Simplicity and de-cluttering the mind

What makes you feel simple and grounded? For me, it is the smell of the inside of a certain type of book, or watching my children play. Sometimes it’s just walking outside. What helps you get back to the basics. Yoga and meditation focus on the breath because it is the closest thing to focusing on the immediate presence of our being. We are not static but dynamic individuals. 

When we are stressed or worried or depressed, we can be so focused on making those things better that we get even further away from ourselves - which, in many ways, is part of the “problem” in the first place. Sometimes we need to slow down, calm down, maybe even lie down. When we are stressed or thinking a lot, we are not “down” but “up”. It is that ”upness” that keeps us disconnected from life, always thinking, worrying, figuring, persevering.

Look right in front of you and you will find your immediate experience. Simplicity is popular these days because our world is busy and complicated. We are able to buy lots of things. I’m not anti-consumerism, I’m pro responsible consumerism. It is our responsibility as consumers and society members to not get out of control. It is consumers that drive the market, not the market luring in the consumers. I digress! We are responsible for simplifying, no one else.

Back to the breath. Just breathe. Enjoy the love in your life. Enjoy nature. Focus on work. What makes you realize you are a living being? What brings you back closer to your self? 

We can simplify and de-clutter our own minds by focusing on the moment, on our immediate aliveness. Take a break from your problems. Take a break from your Self. In many ways your “self” is something that is constantly being created by your past, your present, and the culture within which you find yourself. There is a lot of constructing going on. But if you look right in front of you, literally, you will see that you are living right now. You will be able to actually see the people in your lives and maybe even the things that “make you feel happy.”

When we are stuck in our self-enclosed Self, it becomes hard to see and hard to simplify. It is not that we should never be inside ourselves, but it can get complicated in there and sometimes we need to bring our attention to what is right in front of us. It helps to simplify our attention, which, in turn, can often reduce the amount of stress and worry and the need to figure it all out. Sometimes we just need to live.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.