When LESS IS WAY MORE
Everyone has heard the expression less is more. Honestly, I never really believed it growing up. More desert, more toys, more summer days. Damn right I want the gigantic piece of cake! Typical kid point of view. The issue is some people don’t outgrow that story. Yeah, a whole lot of less could lead to a longer, healthier life.
So let's start with a health example. Type 2 diabetes is at an epidemic level in society and it's pretty much a classic case of more getting you less, less health that is. Sadly, we are constantly mentally fed consumerism of foods that will eventually make us sick. It’s not your fault. The cards are stacked against you. The foods that lead you down this road are also very addictive. Sugar being one of the most addictive. We celebrate and reward ourselves with things that will eventually kill us. On top of that, cheap foods that lower income families can actually afford, Hello Ramon noodles, will set you on the path to Fattyville and diabetes. You can include drinking alcohol. A little is fine, a lot not so much.That category reaches across all economic and social sectors.
To be clear, I’m not judging anyone since I’ve bumped up against sickness myself from stuffing my face with the same crap. During the Covid shut down I briefly became a human garbage disposal. It took major pain for me to change my glutinous ways. Only through education mixed with some serious self-control and major pain will slow these mass killers down. Maybe.
Spending too much of your hard earned money on meaningless things. Check! I’ve definitely been guilty in this area as well. When I was a kid, one way my parents would show love was to put an avalanche of presents under the Christmas tree. I can remember being so excited I would literally be sick to my stomach Christmas eve waiting for the major payoff of stuff that was headed my way. This programmed my young brain that stuff equaled love. Now I’m not ranking on my parents. They were doing the best they could with what they knew. As an adult, it took me years to realize all that stuff actually didn’t really make me happy. Sure, it’s a rush at first, but in the end it’s just a sugar high and only more stuff can temporarily stop the inevitable crash. This hamster wheel is also a tough habit to break. My conclusion is more money spent on random stuff leaves less money for meaningful things, life-changing things, experiences and maybe more safety. More stuff means less focus, less joy, a cluttered life with cluttered thinking.
I recently started a 30 day minimalist challenge. This is the third time I have taken this on and highly recommend you give it a try. Cleaning house of stuff that's worn out it’s welcome is incredibly liberating. Whether you realize it or not, your brain is constantly categorizing and attempting to store these items in memory. Like a computer, we only have so much computing power. Removing some of these unessential items lightens the processing power that's happening in the background of your day to day.
It’s pretty simple. Day one, get rid of one thing. Day two, get rid of two things. Follow this for thirty days with thirty things being deleted from your life on the final day. This may seem like a lot of stuff but you would be amazed at how much non-used things you have lying around. Just hitting up your junk drawer is a great source of crap you have amassed and don’t know what to do with. Think about all those miscellaneous parts to things that you are sure you should keep while having no clue what the hell they go with! Let it go my friend. Clothes you're not wearing that just take up space and let's face it. If you haven't worn them in over two years, you probably will never wear them. They probably didn’t look that great on you anyway. Keep in mind you can itemize these things that someone else might want and donate them for a write off or sell them.
We live busy lives and the constant noise and distractions can only be lowered so much. Sure, you can go full on off the grid mountain man life. But most of us still want to be in the mix and smelling our own stink would get old.. Every time I do this challenge, I feel this wave of release and relief. My focus steps up a notch and I tend to not want to fill the space I just created. Never have I felt regret for the letting go of these items. The truth is, I can’t even remember most of them. So what do you say? Let that crap go!
