I did consider a more elaborate title for this newsletter, but to honour its sentiment, ‘Simplicity’ and the white page seemed to speak for themselves. For many this word might seem a long way from the demands of everyday life, especially those with busy jobs and families.
Of course in this instance, an invitation to simplify one’s life can seem trite or unkind, with seemingly little room to do so. I love the ‘Serenity Prayer’ for discerning this:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Simplifying is wonderful, but we must also be attuned to what is possible, feasible or realistic rather than confusing simplifying for being simplistic or unrealistic.
“Voluntary simplicity means going fewer places in one day rather than more, seeing less so I can see more, doing less so I can do more, acquiring less so I can have more.”~ John Kabat-Zinn
This is what simplicity means to me. John Kabat-Zinn invites us to slow down, to savour the experience we are in rather than reaching for the next or last. Being present in what we are doing or seeing, rather than multitasking, looking or reaching beyond.
‘Going fewer places rather than more’
As we attend to minor simplifications in our lives, it seems the very fabric of existence becomes simpler; easier. Sometimes deciding not to go – even to a lovely event – is the best choice. When we find ourselves racing about, maybe the question is ‘where don’t I need to go this week’ rather than ‘where do I …’. When the to and fro of movement gets too much, stillness is the best friend of simplicity.
Still, like many who have the means and freedom to do so, I revel in the occasional adventure of travel. However, through yoga practice I have come to value simple grounding routines most of all. Even when I travel, I tend to dot around less and set up a home routine whilst away. This helps practice, but also I feel I have gained a greater sense of place and from this, simplicity once more seems to flow.
‘Seeing less so I can see more’
Of course we have, for a long time, been a visual culture. However, now more than ever, the lure of the screen is an incredibly seductive, yet unnatural, way to overstimulate ourselves. I notice my surroundings again when I tune all this out and spend a day without screens- I find myself in the mode of seeing more. When our eyes are less overstimulated we might gaze out of the window; look for the horizon or notice the night’s sky – the moon, the stars. In seeing less you notice the insect on your hand or the early primroses, we might even experience awe and wonder – grace if we are lucky – in this way seeing less brings not just simplicity but maybe also greater meaning to our lives. Still, it need not be so profound. I feel more attuned with my environment (even if that is just the interior pictures on the walls of my flat). When my eyes aren’t over stimulated, I see more.
Likewise, closing the eyes or gazing sightless at the floor in meditation for however long that morning allows brings a depth of interiority – a deeper seeing that is so simple, but can seem so far away.
‘Doing less so I can do more’
If we dig into the earth of each experience we are having, by becoming more present in it, maybe we get more from the experiences we have even if they are fewer in number. We might contrast this with the productivity driven society we live in, in which success is blitzing the list; checking off activities. Sure there is a lot to do, but sometimes listening to music, walking in nature, even yoga practise end up on the list and are simply checked off when completed. We surely need some seemingly unproductive, unstructured, composting time in which nothing seems to be occurring, but the deepest transformations are made possible. At best, maybe practice is part of this time.
To gain a little time we all work on that lifetime’s pursuit for the much sought after art of saying ‘no’. Whilst we may love or need to head out into the world, balancing the coming and going with stillness cultivates simplicity. Getting less done, might make us more patient and from patience, compassion surely flows.
‘Acquiring less so I can have more’
Not grasping at things (aparigraha) is part of one of the eight limbs, or central tenets, of yoga practice or yogic living. Suggesting that serenity is born of modest living, of sensing when one has enough.
“Let us learn to live simply, so that others may simply live.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Of course we can grasp experiences as well as objects, as suggested above, but consumer culture does drive us toward a perpetual sense of need, of lack and desire. One of the best ways to simplify our lives and save the planet is by resisting this sense of need and consuming less.
Often we enumerate what we desire, what we feel will change our lives for the better. How much simpler to enumerate what we do not want, what is already fine just as it is and then go about our day with deeper satisfaction. Whilst a change of perspective like this might sound simple, we humans love to complicate even such simple things as this.