How To Embrace Simplicity: 5 Thoughts for More Ease
You have the power to make your life more zen
Do your days feel too cluttered? Does your mind feel too full?
Amid all the busyness, it can be easy to forget you have the power to bring more zen into your life.
When taken into account, zen-like quotes can inspire you to choose ease over distress, simplicity over complexity, and healthy boundaries over none.
To keep them in the front of your mind:
Put zen quotes on sticky notes and tape them on your mirror or fridge.
Write one in your planner daily and reflect on it for a minute or two.
Record them on your phone and play them back to yourself as part of your morning routine.
I’ve chosen five zen quotes from everyday people like you and me who have transformed their lives through the art of simplicity. They made zen the backdrop of their lives by consciously decluttering their minds, hearts, and physical spaces.
You can, too.
Ready?
“You won’t look back and remember the time you didn’t complete your to-do list, but you may look back and remember the beautiful life you lived.”
― Courtney Carver, Be More with Less
When you simplify your life, you make more space for what truly matters.
What truly matters to you? Do you make time for it regularly?
Reflect on your real priorities. Eliminate the non-essentials. There’s an art to getting things done. But there’s also magic in leaving the non-essential undone.
It takes courage to say “no” and clear space in your life. But the more you set healthy boundaries, the more zen your life will become.
Micro-Action
What truly matters to you? Make a list and reflect on how you will prioritize what’s most important to you.
Eliminate the non-essentials. Make a list and ditch time and energy wasters.
“The best present is presence.”
— Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus, The Minimalists
Wherever you go, you see people glued to their screens, jumping from one site or message to another, rarely paying attention to people around them.
Science shows a progressive decline in attention span since 2004. Even if you were to capture someone’s attention, you probably wouldn’t keep it very long.
But humans need connection.
According to Deb Dana, LCSW, connection is a wired-in biological necessity. Connecting with others can co-regulate our autonomic nervous system, resulting in less stress and more ease.
Presence has become a rare gift you can give to another.
But it’s also a gift you can give to yourself simply by sitting quietly and tuning into the present moment.
Micro-Action
Be fully present for at least one conversation daily—a gift to someone else.
Take a mindful walk in nature—a gift to yourself.
“Over the course of an average lifetime, because of all the clutter we live in, we will spend 3,680 hours, or 153 days, searching for misplaced items.”
— Joshua Becker, Becoming Minimalist
Not zen, right?
As someone who used to lose things constantly, I know the intense frustration I felt when searching for a lost item—my phone, a critical document, my car.
Now, I follow the “a place for everything and everything in its place” rule.
My reading glasses have a specific home on the kitchen countertop. My keys live in the zippered section of my purse. My purse lives next to my bedside table. And so on.
I rarely lose things anymore. As a result, I’ve erased loads of unnecessary frustration from my life.
Micro-Action:
Make a list of the items you lose most frequently. Over a week or a month, find a place for each one. Develop the habit of putting each item in its place.
Dream of what you’ll do with your extra 153 days. And do it!
“Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what you’re doing.”
— Leo Babauta, Zen Habits
We’re obsessed with getting more done, as if we’ll find happiness once we do.
But when does getting more done stop?
Never.
The more we focus on getting more done, the more we need to get done. It’s a vicious trap.
You might get a dopamine hit when you tick an item off your list. But that high doesn’t last long, does it?
How can you love whatever you’re doing? Is that really possible?
One way is to remain in the present moment. There’s no space for whining, complaints, and dissatisfaction in the present moment. When your mind wanders (it will), bring it back to whatever you’re doing.
That’s real zen.
Another way is to feel grateful. Gratitude can reduce stress and improve mental and physical health—just the kind of zen we want.
Micro-Action
Choose one activity today and focus on how much you can love doing it.
Engage your senses. If you’re hand-washing dishes, feel the water's warmth and the texture of the plates. Feel the strength of your feet touching the floor. Listen to the sounds around you. Be here now!
“So in fact, narrowing down our choices means less overwhelm, and more creativity.”
― Courtney Carver, Be More with Less
The more decisions you make daily, the more likely you’ll experience decision fatigue. Decision fatigue can lead to impulse buying, regretful decisions, or avoiding decisions altogether.
Decision fatigue can also bring on mental and physical fatigue.
In contrast, limiting your choices can make your life more zen.
For example, Courtney Carver popularized the idea of a capsule wardrobe with her minimalist fashion project, Project 333. The challenge involves selecting 33 items to wear over three months.
Thousand of people have completed Project 333 and felt liberated.
Several famous men, including Barack Obama, Giorgio Armani, and Tom Wolfe, wear the same outfit daily to reduce decision fatigue.
Fewer clothes options mean fewer decisions.
A few other ways to narrow choices:
Limit information channels—news programs, blogs, magazines—to a small number you enjoy the most.
Limit the number of recipes you use each week.
Create routines like waking up at the same time daily to limit choices.
How could you limit choices in your life?
Micro-Action
Limit choices in one aspect of your life for a week.
Add in another area of your life the following week.
Let’s Get More Zen!
We think we’re locked into a stressful life. We tell ourselves stress is a normal part of modern life.
But in truth, peace, simplicity, and ease is a choice.
Everyone I’ve quoted above led a hectic life at one point, too. But they made a life-changing decision to opt for greater ease.
They didn’t go zen overnight. It was a one-step-at-a-time process until a few years later when they found their lives entirely transformed.
You can do that too.
Use the zen quotes I’ve shared to inspire you along the way. And add a few of your own to the list. Won’t it be nice to stress less?
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You know this one spoke to me: "Be fully present for at least one conversation daily—a gift to someone else." Thank you for including it! 😊
I so love these. I strive for greater simplicity. I see people around me who lead super complicated lives and they go and make their lives MORE complicated by buying holiday homes etc. It may be lovely to have somewhere to go to relax, but what does that say about your home. And I just see the extra admin and maintenance and it gives me the chills.