How to learn to live simply: 8 tips from Leo Babauta

Inna Trofimova

writer, psychologist, gestalt therapist

Happiness is the goal of our life. But often the state of happiness slips away, and all the advice to “score”, “be positive” or “relax” only causes irritation. Has life lost its bright colors, and bad moods have become a daily occurrence? Anxious thoughts don't let you relax even for a second? Stop being discouraged. Catch 8 daily tips on how to learn to live simply. Spend 5-10 minutes every day to feel happier.

Of course, the desire to simply live does not imply the state of a vegetable in a primitive form or the elevation of existence to the cult of a lazy person. But rather than taking on the solution of universal problems, it is much easier to concentrate on your own happiness. After all, only after you try, you will understand what exactly did not work out for you.

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.

Do not worry Be Happy!

“Don't Worry, Be Happy” - there are such words in a famous song. This, if we say it in our own way, means: “Don’t worry, be happy.” Treat life more simply and easily, cultivating a sense of humor in yourself, because humor is our shield against all troubles, it is what allows us to take them less seriously. Your head is not a trash can that can be filled with all sorts of rubbish: grievances, worries, fears and expectations. By filling your head with “garbage” and wasting energy on empty chores, you are preventing favorable changes in your life. Don’t cling to “garbage”, get rid of it as soon as possible and don’t be afraid of change. They are always for the better!

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.

Don't demand the impossible!

“Never ask for anything. Never and nothing, and especially among those who are stronger than you. They will come and give everything themselves!” (M. A. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita”).

Give up criticism, reproaches, and meaningless expectations. Accept life as it comes. She is multifaceted. And the people in it are different. They don't owe you anything, they don't have to be what you want them to be. Take life easier. Learn this, and then she will really become easier, more pleasant and happier.

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Be happy in the present! The present is the only thing you have. The past is in the past, and the future has not yet come. Every moment of your life is unique, priceless and unique. Enjoy it!

Tags: life positions, positive thinking, attitude to life

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.

Breathe deeply!

Relax. Calm down. You are not now running a race with yourself; there is no judge standing at the finish line, counting every second. You are not a marathon runner, not a participant in sports competitions, and you have every right to rest. Otherwise, you definitely won’t make it to the finish line. Find a soothing melody for yourself and merge with the music, dissolve in it. Listen to your breathing, even it out, feel the waves of warmth and peace spreading throughout your body. Learn to relax and imagine that you are already in your desired future. What is it like? And what feelings do you experience? Blend with your successful self.

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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.

If it takes less than 2 minutes, do it immediately.

Many people know how unfinished business vampires suck energy out of us. Unfinished little things are not so critical, but this is only at first glance.

An unwashed cup, an unmade bed, unfinished repairs - all these things accumulate and turn life into chaos. Everyday problems have the ability to creep from home to the office. As a result, the mail is overflowing with letters, documents are not printed, and colleagues wait weeks for answers to their requests. This is how little things affect personal effectiveness.

Conclusion. With the 2 Minute Rule, you can turn the current moment into your ally. Just do it immediately.

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.

Life in the style of light

Choose your life position in the light style. This does not mean that you should count calories and arrange fasting days for yourself. This means an easy approach to life. Mental unloading, rejection of the burden of unnecessary problems and worries. Life in the light style means all sorts of amenities, joys, pleasures... Happy smiles on the faces of passers-by, colorful shop windows, walks through the evening city.

Photo: nastya_gepp, pixabay.com

This is life like an ironic film, like the American TV series Sex and the City. Eccentric, happy, free, living for our own pleasure - we all need to become like this, at least for a short time. Learn to have a light attitude towards life, watch more good comedies, read books filled with humor, for example, “Three Men in a Boat” (by Jerome K. Jerome). Laugh in the face of failure, and it simply won't scare you anymore.

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?

Have a holiday!

Our stay in this mortal world is temporary, and each of us knows about it. We set goals for ourselves, strive for something, most often living our days in bustle and haste, forgetting to look at how beautiful the sky is above us, how different people are everywhere. All life is an endless miracle, and one cannot stop admiring it.

“Even though life is not tied with a bow, it is still a gift” (Regina Brett).

Therefore, celebrate your stay in this world! Celebrate your victories! Remember everything pleasant that happened to you, all your successes and achievements, you will understand that you have something to thank life for.

But this is what I love and thank life for:

I love this life for its beauty, And for the opportunity to enjoy it, For the endless heights of thoughts, And for the ability to laugh heartily...

For the light of smiles and the madness of meetings, For joys, dreams, touches, For the hands that touched my shoulders, For miracles, for bright moments...

For tears of joy, for the light of the sun, For sincere first confessions... For every amazing dawn And for this holy awareness...

Come up with your own way of meditation.

Meditation is a way to relax your brain muscles and simply take a breather. It is practiced by many people who are commonly called successful.

Meditation helps fight stress and improve concentration on a task or a specific moment. How does she do it? First of all, helping to stop the constant racing of thoughts. If earlier a person could proudly declare: “I can’t help but think,” today this is rather a disadvantage. Constant “white noise” in the brain and consciousness takes a lot of energy, prevents you from falling asleep and understanding what you want in life. The good thing about meditation is that there are no strict laws for it. She can solve exactly your personal problems. You can meditate anywhere: in bed immediately after waking up or before bed, on a treadmill, while walking in the park, while soaking in the bathroom. You feel good, which means the meditation was successful.

Conclusion. You can learn meditation on your own. There are useful applications for smartphones to help those who wish.

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.

Down with global expectations

It's time to begin the second stage of our change. You need to remove all expectations from your thinking. Throw out expectations, don't scale them down. Quite often a person becomes discouraged because events unfold according to a different scenario than he expected. You demand from a person close to you some changes, often on a global scale, but he cannot do this for some reason.

And what does this lead to? To the emergence of anger. And he is already beginning to settle like a dead weight on your shoulders. If there are no expectations in your life, then you won’t have to be disappointed. Remember one simple truth: no one is to blame for your disappointment: not a single person, only expectations. So you'll have to live with it until you change your mind. But at the same time, after changing your thinking, you will no longer be disappointed.

Read stories of success and failure.

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When we see actors and directors on the red carpet or Nobel Prize winners, it seems that they were born smiling and confident.

Celebrities and famous businessmen today willingly share the story of their thorny path. They give lectures, write books, give interviews to business publications and conduct trainings. The main idea of ​​most messages: wealth and fame do not fall from the sky. In order to reach heights you need to study, plow and take risks. In addition, the books contain many other useful thoughts about the intricacies of doing business and relationships with people.

Conclusion. Concentrating only on the bad or completely ignoring the negative aspects is a deliberately losing position. Everything needs balance. For each case, it is worth making a list of questions on the topic “what is so” and “what is wrong” and only after that draw conclusions for yourself.

Important points

Often we try to think about the steps we have already taken. For any changes to occur, you should not think about them either good or bad. Any life changes are necessary, but at the same time think in such a way that it was neither good nor bad, but just happened and no other way.” And it seems that it is not difficult, but you need to learn how to use it in order for it to be useful in the future. Then, after the changes have occurred, you will not think about whether they were good or bad. You will simply move through life without looking back, accepting it as it is.

At the same time, do not expect what the changes will be, but be satisfied that they have occurred. And, therefore, you will not be disappointed. Learning to accept what is happening as it is is a difficult but necessary moment in the life of every sane person. Some doubt this possibility, but everyone can do it. The main thing is to pull yourself together and begin to act, rejecting all the amorphousness of human nature. This is all written briefly, but now we will look at this point more carefully.

Don’t think of other people’s thoughts and don’t generalize.

You are walking down the street and a handsome young man looked at you “somehow something wrong.” First we come up with “he thought that I was not dressed in fashion,” then we generalize “well, yes, all handsome men are narcissistic egoists.” That's it, the mood is ruined. Not from him, but from you.

If you know the person well, just make up your mind and clarify the situation with questions: “what did you mean,” “can you be more specific,” or “did I understand you correctly?” Sometimes it is more comfortable for someone else to explain the situation than to be perplexed by your displeased face. If a person is unfamiliar to you, accept it: his thoughts are far from your person and he is exclusively occupied with his own problems.

Conclusion. It is much more interesting to find patterns in people’s behavior and draw your own conclusions.

Make a gratitude list.

Recently, it has become fashionable to blame your parents for your failures. Children's conflicts, grievances and unfulfilled love are discussed on shows and in articles. It's time to think about what we can be grateful for to our parents and life.

If it’s hard to write a book about gratitude, start with 5 points. Take a small piece of paper and write down whatever comes to mind. Put the piece of paper in your wallet or notebook and re-read it every day. After several days of this practice, you will probably want to add a few items to the list. Then you will need a larger sheet. Gradually, one of the most important habits that can make us happier will be formed - keeping a gratitude diary. Every time you express gratitude, try to mentally linger in this feeling and track your emotions.

Conclusion. Say “thank you” every day and pay attention to the little things that teach you to be a little happier and wiser.

Loving yourself means treating others well too.

Compliance with this point is the main criterion in finding the answer to the question: “How to become a simple person?” And in fact, this is very difficult, especially for born proud people who do not think about anyone but themselves. Not everyone can do good deeds, but everyone can try not to do anything bad. Treat people the way you would like to be treated. This proverb couldn't come at a better time. After all, no person would do something to harm themselves, so why do many allow themselves to do unpleasant things to others?

Four simple tips to become a simple person

Many people often hear the phrase “keep it simple,” but what does that really mean? For different people, different degrees of this “simpler” were acceptable. For a famous movie star, this means having dinner in an ordinary cafe; for a popular millionaire, this means wearing ordinary clothes and walking around the city on foot, and not in an expensive car. Therefore, when you hear the famous phrase “be simpler, and people will be drawn to you,” the question involuntarily arises: how to become a simple and open person to whom everyone is drawn? After all, often people who say this phrase do not give any advice on how exactly to do this.

Enjoy simplicity

Live by the principle “less is more”! Having gotten rid of the desire to have a large number of things, you will learn to enjoy simple things, enjoy every day without spending effort on “getting” things, and travel towards your happiness !

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Don't be afraid to try new things

Read as much as possible, watch, look as closely as possible at small details and nuances, test new ideas. The more information a person absorbs - verbal, figurative, visual, sensory - the more he can give it out.

Drive away the feeling of anxiety and worry, do not let it completely take over you. Overcome your own embarrassment. Take part in the karaoke competition, even if the bear danced on both your ears! Try yourself in different areas of life. Only you yourself can take small steps towards an extraordinary and interesting life.

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.

Friendliness and sociability are your best friends

Many people by “simplicity” mean kindness, sociability and openness. This situation is radically different from the previous one. In this case, the matter concerns people who are withdrawn and closed to themselves, and not proud and self-confident. It is not always possible to immediately understand how to be a simple person to whom everyone is drawn. Try to make new acquaintances and communicate more with others. Indecision and lack of self-confidence very often push people away. Perhaps by becoming more sociable and open, you will achieve that very desired level of “simplicity”.

Being yourself means being happier

Before you learn how to become simple, it's important to think about what makes you happy. Maybe your job does not bring you pleasure, and you like to write poetry or take care of plants in the country. Or do you like to dance, sing, draw. Just do what brings you joy more often, because then you will feel happier. In moments of joy, you will want to make everyone around you happy, and this is what will make you a simple and open person.

Following these tips will make you self-confident and teach you to look positively at the world and everything that happens in it. Then you will become a truly kind, open and simple person to whom others will be drawn.

Consume less

Don't focus on consumption and minimize your needs. Don't let advertising and television force values ​​on you that you don't really need. And we’re not even talking about big purchases like a car or a new gadget. This happens at a lower level. For example, you don’t like yoghurts, but advertising suggests that you will definitely like this one, and you actually try it.

Read also: How effective are psychological trainings for losing weight?

As everybody

There are people who are used to building their world according to a template. “It should be this way”, “Everyone has this way” - these are habits that do not allow you to go beyond the limits. Such individuals are more accustomed to being in the status of “like everyone else,” although with this approach there is too great a risk of living the life of a stranger, and not their own.

It is painfully difficult for them to stand out, debate, listen to the opinions of other individuals, learning something new and interesting for themselves.

And the worst thing in all of this is to remain yourself, defending your right to vote, view, belief or position. For this reason, many people prefer to close themselves in their own little world and take an incognito position, saving themselves from the flow of fresh air.

Take courage

Only strong-willed and exceptionally courageous people can have and defend their opinion, and follow the unbeaten path. If you do not decisively move things forward, you will sadly watch the actions of more decisive people. Only you can make your cherished dream come true.

And the driving force in this process will be your own stubbornness. Don't give up - it's boring and uninteresting. Fight ridiculous customs. You have the power to set your own limits on your personal priorities. Protect them and protect yourself from those who like to impose their ridiculous demands.

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.

Get simpler

Are you sure that you know almost everything in the world, and you are unlikely to discover anything new? Believe me, you are wrong! You should not arrogantly extol the knowledge, abilities and even talents you already have. Don't look at life from a selfish perspective.

Learn to admit your mistakes. Start helping others. Find yourself a hobby in an area of ​​life that you have never even thought about before: study the culture of some little-known tiny country, scuba dive, understand prehistoric cuneiform writing, become a participant in a fire show!

You can’t even imagine how many interesting things there are that you don’t know for sure! Surprise yourself first before you start trying to impress others.

No to arrogance

As a rule, to become that very standard of “simplicity”, you just need to get rid of your arrogance. Every girl, thinking about how to become simple, also needs to think about her pride. Very often this is the reason why you are advised to be simpler. If you really notice a sin in yourself in the form of excessive arrogance, then you should just take a little break from yourself and spend time with the people around you. Learn to think about others, have compassion and empathy for them.

But be sure to take into account who exactly wants to make it easier for you. If these are not the most exemplary people, then it is better to remain with your opinion and your so-called pride. Maybe these people are just jealous of you, so carefully filter the various “well-wishers”.

Don't waste your life suppressing anger.

One minute of anger reduces immunity level by 1 hour. And if it is such a powerful emotion, it is better to get to know it better.

Anger is necessary in everyday life. You need to learn how to track it and transform it correctly. If we transform anger into resentment, guilt, aggression or internal feelings, the emotion will become destructive. In this case, anger does not get an outlet, it accumulates and overwhelms. Bang! Explosion, quarrel, rage, depression, loss of connection with those you value. The positive aspect of anger manifests itself when its energy is directed towards solving a situation. Then anger can be called sports or gambling.

Conclusion. Anger is neutral, in which direction you direct it, this is the color your emotion will receive.

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