14 April, 2015

Process.

For a while now I am trying to organise, declutter and reduce my lifestyle. I say lifestyle,
because it is not just (but mostly) my belongings, which I am trying to reduce to only the
necessary ones, but also my behaviour, thoughts and life itself.

Things:
My idea is to come out with less, reduce waste, chuck and enjoy the few little things you
own even more, since the distraction by owning too many things is gone.

You do not necessary need to have a lot of money in order to pile up a lot of things, which
in fact you do not really need but ones thought there are a cool/fun/cute thing to have, and
so you treated yourself for that. Sometimes we receive these things as a present and do not
want to be disrespectful, thus keeping them even though we do not really have any need for
them. Other times, you discover that for many years you have stored something neatly away
but totally forgot about it until you happen to rediscover. And here it is: a big box of things
once dear to you but then out of side and forgotten so that now, a couple of years later, you
do not really have any use for them anymore. Whatever it is, most people do find themselves
owning so many things - it would take them days or weeks to display all of them for the
photographer Peter Menzel who has taken pictures of families and their belongings around
the world (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/112027109456180155/).

Behaviour:
However, once you are hooked by the thought of reducing and de-owning, I found that it is
easy to extend this idea further: do you really need to order the big portion you never manage
to finish? Is it possible to take the leftover with you, which makes for a nice lunch the next
day? Does that coffee has to be taken with you in a take-away-cup or can you probably just
stay a couple of minutes longer and enjoy it in a nice coffee mug instead? Or take the idea
even further: the cafe around the corner might be fine to pour your cappuccino in your travel
mug instead if you ask them nicely.

Life:
Also, probably many of you share the need to do a lot of great things in life! Hell yeah!
After all, we live only once and want to make the most of it, right? Travel to great places,
eat delicious food, meet fun and inspiring people. Often, there are so many options and you
find yourself overwhelmed, not sure for what idea to go for or whom to meet this evening,
since you might be missing out on all the other options. I am experiencing that we are trying
to keep all options open. While there is nothing bad about flexibility, I do not like my free
time to also be stressful in any way - at least not by a too big amount of great options! Instead
I like to recharge my batteries, treat my body and soul nicely, and enjoy life at the fullest.
The concepts of "once at a time", "do not look back with regret" and "after all it is all about
great relationships with friends and family" work rather well for me at the moment.

Thoughts/Mindfulness:
I am having a hard time on this one. It is difficult to keep your thoughts clear, for me at least.
So I am practising mediation through yoga nowadays, which does a great job to calm the mind
for the moment. However, I am still searching for ideas to calm, order and clean the mind on a
long term basis. Well, change is always a process, isn't it? There are days of great success and
others of setbacks - but it is the process itself which I believe it the interesting part really! ;-)