Our lives are overfull.

There’s not a single one of us who is free of that trap, in my experience. We say yes to invitations and commitments, we answer as many emails and messages as we can, we join courses and groups, buy books and take on new hobbies, get involved in new relationships and buy more stuff.

The result of this tendency to overfill is predictable:

• We spend too much money and get into too much debt, and then have too much clutter.
• We are always busy and always feel like we’re behind on everything.
• We don’t have time for what’s really important — relationships, meaningful work, solitude and silence, taking care of ourselves.
• We can’t really fulfill all of our commitments because we have too much going on.
• We use full lives to distract ourselves from being fully present.

It’s understandable that we overfill our lives — we are usually acting on desires, and not giving full contemplation to what we want in our lives and what we don’t want.

‘You can’t act on your desires alone. You have to contemplate the details of what needs to be removed and what needs to be cultivated.’ ~Chogyam Trungpa

So how do we change that? I’d like to propose paring down your life.

Continue reading “Paring Down Your Life” →