If you apply ‘less’ in your life, you’ll feel your energy level, your level of joy rising. Let’s find out how this works.

We all love to go on holiday, we all love this feeling of freedom, of not having endless to-do lists. It’s even in the word vacation: it’s derived from the Latin word ‘vacare’ which means empty, free, vacant. Vacation means possibilities, freedom, empty schedules, … which means joy, no stress, being full of energy.

Why don’t we take this time of summer holidays to look a little closer at how we can keep living with this feeling of ‘vacation’.

What makes us feeling in a holiday mood?

No obligations, no dress code, living simpler, closer to nature, just being you, recharging, being free, having less to do, …

How can we keep feeling like this when our ‘working life’ starts again after our holidays are over?

First of all: we can create space in our home, in our office, in our car, … When your house is full of stuff, the energy literally can’t flow. You can feel this when for instance, you open a cupboard which is packed with stuff. You open the doors and you see heaps of stuff without really seeing what is in it and you just close the doors again. It literally drains you. When you open, on the other hand, a closet which has stuff in it, but organized, with space in between the items, you can literally see what is there, you can easily grab something without creating an avalanche of stuff tumbling down and you can put it back without any difficulty too. That is a closet you like to open as it does not attack your energy levels. Once you have felt this difference, you will be motivated to simplify your whole house. The more you simplify, the more energy you will feel, the more joy you will feel in life. Because the less you own, the less you need to clean, the less you need to think ‘where is my stuff?’, the less you need to organize, the less you need to store, to insure, to maintain, …. In the beginning it may seem overwhelming but when you tackle your house, room by room, closet by closet, you finally arrive at a stage where you can really enjoy your house as it feels spacious, no matter the size of your house. You know what you have, where it is and therefor you actually use all your stuff. This way of living, of owning stuff makes you feel more energetic, you feel more freedom as you spend less time searching for stuff, and you also have less to do which frees up time and makes you feel more relaxed. You also have less decisions to make as you only keep what you really use, what you actually wear. You would be surprised how many little decisions we make every day without realizing it are decisions: what will I wear, what will I cook, what …. All these seemingly-unimportant-decisions finally give us decision fatigue. So, the more we simplify, the less decisions we have to make, the less we get fatigued. Only keep what you actually wear, what you actually use. The same goes with decorations: have a few, enjoy those. Because when your house is full, you don’t really see and enjoy the different items anymore, you just register ‘full house’.

This is already a huge step into keeping this free, careless vacation feeling.

A next step is to keep your body energized. We want to keep feeling rested, relaxed. So, what you can do here is:

Go to bed at the same time every evening. Sleep is the most underestimated factor in feeling good. Make it a habit to have enough and high quality sleeping time. Build in a ritual before you go to bed: no more screen time 1,5 hour before you want to sleep, do something relaxing like reading, writing a journal, listening to some relaxing music, meditating, having a nice cup of herbal tea, …Do what prepares you for a peaceful sleep.

Exercise so that your body is in good shape. The better you are in shape, the more energetic you will feel.

Eat fruit and vegetables.

Drink water.

You will feel the difference and once you feel good, everything will seem less tiresome because you have the energy to do it.

Also keep a close eye on your agenda. I know, there are tons of nice things to do, tons of very enjoyable activities, tons of great movies, … whatever. But in the end, all you feel is FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and you want to do it all. That is very draining as you can’t enjoy what you are doing at the present moment anymore because you are already thinking of the next thing on your agenda. Pick some activities and SAY NO to all the rest. That way, you can fully enjoy in a relaxed way what you are doing. The more you practice this, the easier it will become and the more FOMO will be replaced by JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out).

Now, you already have a house, office, car that gives you energy as you have removed all the clutter and all the excess. Your body is now your temple and you feel great.

The next thing to keep that feeling of no worries, of no pretending, of just being you, is to clear out all the cobwebs out of your head.

Let go of all the stuff that is out of your hands anyway. No use fretting over it.

Let go of all the thoughts about what other people may be thinking of you. You don’t know what they are thinking to begin with, and if and what they are thinking is a reflection of their feelings and has nothing to do with you.

Let go of all the things you think you need to do so that people will love and appreciate you. People love you for who you are and not for what you do. When you show friendship and love, you automatically do ‘enough’ so don’t stress out about pleasing them all the time.

Let go of the thought, you are not good enough. YOU ARE ENOUGH. People who expect more are probably just taking advantage of you, or are unhappy with themselves and expect you to compensate for that lack they are feeling about themselves.

It is all very simple but not always as easy to do. But begin today, and go step by step. Keep practicing day after day to simplify your life. The more you practice, the easier it becomes and the clearer you will know what is important and what not. When you peel off the layers that are not really important, the ‘true you’ appears, your true values, your true joy and happiness will surface and you can finally let go of all the things you did for appearances, for outer looks, for what your ego thought you needed.

Do and think the things that put a smile on your face! That’s the fastest way to feeling good, to feeling energetic, to feeling free and joyful!

Enjoy your holidays, as I did the last couple of weeks, and practice living with less. You will benefit so much from it afterwards!

For those who also read in Dutch, check out my book “Less is Yes!” on my website www.lifecoachwomen.be. It’s a very practical guide to simplify your life and have your energy flowing again.

Thank you all for reading me and for supporting me on Medium too! If you want unlimited access to all of my articles and many other authors, you can become a Medium Member by clicking on this link https://lifecoachwomen.com/membership and you’ll be supporting me directly (and all the other authors indirectly). Many, many thanks to you all!!!

Katrien

 

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