Simplify and Seize the Joy

In today's fast-paced world, where we are constantly bombarded with distractions and material pursuits, the idea of simple living has become more relevant than ever. It’s a lifestyle choice that encourages us to prioritize experiences over possessions, mindfulness over busyness, and clarity over clutter. Below I have compiled some ideas that have helped me and may help you too, to embrace a more intentional, peaceful way of life.

Set a timer for 10 minutes. Choose any of the following tasks. Stop after 10 minutes. Then celebrate your simpler life.

ü  üDonate any shoes you haven’t worn in a year.

ü  üWrite three thank you notes.

ü  üTurn on music, drive slowly even if you are late, because complaining/ crying/ rushing etc. etc. will not make the timer go slow or smoothen the traffic that you are stuck in. So just relax and move on with the situation as-is.

ü  üComplain Less

“You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.” — Tom Wilson

There are numerous benefits to complaining less. It shifts our focus to the positive. It allows gratitude to take root. And cheerfulness can be an excellent beautifier.

ü  Remove any glasses, dishes, silverware, serving dishes or cooking utensils from the kitchen that you haven’t used in the last 6 months. If you miss something, go get it. If not, donate it.

ü  Open any email that you didn’t sign up for, or signed up for but don’t need/ want/ like anymore, scroll to the bottom of the email and click “unsubscribe”. Also delete the emails that are just lying in your inbox without being of any use to you.

ü  Bring two small bags to your car. Fill one with trash and the other with anything that doesn’t belong in the car. Like I removed all the slips I got while getting the car refueled, all the trash including chips’ empty packets, toffee rappers etc. (thanks to my kids), all the disposable spoons that we collected in the car while taking take aways and much more….. The idea is to just clear the place and remove all the unwanted things that don’t belong there.

ü  Dump the contents of your junk drawer or desk drawers that you don’t open frequently into a paper bag. Close the bag. If you don’t need anything in the bag in 30 days … get rid of the bag and everything in it. If you do need something in the bag, remove it and put it where it belongs.

ü  üBring a box into your bathroom and fill it with anything that has expired or that you don’t use.

ü  üDonate all your formal occasion dresses that you haven’t worn more than once. Yes, all those dresses that you bought for something fancy and justified the purchase by saying, “I’ll be able to wear this again.”

ü  üClear as many counter tops as you can while still taking the time to put things where they belong. Have a donation box close by in case that is where they belong.

ü  üRemove all expired, stale, unwanted items from your pantry and refrigerator.

ü  Start walking for only 5 minutes if you aren’t walking at all.

ü  Be Beautifully Human:

“There is some kind of a sweet innocence in being human – in not having to be just happy or just sad – in the nature of being able to be both broken and whole, at the same time.”
— C. JoyBell C.

Just be OK with not being OK all the time.

ü  üSkip the guilt-dwelling, soul-sucking process of focusing on everything you didn’t do, or how far you still have to go.

·       If your closet is a disaster but your kitchen counters are free of clutter, celebrate that.

·       If your morning was stressful and hectic, but you were able to sit quietly for 20 minutes after lunch, celebrate that.

Turn your focus to the ways you’ve made progress on your simplicity journey and use the momentum of how that makes you feel to tackle the next thing.

Happy Living!

And

Thank you for reading…

Because Enough is a decision and not an amount...

 

As we step into the new year, may it be a perfect opportunity to begin anew, embracing simplicity in every moment. Let this fresh start remind us of the power of simplicity—simplifying our thoughts, actions, and goals that can lead to greater clarity and peace. To help guide this journey, I have compiled a collection of quotes that have inspired me, and I hope they can motivate and encourage you as well. Let these words ignite your spirit, offering wisdom and strength as we embark on another chapter of growth and possibility together.

15 Simplicity Quotes to Encourage a Simpler New Year

1.    Big change is the result of hundreds of tiny steps (and they all count).

2.    Instead of adding things for more happiness, try subtracting them.

3.    When you are overwhelmed, the best plan for managing everything is to reduce everything. Less stuff = less managing.

4.   You can remove a significant amount of stress from your life simply by reducing the number of items in your closet.

5.    Doing more things doesn’t make you a better person. It makes you a tired person. Owning less = cleaning less.

6.   When decluttering, don’t create space for more stuff. Make space for more life.

7.    I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you are allowed to say no even when you aren’t busy.

8.   If you don’t have time for what matters, stop doing things that don’t.

9.   Our homes aren’t containers for stuff but rather a place for love and connection. Let’s make room for more of that.

10. I don’t say ‘no’ because I am so busy. I say ‘no’ because I don’t want to be so busy.

11.  In our lives, there are times that call for slow, gentle change, and then there are times when you just have to let that shit go.

12. That moment, when you think you don’t have time to take care of yourself, is the exact moment you must take care of yourself.

13.  When you are overwhelmed, tired and stressed the answer is almost always… less. Get rid of something. Lots of somethings.

14. Decluttering is one part dealing with your stuff and three parts dealing with your heart.

15.  If you want to enjoy your favorite things, only own your favorite things.

Just another random mystery

If you’d ask me for one word about how Rishi and I felt with each other, for being together since so many years now, I would say “AZAAD”. We felt free with each other, without any boundations to entertain each other all the time.

          He’d be sitting in one corner of the room while I would be in another, with NUSRAT filling the space between our comfortable silences, where I’d be packing my bags to leave again and he’d be sitting and browsing through YouTube or busy attending the limitless phone calls. In between we’d stare at each other, smiling and I’d melt. I’d lose all my concentration for few seconds, before regaining myself.

          Rishi would stare outside the window, sometimes the mirror and most of the time his mobile phone that usually fills our surroundings there in Jammu. Whereas, I usually find myself sitting in our room, catching the birds flying back to their nests, orange sun settling behind the far looking hills, stray dogs settling themselves in the cozy corners of the streets and the decreasing number of vehicles on the busy road and sometimes catching hold of his face and holding his palms or hugging him tight in a comfy hug. We are use to spending our days with the routines in our respective places and evening like these when together.

          Remembering a day when we saw that movie together. As he laid down next to me, staring at me and he said,

“If you ever write about me, think of me as a man who was free in his soul, who flew with wind, and yet longed for love. A love that could move the world. Write about me as LOVE.”

          And then today, on the eve of his birthday, I sat down to write about this love that have filled my life with colours, care, charm, calmness and full of memories to hold on to. And the first thing that I could write was about love within me because of him.

          That is the thing about us. Rishi and I are always destined to be together, and we knew it since day one, when he was sitting in the balcony of a calm place somewhere in Jammu and I were standing near the parking lot of the busy south Delhi market and messaging him, just after few days I have met him for the first time.

          We knew that that our companionship won’t be easy like a cake walk and yet we went ahead with it. Loving each other in every moment, for we never knew which moment would have been our last. But we sailed through all the odds and as we were destined to be together, we are together, stronger than ever and to be with each other till our last breath on mother earth.

          With each night I spend in Jammu, with him, feeling his physical presence, smelling his magical fragrance; the morning comes with a beautiful promise. As I watch the sun rising from behind those small looking hills and ironically the bigger looking trees and painting them golden with its rays, and I watch his angel looking face, deep in sleep and Thank the Almighty for every moment of magic that had and have the power to change my life forever.

          I think these are the mornings I fall in love with him again and again for forever and ever again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE

Recipe for Happiness

All of us are humans, we are all enmeshed in a world full of opposites – pleasure & pain, joy & sorrow, profit & loss, victory & defeat, success & failure, birth & death. We work and sweat and plot and plan and spend all our time trying to achieve one side of each pair of opposites – pleasure, joy, profit, victory, success – while avoiding the other – pain, sorrow, loss, defeat, failure.

But here’s the thing – both sides are really not at all that different from each other. What’s more, one cannot exist without the other. You cannot avoid the bad side of the equation because rejecting the bad side means denying the good side as well. You don’t feel even half much of pleasure of achieving something if you have never failed in the process. More importantly, neither side ever lasts – not pleasure, not pain, not victory, not defeat.

So what should you do? Accept both sides of each pair of opposite with the same sunny attitude. And there is another way of achieving the same result – rejecting both sides of each pair of opposites! Whichever one you pick, it means the same thing – you neither get elated when something “good” happens nor depressed when something “bad” happens. You are always calm. And calm means no fear (of failure), no desire (for victory), no sorrow (over loss) and no anger (at rejection).

Isn’t it very hard to accept or reject every pair of opposite, especially since our entire world is made up of them? You bet it is. But one simple way to start on the long journey is to stay completely focused on the work at hand, whatever that work may be – studying for exam, helping your parents around the house, taking care of cranky grandparents, researching a science project with team-mates you don’t go along with…… Don’t think about how disagreeable the work is, don’t wonder what the point of it is, and don’t worry about whether it will bring you any rewards, that you hope, or the failures or dread. Instead put your head down and JUST DO IT.

Eventually, the work itself will become the purpose, and you will not care about the results. The work itself will become the reward, and you will stop looking outside it for rewards.

On the surface, it may seem like a recipe for a dull life, but those who have tried it swear it is actually a recipe for perfect and lasting happiness.

If the Gita’s philosophy were reduced to one sholka……

It would be Shloka 47 of the second chapter of the Gita

You only have the right to perform your duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself as the cause of the results of your activities and do not attach to inactions.