Life these days is many things. It’s certainly exciting, loud, and action-packed. With the enormous amount of entertainment options available at all times day and night, you’d think that “boredom” would be on its way out, if not altogether done away with by now.
On the other hand, as life has transformed, bit by bit, into an arcade of sorts, more and more of us find ourselves becoming jaded, overstimulated, distracted, and anxious.
In an age of sensational clickbait headlines, rapid-fire soundbites, vivid and visceral TV programmes, and communication networks that keep us perpetually linked up with everyone we know, simply finding a bit of simplicity and peace can easily come to seem like the biggest challenge of all.
But as survey data repeatedly indicates that we are becoming more stressed, more alienated, and more anxious, even as our material quality of life keeps soaring exponentially, something’s got to give.
Here are a few tips for simplifying your life and finding peace.
Consolidate your tools, and keep only what has a disproportionate benefit
In order to successfully navigate such a hectic and always-on world as that we occupy in the second decade of the 21st century, it’s more or less essential that we rely on certain tools that we can use to streamline and manage our experience of digital space, and life as a whole.
But what if the tools themselves become too numerous, and too complex, and begin to weigh us down and further feed into the distraction?
Well, that’s a good sign that it’s time to consolidate your tools, integrate them if possible, and ideally replace them with platforms that “do it all.” Whispir, for example, is a tool that allows you to send SMS from email, in addition to all sorts of other things.
Unplug from the “matrix”, and embrace the silence
The Internet and the great global convergence points of TV, film, social media, communication, and websites, can pretty easily come to seem like The Matrix. A virtual reality world which traps our attention, and keeps us eternally distracted.
Of course, there are plenty of quite profound benefits to services such as the Internet, so it would be silly to throw the baby out with the bathwater and declare it “bad.”
All the same, however, one of the best things you can do in order to win a bit of peace for yourself is to unplug from the “matrix” on a regular basis, and embrace the silence instead. When it’s just you and your own thoughts, the mind can rest deeply and truly.
Focus on doing one or two things that make you “come alive” and minimise how much time you spend on everything else
These days, we’re all trying to do as many things as possible, simultaneously, with the result that many of us flounder around and fail to achieve our potential in any one area.
If you want to simplify your life and find some peace, focus on doing one or two things that make you “come alive,” and minimise how much time you spend on everything else.
It’s unlikely that surfing the TV channels mindlessly, enriches your life in any real way. Reading a good book, or working on a painting, on the other hand? Much more likely to be life-affirming pastimes.