.) Where were they? On a hill. What were they doing? Sitting. Jesus told them to do this. Do what? Sit. Listen and be fed.
Simply....find a hill(a chair will do), sit, listen and be fed.
Amen, Sister!
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