Back to Article index To print this page, click on the Print icon in your browser.   Cut Loose the Anchors - Simplify!   Almost anywhere you look these days you see messages about simplifying your life - in bookstores, on magazine racks, on TV and radio talk shows. We're being bombarded with messages about simplicity being the way to happiness. I'm not sure simplicity equals happiness. However, I do know simplicity is one of the pieces. So how do you start?   As a people, we have a tendency toward overindulgence. We live the philosophy, "If a little is good, a lot is better." We surround ourselves with "stuff" and have reasons for it as different as each of us are. While our belongings may bring us some pleasure to look at and admire, there is a more basic and deeper question that comes up for me: "What is it we're looking for when we fill our life with clutter?"   If you're like me you never thought of your possessions as clutter. For me, that changed one day about twelve years ago. I was single and spending an evening at home - not an unusual thing for me. I just looked around my home and asked myself, "What would happen if I didn't own all of this? What would I lose if it were suddenly taken from me?" I had a pretty empty feeling inside when I began to understand my acquisitions were all filler for something infinitely more important - relationships with myself and with other people.   I was by no means a hermit. I had an active social life and a growing and prosperous business. I realized I was, as the song goes, looking for love in all the wrong places. With all that I had, my life felt empty.   Within the year, I was blessed with the opportunity to make a major move. As I was packing and preparing for my relocation and deciding what to ship, I established a simple rule: For all the boxes I had to weed through (and there were lots), if I hadn't been into the box within the last six months, I discarded it and the contents without even opening the flaps. The first few boxes were tough. Then I began to experience a lightness. . . like cutting loose an anchor I didn't even know was holding me down.   I learned how to collect things as a child and I learned the lesson very well. Even as good as this first lightening felt, as soon as I settled into my new surroundings I began my old patterns - acquiring assets and cluttering my life.   At some point, a shift happened for me and I returned to my thoughts from years ago: What is all this for? Why do I need any of it? What does owning things contribute to my life? I started getting rid of things around me again. This time, however, I had a commitment to cleaning up my physical environment so there was nothing in it that did not contribute to my life in some way. I got rid of broken stereos and TVs I was going to get fixed (someday). I let go of old self-help tapes I'd outgrown. I cleaned my closets of dresses I might fit into again - some day. I emptied kitchen cabinets of pieces that didn't match.   From my own experience (and that of my clients) what I know now is clearing clutter and living with simplicity opens me to new possibilities and keeps cobwebs from forming in my life. I feel freer. I am conscious of being more focused and productive in my office. I am calmer and feel more balanced in every room in my home. I can look anywhere in my physical environment now and smile because what I see brings me joy - whether it's a memory or simply appreciating beauty.   You can have the same experience. I encourage you to look at simplifying your life as a means to having more of the things that are really important to you. Here are a couple of thoughts for you to begin the process:   1. Clean out your closets. Get rid of everything you don't love or haven't worn in six months. 2. Clean off your desk and keep it clean. Keep only what you're working on at the moment on your desk. 3. Look around your environment and notice what you've chosen to surround yourself with. Get rid of anything that you don't love and that doesn't bring you joy. 4. Get rid of stacks of magazines and papers you're going to read someday and stop your subscriptions.   How you begin is up to you. Just begin cleaning and clearing ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE! The process can take a long time. As you move into simplifying your life, know you're making a big shift and it's not always going to be comfortable. Be kind to yourself and don't expect too much too fast. You will find joy along the path to simplicity by being in the process. Be aware and notice what else changes in your life.   I've been cleaning and simplifying for a while now and I am far from finished. My goal is to live my life and not a lifestyle. I know my choices are different now and yours will be, too. Imagine the freedom for you when everything in your life is there by your choosing.     © Copyright November, 1997. Laura Hess, MCC 702.252.3657