Simple Living Means…
Simple living means so many things to me. What it means to you will depend on the life you live, how busy you feel on a day-to-day basis and whether you manage to make time for yourself regularly. Our lives are generally full of things to be done and stuff to be owned and often that doesn’t leave us much time to work out what we would like our ideal life to look like.
So for me, simple living is about challenging the push-and-pull, and the complexity of the constant hustle that typifies our daily lives and focusing on what truly matters. It is not about self-deprivation, missing out or sacrificing pleasure.
20 Simple Living Tips for More Ease and Less Stress
These 20 simple living tips are a simplicity manifesto, to guide you on your journey towards a more fulfilling and balanced life. I hope they will help you find peace and contentment.
1 Declutter Your Living Space
If you’re familiar with the other content on zenzify, it won’t come as a surprise that decluttering is number one in these simple living tips!
Tackling your clutter and organizing your home to create more harmony and ease in your living environment will have a positive effect on your mental well-being. Visual chaos and disorganization can make you feel overwhelmed, but decluttering can help to create a sense of control and improve your focus and productivity.
Start by taking a critical look at your belongings. Do the things you are surrounded with bring value or joy to your life? If not, then consider minimizing by donating or selling them – your home is not a storage facility, nor a museum for memories, it needs to work for your everyday life. For tips about 5 items to get rid of, see this home decluttering checklist.
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2 Spend Time with your Nearest and Dearest
Friends and family are an invaluable source of support, encouragement and love (most of the time!). Our lives get so busy with all the things we think we should be doing socially, that it’s easy to miss out on spending time with the people who ground us and are consistently there for us.
Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting getting rid of good relationships simply because they are casual or not the most deep and meaningful. There are benefits of different types of connections, but prioritizing the ones that bring you the most joy makes a lot of sense.
3 Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness features high up in this list, because it’s a key part of my regular routine and has been life-changing for me. Read this post for some ideas about mindfulness activities that are easy to fit into your daily life.
4 Digital Detox
Whether by our cell phones or our wearables, our senses are constantly bombarded with notifications from our tech. Simplifying the information you are taking in, by limiting your exposure to digital devices and social media, every now and then, will give you some space to breathe and some peace to relax.
Designating specific times for checking devices throughout the day and doing a digital detox day a few times a year, where you disconnect from screens and reconnect with the world around you, works well for me. At the very least, you’ll sleep better that night!
5 Go Outdoors More Often
If you’re struggling to find time to get outdoors every day, now is the time to change this! Here are some ways you can incorporate taking some fresh air into a busy daily routine:
- if feasible, consider walking or biking to work or for regular errands. If you take the bus, get off a couple of stops early, so that you can walk the rest of the journey
- take your books or devices outside if you enjoy reading and spend 10 minutes al fresco, come rain or shine
- take short breaks during your workday to step outside, even a few minutes of daylight can help reduce stress and improve focus.
6 Create Daily Rituals
We are all creatures of habit, so it really pays to make our daily routines as positive and purposeful as possible. Whether it’s a morning meditation, an evening walk, or a few moments of gratitude, daily rituals can ground you and provide a sense of purpose.
Charles Duhigg’s Power of Habit helped me develop a method for adopting new habits – before reading it I struggled with this. It explains the psychology of building new routines and, that together with Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning, was a game changer for me!
7 Practice Gratitude
Perhaps the simplest of these simple living tips is being grateful. It’s completely free to do (although, this gratitude journal is lovely, if you’re looking to buy one!) and you can begin right now.
Our lives are mostly filled with abundance, but consumerism is all pervasive and it encourages us to constantly want more, so we sometimes don’t appreciate what we have. A regular gratitude practice can help you to focus on what you have instead of constantly thinking about what you don’t have.
Start by reflecting on the positive aspects of your life – if a journal doesn’t appeal to you, then simply take a few moments to list these things out in your mind.
8 Get a Crock Pot
An absolute no-brainer if you want to simplify your life by eliminating the stress of deciding what to eat, and then cooking it, every night. A crock pot will save you money – particularly, if like me, you are partial to getting a take out – and will reduce time and effort spent, whilst making tasty, nutritious, home-cooked meals in a super simple way. Who doesn’t want that!?
The Minimalist Baker has some delicious recipes for Instant Pot, a multi-functional pressure cooker, slow cooker that we use at home several times a week.
9 Set Boundaries
Setting boundaries in my personal and work lives has helped me to prioritize my mental and emotional well-being and keep things simple in these domains. My post about Setting Boundaries for Self Care is here if you want some ideas.
It’s not about building walls in our relationships, it’s actually the opposite, because it allows you to create the space you need to breathe and that can result in better connections with people.
10 Prioritize Experiences over Things
Simple living advocates reject the accumulation of material possessions, instead focusing on creating meaningful experiences. Spend time with loved ones, get involved in activities that make you feel fulfilled and happy – surely, happiness is an ultimate life goal for most people? You will find that these memories will end up holding more value than any physical item.
11 Learn to Let Go
Holding onto old grudges and resentment, and the emotions that will cause you, is a sure-fire way to complicate your life. Forgiveness is not an easy thing to do, because often it means trying to understand the reasons why someone behaves badly when you have been affected by that bad behavior.
Maybe a significant loss or a trauma is the cause of that behavior and that person is just trying to do the best they can with the hand they were dealt. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should be a doormat – boundaries benefit everyone, even if they are sometimes challenging to put in place.
12 Slow Eating
If you have a tendency to rush your food, slowing down will improve your digestion (which has health benefits too) and will give you a chance to appreciate the taste of your food. Choose whole, unprocessed foods, savor each bite, and enjoy the nourishment your meals provide.
13 Minimalist Lifestyle
Chances are, if you’re reading this post, you’re already interested in minimalism. As this piece Why minimalism is not just about your stuff from Balance Through Simplicity explains, minimalism is about much more than decluttering physical spaces. As the name suggests, less is generally considered to be more and it’s a mindset that can transform your way of living, by bringing simplicity and intentionality into your daily life.
14 Embrace Slow Living
Slow down and savor the present moment. Whether it’s enjoying a gentle stroll in nature, or spending quality time with the people you care about, embracing a slower pace can lead to a more fulfilling and meaningful life. For more inspiration about slow living, I recommend Chasing Slow: Courage to Journey Off the Beaten Path by Erin Loechner for her great advice and excellent storytelling.
15 Financial Simplicity
Simplify your finances by creating a budget, cutting unnecessary expenses, and saving for the future. A clear financial plan can reduce stress and allow you to live within your means.
Adopting a minimalist approach to finances extends beyond saving and budgeting to making intentional financial decisions that align with your values. If you’re interested in saving money, or in financial minimalism generally, see this piece 5 Essential Habits of Financial Minimalists.
16 Simplify Your Goals
Setting realistic and achievable goals that align with your values is a must. Simplifying your aspirations can help you avoid unnecessary stress so that you can enjoy the journey toward achieving your objectives, rather than struggling along the way. This book, Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals, by Brian Tracy sets out a simple technique for developing focused goals and plans.
17 Choose Face to Face over Digital
While technology is obviously very convenient and efficient, the benefits of face-to-face communication far exceed this, in my opinion. Speaking to someone in person is a more holistic exchange and because it 1q1qinvolves verbal and non-verbal elements, which helps you better understand each other and build stronger connections. Where possible and practicable, consider swapping digital communications, such as emailing, messaging and video calling, for simply dropping by or picking up the phone.
18 Limit Multitasking and Busyness
There is so much focus these days on cramming as much as possible into each day, so it’s understandable if this seems counter-intuitive! In fact, focusing on one task at a time has significantly increased my productivity and allowed me to enjoy the process of each activity whilst feeling significantly less stressed about doing it. Joshua Becker of becoming minimalist has some great ideas about becoming unbusy and this book by Garland Vance, Gettin’ (un)Busy: 5 Steps to Kill Busyness and Live with Purpose, Productivity, and Peace sets out a very refreshing and alternative perspective on time management.
19 Mindful Consumption
Before making a purchase, ask yourself: Do I really need this item or is it more of a fleeting desire?
Adopting a more mindful approach to consumption and focusing on quality over quantity – investing only in things that are durable – will simplify your life in the long-term, because you won’t need to spend more energy and time thinking about replacing them for a while. And, of course, you may also save money.
20 Sustainable Living
As a further means of simplifying how I consume generally, I’ve tried to adopt more eco-friendly habits. Reusable shopping bags and travel mug, products with minimal packaging – you get the idea!
I’ve saved this one until last, because limiting the impact that we have on this planet is the ultimate and most long-lasting action we can take to live simply. Small changes like this are easy to adopt and, to some extent, they are becoming the norm. They all add up and contribute to a more sustainable lifestyle.
Final Thoughts
The purpose of these simple living tips is to help you to embrace an intentional and purposeful lifestyle. If you feel that you will need to adjust your mindset to adopt simple living, then see these 15 Inspiring Simplicity Quotes for inspiration from some of the leading thinkers about simplicity. A key point to remember if you are feeling challenged, is that simplicity is not about depriving yourself of things; it’s about enjoying the basics, and appreciating the beauty, of life (usually with the added benefit of reducing stress and saving money).
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this post about simple living tips. Feel free to pin and share this article, and come back soon to discover the latest posts!