Tag Archives: gratitude

25 Simple Ways to Simplify Your Life and Focus on What’s Truly Important

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.—Hans Hofmann

When I met my wife 10 years ago, she was a minimalist and I was, well, the opposite. I was an impulsive consumer, always “wanting” and “needing” the latest and greatest. I held on to things both physical and emotional. I kept things, like clothes that I hadn’t worn in years, because I thought maybe one day I would want to wear them again or they would come back in style.  I held onto emotional stuff mainly because I wasn’t even aware of the harm it was doing to me. I held grudges, anger and resentment and had a lot of trouble letting go. I was always “busy” mostly because I was disorganized, I couldn’t say NO and I always wanted to please everyone. As the years went on, my wife fortunately started rubbing off on me and showed me lots of easy ways to simplify my life.

Looking back over the past 10 years I realized that everyone can benefit from her lessons, so I put together this list. Simplifying your life is a process of eliminating everything that is not essential, getting rid of clutter, both emotional and physical, and reducing excess and complexities. This in turn reduces stress and frees up time and space, so you can do the things you actually want to do and help you on the road to a more meaningful life. Even small changes in our environment, thoughts,  habits and attitude can make a big difference in our lives. Funny thing is, this started as a list of 100 easy ways to simplify your life, but instead I decided that the first step to simplifying your life would be to cut down this list. So here are the top 25 ways that worked for me, let us know what works for you. Continue reading »

The Secret to Happiness

About 5 years ago I was going through a rough patch and was really down in the dumps. I couldn’t find pleasure in anything. A close friend asked me what I was grateful for in my life. I thought about it for a while, but before I could answer him, he interrupted. He said, “lets make this easier, what are you grateful for TODAY?” And that was how my gratitude project started. Every night before I went to bed I wrote down 10 things that I was grateful for that day. Unfortunately, it only lasted for about a month. Then today I came across this video and it has inspired me to pick up where I left off.


Continue reading »

The Power of Gratitude

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

— Melody Beattie

This quote reminded me of an exercise I did a few years back. At the end of each day I wrote down a lists of 10 things that I was grateful for that day. My list ranged from “I am grateful for the guy who held the door open for me at the market” to “the lady who slowed down so I could change lanes” to “the fresh juicy peach I ate after lunch”. I think you get the idea. Try this for one week and see how it feels. What are you grateful for? Please share in the comments.