10 Basic Principles to Living Simply

How to Live a Simple, Happy Life

Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify, simplify.

The beginning of the journey

A few years ago I was gripped with an urgency to simplify. I was tired and overwhelmed with the amount of work it took to sustain the lifestyle I had worked so hard to achieve. My emotional connection to things, stuff, material possessions, and even my beautiful dream home, began to loosen. Little did I know this was preparation for what was to come.

This was a year before we knew we were moving and two years before I would lose my job. With intention, we pursued a smaller, simpler, easier to clean house in a small town away from malls and stores.

I began rediscovering things I used to do and things that brought me joy: gardening, animals, walking, sitting on a covered porch in the rain. Slowly, I was regaining some margin in my life, some empty space in my head and heart.

I think we need to learn how to tolerate more empty spaces. — Sarah Ban Breathnach

When I lost my job it was an opportunity to pursue my true passion (writing), and here’s the catch: because we had been intentional about simplifying and downsizing I felt no panic and urgency to jump right back into the workforce that had been crushing my spirit.

I had the freedom to take time to recover and rest, listen and pray, think and explore. Simplicity gave me the freedom to be available to hear God’s calling, the freedom to make choices that reflected who I was and what I wanted, and the freedom to remove myself from the striving that was producing stress and anxiety.

When I began simplifying it was out of necessity; I didn’t know that this journey would lead me to joy and freedom that I hadn’t experienced in a long time.

Looking back I shake my head, wondering how I allowed myself to get caught up in what Mark 4:19 describes as “the cares of this world.” I look around and see my story replicated everywhere in women who are stressed, dealing with anxiety and stress-induced health issues, burdened with guilt while waiting for “someday” when they can actually enjoy life and have time for what really matters to them.

I’m convinced the perfect time will never come; you’ve got to choose it now. Be intentional, take some risks, and make a plan.

The world seems addicted to busyness

I was talking to someone about the amount of stress and crazy striving that goes on in our lives and she said something profound: “We get addicted to the chaos.” I’m sure I could write a book about this but I don’t want to because I’m embarrassed to admit I was addicted for a while.

Truthfully, being busy and stressed creates a self — righteous air of “I must be important; my life is so full.” In reality, the Bible says that “a busy, showy life is an empty life, but a plain and simple life is a full life.” Proverbs 13:7 (MSG) And like all addictions, the addiction to chaos and busyness eventually robs you of joy, and ultimately, your freedom.

But addictions can be broken!

To break free you first have to determine there is a better way to live and a reason to break free, maybe many reasons. For me it began with one: I realized I had been absent from engaging with my family. It was easier to be busy with work than to be present and work through emotional stuff.

I took a look at my life and thought, What are you doing, Mary? I cataloged my time and asked myself if I was investing the best of me in those who meant the most to me, those who had been entrusted to me. I had to conclude I wasn’t.

Then I took an honest look inside and didn’t like what I saw there either: bitterness, dreams abandoned and scattered all over, negativity, discontent, and a lack of joy.

I realized I was trapped.

See, that’s the thing with addiction: it doesn’t warn you, it sneaks up on you, it disguises itself as something good and fulfilling. It even promises FREEDOM. But in the end, it owns you and it crushes you, and it steals your dreams and freedom.

Don’t be fooled into thinking addictions only come in the forms of outward substances.

Are you addicted to chaos? Are you addicted to busyness and productivity? Are you addicted to striving? Are you addicted to your accomplishments or self-importance?

You might be addicted to affirmation and the rush that comes from praise in the workplace or the feedback you get from others who envy how you manage to “balance it all.”

The balancing act is a facade, in case you didn’t know. What you don’t see is the maniacal attempt to balance all the spinning plates and the life overflowing off the page, leaving no margin or room for mistakes or interruptions.

Worse yet, it leaves no room for paying attention. And when we live without paying attention, we’re just existing and missing God-appointed opportunities. Obsessed and motivated by our personal agendas and gains, we are unable to see interruptions as acts of God to get our attention. The only antidote is intentional living.

Hurry is what rips 1 Corinthians 13 from the Bible. — Jan Johnson

Hurry and busy are for bees

I never noticed a bee taking pollen from a flower before until I began beekeeping, but now I stop and watch them. I marvel at how they dance from flower to flower, paying attention only to their gathering.

Busy as a bee, we say about those we see with full lives moving quickly and filling up their calendars. Gathering pollen and nectar is a bee’s life; in fact, a bee will literally work itself to its death, but we’re not bees.

We can be bee-like, however, and go through life with our noses buried in work, brushing aside distractions as unimportant until one day we have a “Cat in the Cradle” moment.

We have the power to choose our pace, our lifestyle, and what we live for; it’s never too late to rethink how we’re living. We can choose to become less busy-bee like and actually stop to smell the roses for the sake of smelling the roses, not because it was on our to-do list.

Who doesn’t want to live a life of simplicity and happiness?

I doubt anyone sets out to complicate their life and infuse it with stress and chaos. Yet, perhaps you’ve found yourself living anything but a simple life and wondering why you aren’t happy. The good news is there is a way to extricate yourself from this vicious circle. I did, and it’s liberating to learn that we don’t have to be trapped in a cycle of busyness, stress, and unhappiness.

It starts with defining why you want to simplify your life so you can design a plan to create a life that reflects more of what you value. Living true to yourself brings you to a place of simplicity and when you begin to simplify your life you have time to pay attention to things that matter most to you.

Keep in mind that you didn’t get to this place of stress, burnout, or discontent overnight, so you won’t be able to simplify your life by snapping your fingers.

But, you can begin to focus on the basic principles of simplicity in order to reap the benefits of living simply immediately. Take a deep breath. You’ve taken the first step by acknowledging that a simple life is what you crave. You can now begin to design that life one step at a time.

Basic principles for living a simple life

Here are some key principles to keep in mind for seeking a simple and happy life. All of these can be explored in depth in my introductory course, Find Your Simple. For now, it might be a good idea to print these ten basic simplicity guidelines and begin to read them daily and contemplate on how living simply can bring more peace and happiness to your life.

1. Identify what’s important to you and focus on those things. I’ve found that most people, including myself, have never really thought about what they want their life to look like. We tend to get swept into life as we become adults and set our agendas based on expectations and what we see modeled around us. When we’re not intentional about our lives, we may wake up one day and wonder how we got where we are and how things got so complicated.

2. Simplicity changes with the seasons of your life. Your focus now may not be your focus in a few years. Stay intentional and reevaluate so you don’t get stuck doing things that no longer matter. Emily P. Freeman, in her book, The Next Right Thing suggests making a Life-Giving/Life Draining List. It’s a good practice, she says, to use for evaluating where your priorities are in life. From there you can determine what no longer works for you, or what can be set aside now that a particular season has passed. Ecclesiastes assures us that we can adapt to life’s changes because there is a time for everything and life is a kaleidoscope of changing seasons.

3. Busy is not hurried. You can be busy but make sure you’re not busy with tasks that do not serve you or those you love. You can also be unbusy but exude a hurried facade or energy. We don’t serve others when they sense we are drawn to something else as we spend time with them. Do you open up to someone who seems distracted or is toe-tapping and watch-checking while you are trying to connect with them? It’s important to be present when we show others attention and love.

4. Generally speaking, ​we​ complicate our lives, but that’s not God’s design. Adversity is real and tragedy strikes but many of our problems are collateral damage from a complicated life. Avoid senseless drama, drastic changes without prayer or preparation, and as Jesus taught, count the cost before you venture into something new. (Luke 14:28)

5. Distractions lead to complexity, confusion, and discontent. Stay focused! Distractions make us look like the dog in the movie, Up! We think we’ve found what we value, we vow to focus on what’s important but a distraction flits by and we wander. Commit to staying focused on what matters and enlist the help of like-minded mentors or friends who can help you say no to those pesky but powerful distractions that tempt you to derail your focus.

6. Less is more in almost all areas of life. Decluttering is now a big business in western culture as we are waking up to the fact that we don’t need as much as we thought we did. Decluttering experts will come to your home and teach you how to minimize your belongings. Whoever dreamed such a day would exist when much of the world just hopes to find sustenance to live another day? Start by decluttering one area of your life — it could be clothes or closets — and evaluate if you have been overdoing it or over-consuming in other areas of life. When we really get down to it, we don’t need all the things consumerism has tricked us into thinking we need.

7. Money is not evil but the pursuit of it can complicate our lives or distract us from pursuing a full and simple life. This definitely played into my life as I worked to pay for a house that was not easy to maintain. My options were limited for employment and changes because I needed the income to sustain the lifestyle. It becomes a vicious circle and it can consume you.

8. Simplicity helps us maintain our focus. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the simplest things like grocery shopping? With so many choices, it can be difficult to make day to day decisions in our lives. As you practice the spiritual discipline of simplicity, you’ll find the overwhelm of making a decision recede. The reason is simple! You’ve reduced your needs, your wants, and your options, allowing you to easily weed out what doesn’t pertain and laser in on what works for you. This may be hard at first, but trust me, it gets easier as you go. Start small and work up your simplicity muscle!

9. Don’t let anything own you. Being indebted to someone or something means you don’t have control of your life. See #7!

10. Simplicity is different for everyone. This is your journey. Do not compare or align yourself with anyone else. You may find that some minimalism groups will tell you that you have to maintain a capsule wardrobe or remove everything from your walls or, heaven forbid — get rid of most of your books. There are no RULES! When we make simplicity about rules we circle back to complicate things again. Live in love and make adjustments as you feel led.

I wish you the best as you move along the journey to simplicity. If you’d like to hang out with other women who have taken the pledge to say no to stress and yes to less, why not join me in the Facebook group, The Decluttered Soul? Hope to see you there! ~Mary