How to Live More by Doing Less
As the days go on, many of us find ourselves at a loss. Loss of our purpose, our goals, and most of all - any sense of having it all figured out.
We believe that by a certain age, the puzzle pieces of our lives will all form accordingly. The job will come to fruition. We’ll attain the body we have always longed for. The ideal partner will enter our lives. We’ll live in a place that inspires us beyond measure. The problem?
Most of us also believe that to receive what we want out of life, we must work our tails off to get it.
For our careers, we fall into late nights of emails, stress, even obsessing over our Google calendar, struggling to find a way to get it all done. Time seems to be falling between the cracks. We see our dream, but the work to get there weighs such a burden that we question how bad we truly want it altogether.
When it comes to our bodies, cycles tend to be the ‘norm.’ We find a fitness regimen, exhaust it for a few weeks, then end up back in our old habits. We scroll through Instagram only to find another supplement we’re supposed to be taking. We desperately grasp to anything that claims to be the ‘be-all, end-all’ of health to rid ourselves of our body image issues once and for all.
On top of those battles, we throw in relationships as well. If we’re not already with someone and long to be, you bet we’re consciously looking. While some may physically throw themselves into social scenarios, a lot of us use online dating as a way to ‘put ourselves out there’ because we don’t have the time for anything else. From the comfort of our couch, basking in our four-day-hair and a decade old t-shirt, we can swipe through potential partners like a late-night Amazon shopping spree.
Let me stop there, you get the point.
As a society, we have a way of experiencing life as a means to an end. We take on extra work projects for the sole reason of accelerating our career goals. They may keep us awake until 2am nightly, but we just know our future self will thank us for this.
We engage in intense six-day-a-week workout plans and strict food diaries because in our mind, we’re working towards a better future for our health. We ignore those moments we faint of hunger or sacrifice sleep for exercise. I mean, no pain, no gain - or so we think.
The truth of the matter is, no action in life will ever feel fulfilling if we are coming from a place of lack. The lack of that job, that body, that relationship.
When we force ourselves through countless work projects we hate or exercise routines that hinder us, we are no closer to our goal than if we were doing nothing at all. Action can only be beneficial when it is coming from an aligned place.
Have you ever woken up with a to-do list, determined to get it all done, but due to the overwhelm of the list itself, you end up ordering take-out, binging a season of Friends, and suddenly wondering what the hell happened?
That’s the problem with a ‘go-go-go’ mindset.
You believe the more you get done, the better you’ll feel when in reality, the better you feel, the more you’ll get done.
If you had picked two things that felt good from your impending list and gotten them done, you would have accomplished those two things and actually might have felt inspired to keep going. The key was to pick the actions that felt the best in that moment and take the pressure off.
So, for today, I ask you to take a step back from the list.
Recognize that life is always working with you, never against you. The only condition is that you feel good and your mind will lead you to inspired action. If you need an hour of television to unwind after work or feel called to dive into a book instead of your usual cardio, go with that gut feeling.
You never know when inspiration will strike and the only way to call it in is to just be in the presence of what lights you up. Only from there can you be led to your dreams, and most of the time, things work out far better than your logical mind could have ever predicted.
Trust the Universe and most of all, trust yourself. If something feels off, it is, so you know what actions feel good to you. Pave the path to your dreams with love and right on cue, you’ll find the journey itself is the dream.
All is well.
“Kim is a twenty-something from the East Coast with a deep passion for self-care, understanding the human race, and staying connected to our intuition within. Through my own stories, struggles, and the knowledge I continue to gain, my hope is to help those around me see the power we all hold in our lives. We are far more capable than we’re led to believe. ”
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