Be More With Less

 

 

 

I started to ask myself, "Is less really more?" recently and have come to the place realizing you get into the simplifying of habits, things become much easier with less. Quality results are more likely to be achieved. Life becomes more fun and enjoyable. The pace of life becomes closer to what it should be by slowing down your pace. You feel more anchored, but is feeling anchored just that, an anchor???   That question led me to an important discovery about my life: an anchor is the thing that keeps my sailboat at bay, docked in the harbour, stuck in one place, unable to explore the freedom of the ocean. Perhaps I am anchored, I know that I am not truly happy with my life —and perhaps being anchored isn't necessarily a good thing??

 

In life you attract the energy you put out and teach people how to treat you. The universe will keep sending you problems and annoyances that hit an issue you have within yourself as long as they remain useful to you. Once that issue is resolved, the problem no longer stimulates your personal growth and therefore no longer needs to happen. Happiness therefore lies within a shifting of perspectives in the present moment. Choose to be present and not idealisms, like shoulda, woulda and coulda,  choose to move from panic to be present in the moment and watch a world of magic and bliss open itself up to you.

All well and good, but let's take a moment  to identify the things in our lives that anchor us and hold us back from realizing real freedom - I discovered big anchors (debt, bad relationships, etc.) and small anchors (credit card, internet, iPhone bills, material possessions, etc.) It turned out being anchored has kept me from leading the life I wanted to lead. Not all our anchors are bad, but the vast majority prevent me from encountering lasting contentment.

 

Are you an anchored person? Is that a good thing? What are some of your anchors?

 

Which brings me back to my original set of questions: Is less really more? If so, is more actually less?

 

I suggest the answer to both is yes.

 

Owning less stuff, focusing on fewer tasks, and having less in the way has given us more time, more freedom, and more meaning in our lives. Working less allows us to contribute more, grow more, and pursue our passions much more.

 

Having more time causes less frustration and less stress, more freedom adds less anxiety and less worry, and more meaning in our lives allows us to focus far less on life’s excess in favor of what’s truly important.



 

So, more is less? Yes, more or less.

What Friendship Means

 

 

 

Seems to me the causes of social problems, from Facebook bullying, to divorce and obesity, and everything in between are often thought to be based on stress, or poverty or unhappiness.  But a big part of me feels we are overlooking something very important:  friendships.  I feel like our society is ignoring the importance of friendship.  After a great road trip with my BFF Lynn, I came home to the busyness of life and got all caught up in what needed to be done and the things I should be doing, and started to feel isolated but soon realized how important true friends are, especially in times of misfortune - they are our refuge.

 

Friendships are vital for wellbeing, but they take time and can't be artificially created.  But, it is "time "society claims we don't have. We are too busy for our friends, it is no wonder they are at risk of being neglected.  Nevertheless, I believe we are all aware of the value of friendship, because surprisingly, we are often most like our friends ourselves.   Studies show, if your best friend eats healthy, you are more likely to eat healthy yourself. Married people say friendship is more than five times as important as physical intimacy within marriage.  Those who say, they have no real friends at work, have a "best friend", at work - because when employees find friends at work they feel more connected to their jobs.

 

I believe friendship comes from living a good life, strong  personal values, such as honesty, character and passion. Our culture, for all its benefits, tends to focus more on commerce and taking the magic bullet rather than to help us live a good life.  A friend to me is a person with whom I can be myself and most sincere.  A close friend is a mirror of our own self, someone you realize that you are not alone. Friendship cultivates virtues, such as creativity, and compassion which by the way are essential to a society that flourishes.  If we can't cultivate friendship, we can't lift the burden of our apparently unhappy isolated selves.

 

You know the ones that make you feel the most YOU. The ones that lift YOU up and help you remember who YOU really are! They are the ones that even if you don't see them face to face you feel them heart to heart.

Life Lessons on The Road

 

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road, to not go all the way, and not starting at all!  And, I can add another, not looking at what is right in front of you.

There are so many life lessons to be learned from traveling, and since I have just returned from fulfilling a bucket list item and sharing it with a long time BFF, I figured I have some sharing to do with others.

 

There is nothing like taking a step out of your comfort zone to make you realize that you are a newbie to life no matter what your age.  There are so many things to learn, like how to maneuver your bike down famous trails in mountain biking's mecca-Moab-the premier mountain destination on the planet!  Wherever you go you make friends, and you are never alone.  All it takes is to be the first to smile, and make an effort to join in their celebrations or ask about their lives.  You may not see these folks again, and that's ok. You learn to enjoy transient relationships, because they bring the experiences of others to your journey and perhaps a simple promise to look them up when you visit the area again.   Whether you are staring at a menu or meeting new people, or trying something for the first time, it is all about getting yourself into situations and turning them into amazing experiences and realizing there are no "mistakes'!   Ok, maybe don't eat anything you wouldn't step on in your bare feet, but go have some fun. Read up on the adventure you are about to embark upon, and when something goes off track to you can turn it into something exciting and learn from that too!

 

Every time I travel, and it is not often, but, I  find that I view my life from the outside and find solutions or changes that I never would have seen if I had not gotten away from my everyday life.  As I rode my bike on the trails on Moab and hiked the canyon walls of the Grand Canyon, I reminded myself to stop and look up.  As we live our lives, we keep our heads down and we keep on keepin on - any problems we have, we are in them.  I have found when I travel, I get outside of them slightly.  We always have solutions for other peoples problems but struggle with our own.  That is because we are IN our problems and don't lift our heads and thus can't find solutions to something we are inside of.   You begin to understand a different way of being.  You see everyone differently, that they all have stories. You overlook faults and you open up your eyes to look at life you never knew existed.

 

There is nothing like living amongst people from other cultures to make you understand why people do what they do.  Other ideas, and moral codes and art and religion came from somewhere, each culture has its treasures, so dig them up and enjoy them.  Of all the benefits of traveling, I think that people are our most treasured gifts. Go meet them. Develop a love for travelling and other cultures, religions and lifestyles.