The less we keep unnecessary things in our lives, the less stress we expose ourselves to.
As a result, our new life becomes easy and pleasant! Let's put things in order in our home and in our lives, let's start living simply! What is minimalism? This is when there is nothing superfluous in life. You live and possess only what is minimally necessary for you to live. The first thing that comes to mind is the lifestyle of hippies and gypsies. But this is far from true and is a misconception. The concept of minimalism includes the concept of prioritizing quality over quantity in every aspect of our lives .
Once you change your outlook and find your path in life, you will be rewarded: you will have more freedom, more money, more opportunities to meet people and much less stress .
It is known that Albert Einstein dressed as modestly as possible and simplified his lifestyle. He did not wear socks, braces, a belt, a tie, and very rarely had his hair cut. But this did not stop him from being a genius and enjoying life!
Watch your affections
Life will not be simple unless you let go of your attachments. If you are attached to old memorabilia, you will not be able to free your home from junk; if you are attached to constant activity and correspondence, you are at risk of information overload and fatigue.
Track your attachments and find out what you can’t get rid of, what you can’t let go of. Whether it's things, people or things, remember that if you don't let them go, you won't get freedom and life will always be too difficult.
Psychological attitude
To simplify your life, you must first change your thinking, and only then your habits and lifestyle. Let's start by working on the right attitude.
Set global goals
The more specific and desirable your goals in life are, the more effective and efficient your actions will be. Goals in life are the engine of progress and the source of motivation.
When your goals are desired and understood, and you make efforts to achieve them, then you stop thinking about what to do with yourself and how to spend the evening. Life is much easier without these tiresome thoughts. If you haven't set goals in life yet, you need to work on it.
Don't worry about failures
Failure is always a valuable experience, a chance to correct mistakes and try again. And there is no point in worrying about them. If you fail, it means you are moving forward and not standing still. Remember - only those who do nothing make no mistakes.
Many famous people suffered many failures before achieving unprecedented success. Walt Disney was turned down by hundreds of studios before he was able to bring his ideas to life. He did not lose heart and did not give up. He understood that failure is not the end, and there is still a chance. You too understand.
Get rid of stress
Stress is the result of being in situations in which you feel uncomfortable. Every time you find yourself in a similar situation, ask yourself: “how can I avoid this in the future?” And take action. Gradually you will get rid of most stressful situations.
Of course, you won't be able to get rid of stress completely. But try to minimize it. And remember that difficulties are tests that strengthen you. Start treating difficulties as valuable lessons, and you will begin to experience less stress.
Don't try to please everyone
One of the biggest mistakes is trying to please everyone and please everyone. Don't strive for this. Make sure your friends and family love you, and stop paying attention to others.
Admit your shortcomings
Absolutely everyone has shortcomings. You can, of course, poison your life by asking the question: “Why do I need this?” Or you can finally understand that people don’t really care about your shortcomings, they are focused on their own. Try to approach your shortcomings with humor. Remember that the one who truly loves you will not notice them.
In addition, each has both disadvantages and advantages. Focus on your strengths, develop them and make your strengths even stronger.
Fight the habit of getting distracted
We are used to being constantly distracted, interrupting our activities and feeling terribly busy. When talking with a person, we switch to messages in instant messengers. When we travel, we step out of reality to take more new photos and post them on social networks. We are distracted by phone notifications and empty conversations, and if there are none, by our thoughts, memories and fears. All this makes it difficult to concentrate on the present moment and enjoy it.
But it is important to understand that this is not a character trait or a feature of the brain, but just a bad habit that you can get rid of with effort.
Be honest
If you are “loaded” in vain, then think, what will this worry bring to you? Never mind! So why do you need it? Why waste time on this? Are you living such a boring life that you allow all sorts of “junk” to settle in your head?!
We are often afraid to admit to ourselves what we really want. Thinking about condemnations and mistakes, we place a huge burden of doubt in our heads and souls, which gives us no peace.
We are “loaded” with thoughts about how to do the right thing, what to say, how to respond.
The answer is simple: you need to speak and act honestly .
Being honest is always the right thing to do. Not being afraid to tell the truth (to yourself, first of all!) is the choice of strong and wise people.
Let go of unnecessary thoughts, be alone with yourself and answer the question: what exactly do I want? And act in the given direction. Don’t be afraid to change jobs, stand up for your rights, and protect yourself by fighting back against your abuser.
Many of us are tormented by feelings of guilt due to missed opportunities and mistakes made. But this is experience. And we can only feel gratitude for it, because it builds our personality.
Forgive yourself for all your misunderstandings. Forgive the people around you for the negative emotions they brought to you. All this is a long time ago, lessons have been learned, mistakes have been corrected. There are new opportunities and chances ahead, don’t lose them by digging through the “dirty laundry” of the past.
By clearing your thoughts, you will free up space for really important things that will delight you, because they are desired by you.
Take your life to full screen mode
Imagine that any task you do - work, answering email, washing dishes or reading - is expanded to full screen. There is only this task, you see nothing except it. If you expand every task to full screen, life will be much less stressful.
When you fully concentrate on any task, it turns out much better, and you experience pleasure while doing it.
For example, try washing the dishes without being distracted by the TV, conversations or thoughts in your head. Your movements will become precise and controlled, and you will really start to enjoy it.
Replace obsessive thoughts with positive ones
Whatever one may say, any situation, even the most unpleasant one, has its positive sides. Let's look at how you can turn obsessive thoughts into positive ones.
| Intrusive thought-worry | A placeholder thought with a hint of positivity |
| I made a mistake in my work. | This mistake allowed me to learn how to fix it. This situation helped me avoid similar things in the future. |
| I'm concerned about my boss's opinion of the quality of my work. | I am a diligent, hardworking, executive employee. I try to do my work as carefully as possible. My management sees this. I have nothing to worry about. |
| Suddenly people will not approve of my activities. | I love my job. It brings me pleasure. I feel comfortable doing this, and that's more important than their opinion. |
| What will people think of me? | I want to focus on my inner comfort and happiness, on the opinions of the people I love. |
| I blame myself for missed opportunities. | There are many new, wonderful opportunities around me, which I use wisely and wisely. |
Increase pauses between tasks
Reduce the number of things on your list. Plan only half of what you think you can do. We constantly overload ourselves with tasks, forgetting about such simple things as cooking, putting ourselves in order, taking care of clothes.
We always don't have time because we try to do too much. Free up time to do everything slowly, with complete immersion in the task. Leave time between tasks to enjoy their successful completion.
Take time and pay attention to what is happening around you so that you can manage your life.
Will we be slaves to our things?
In addition, a huge amount of property binds us to a place . Remember the article “How much should you buy to be happy?”, where I described the fact that over the past 60 years there has been a trend in the world to almost double the area of apartments and houses, and that we need a place to store household appliances , clothes and other things!
The fewer things we own, the more freely we can move. You think that benefits make your life more comfortable, but most likely they just limit and impoverish you and your life.
Figure out what you need and discard the rest.
We rarely know what we really want. All we need to do is see a photo of something cool to immediately want it and change our focus in life. Looking at others, we come up with unrealistic desires and suffer from the fact that they are not fulfilled. We want to take up an expensive hobby because we saw someone else doing it. We want a different hairstyle, a different phone, a different body and a different life.
Every time you have fleeting desires because of photos, videos or other people's stories, ask yourself if this is yours. Try to understand what inspired the desire to buy something or do something, and whether you really need it.
The more you brush aside unnecessary things, purchases and desires, the easier and better your life becomes.
How to simplify your financial life
Money will not make us happier, but it is a tool for achieving goals. Of course, life is easier when they are. And for them to exist, you need to make efforts and study financial literacy.
Financial control
Make it a rule to keep track of your income and expenses. This will help you solve several problems at once. Firstly, you will always know where your money is going. Remember that feeling at the end of the month: “Where did the money go?” This issue will disappear once and for all. And secondly, by recording your expenses, you will see every ruble you spend, and this will motivate you to spend less.
Extra expenses
Once you start analyzing your expenses, within a month you will be able to see where your money is going, down to the ruble. Perhaps some item of expense will seem unnecessarily expensive to you - this is a reason to try to reduce costs. Perhaps you consider it necessary to exclude some expenses. Do it.
Put it off
The point is to start saving a small amount from each salary and other income. The most optimal is 10% of the amount received. This is approximately the figure that will be painless to save, but at the same time you will have capital quite quickly. How will this help make life easier? You may have sudden expenses at any time, and you should be prepared for them, without the need to take out a loan.
Optimize your purchases
Make a plan for your purchases in advance, buy everything you need for a week in advance and don’t go shopping every day. Yes, for this you will have to think through everything carefully, but how much time can be freed up! It is convenient to buy vegetables and fruits at the market once a week. A trip to the hypermarket with a list of groceries for the week ahead is not only a saving of time, but also money.
Pay without leaving home
Almost all banks offer their customers a mobile application that allows them to make financial transactions - “Mobile Bank”. To make financial management as easy as possible, install this application on your phone. Transfers between accounts, replenishing your balance, paying utilities - all this can be done without leaving your home
Practice doing nothing
We are so used to doing something all the time that doing nothing gives us real pain. Try to give up all activities: don’t read, don’t look at your smartphone, don’t eat. Just do absolutely nothing.
At first, there will be suggestions in your head about what you can do, some important and urgent matters. You will begin to get bored, maybe you will be drawn to sleep. Don't give up - just don't do anything.
It would seem such a simple practice, but you are unlikely to endure it for long. Get used to it gradually - it helps to cope with tension, internal haste and fussiness.
Follow these tips and see how your life changes. Most likely, you will find a lot of beauty in the world around you and in yourself.
PS Did you finish reading this article without interruption for other things? 
The debate between the mind and the heart
Very often, many girls are faced with situations where the heart tells one thing, but common sense and experience say something else. Almost always, such a dispute between the mind and heart arises due to constant analysis and reflection on the situation. You try to take into account all the little things so as not to miss anything, but in the end you miss something very important. Sometimes it is worth listening to your heart and intuition, taking risks and, perhaps, finding the greatest happiness in life. You don’t need to listen to the advice of others and do what they think is right if you feel that you don’t want to. There is nothing worse than regretting something you didn't do. Follow your desires, be happy, and you will not notice how you will become the very ideal of simplicity that everyone is drawn to.
Why it doesn't hurt to be sociable
When you develop your communication skills, you expand the possibilities in your life. Through people you can get to know this world in all its diversity. Also, when you learn something new and can share it with others, it reinforces the acquired knowledge and feelings in you. But let's go point by point:
- You develop self-confidence.
Every time you meet new people or maintain old connections, you have the opportunity to talk about yourself and your activities. You learn to conduct dialogue in different situations and with different people.
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- It's easier to achieve your goals.
You've probably heard about the law of "seven handshakes." The larger your circle of acquaintances, the easier it is to solve any issue and any problem. There will always be the “right” person in your environment who can help you.
- You get to know yourself again.
With every new acquaintance, you have the opportunity to get to know yourself again and again. By telling other people about yourself, you tell the person about who you are at the current moment in time. You talk about your latest achievements and plans.
- Satisfy the need for recognition.
I am sure that in any communication you want to be understood. After all, you are the whole universe. With your values and ideals, with your goals and achievements. And I want to share all this with the world. And the world is the people who surround you. Only by communicating with other people can you be recognized.
What can stop you from becoming sociable?
Various settings can interfere with this issue:
- "I'm imposing."
Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA: Pexels
This is a very common attitude when you may feel that your questions now will not be appropriate and you may interfere with another person. In this case, you need to remember that if you make contact at an inconvenient time for the other person, they will tell you about it. And also, you don’t need to think for another person. If it is important for you to enter into dialogue now, enter.
- “Who needs my opinion.”
Definitely, if your opinion was not asked, then there is no need to give advice or criticize someone or something. By doing so, you will violate the personal boundaries of another person. But if your opinion was asked, then you shouldn’t remain silent. This is a great opportunity to express yourself and share your vision of the situation. For someone, your opinion may be important.
- “I’d rather completely agree.”
This installation is very closely related to the previous one. In this attitude lies a great fear of being criticized. You may be afraid that your opinion may run counter to the opinions of others and may be ridiculed. And you can choose a position in which you agree with everyone. But this position will not make you a good conversationalist. A person with his own opinion is always interesting.
