Back to the basics - simply living

It's been a while since I last got in touch. I've been so busy with my life, like probably all of us. Somehow there's always something going on and it's always moving forward. And then I suddenly think to myself: “When was the last time I actually wrote a post?”. If you don't consciously make time for the things that are important to you, they can easily get lost in the daily grind. That's the case with me too. That's why I'm really enjoying writing these words right now, because I love writing blog posts!

Life always keeps us busy. Sometimes I feel like there are a thousand things going on at the same time and my head bursts at some point. I also think it's become even more stressful these days because we're fed so much information every day. Most of the time, it doesn't even affect us. We sit on our cell phones, answer messages from strangers, are on Instagram and spend hours scrolling through the posts that are displayed to us and we receive so many emails. And in most cases, we haven't even chosen all of these ourselves, but they are randomly spit out to us based on statistics. We voluntarily consume what an algorithm shows us, so to speak - including a lot of advertising for things that we supposedly need. And so it's no wonder that our brains are full at some point and we have no energy left for anything else.

I remember reading once that there was a particular reason for Steven Jobs' choice of clothing. He is known for always wearing the same black turtleneck sweaters and pants. Some may think that this is quite peculiar or that he is perhaps lazy or out of his depth when it comes to fashion. But the opposite seems to be the case. He knew exactly what he was doing. He probably once said that he wanted to save his mental resources. Because every person has a certain amount of decision-making capacity every day and this is used up at some point. You probably know this too, when you simply can't make any more decisions in the evening because your brain can't keep up. Steve Jobs probably didn't want to waste energy choosing his clothes in the morning, but instead wanted to use it for his developments. Minimalists are also familiar with the fact that by having fewer material things and therefore less distraction and ballast, more energy is available for other things.

So when we think about our social media behavior or generally about everything that we voluntarily and involuntarily take in every day, I'm not at all surprised that we just want to sit on the couch in front of the TV in the evening - even if that means even more input. There is simply no energy left for other things or even creating something new. Because creative energy requires a clear head, clarity and, above all, a connection with yourself. At least that's how I feel.

This simply begs the question: what can we do? And above all, how can we create spaces without input in which the brain can recover? How can we get back to ourselves? I believe that the easiest way out of this “mental” chaos is to focus on the very simple things in life again. Away from what makes it complicated and distracts us from ourselves and towards what makes it simple and connects us with ourselves. This includes preparing a good meal for yourself, taking good care of yourself, making your bed in peace in the morning, doing your laundry, going out into nature, shopping, spending time with your family and getting enough sleep. In other words, everything that is essential to life and indispensable. Most of the time, these are the things that seem unimportant or even annoying, but I believe they are the things that really help us to reconnect with ourselves. Focus on what is real life and cut out everything that is unnecessary and just gives you a heavy head at the end of the day. Back to basics, back to the simple life.

I have been living this more lately after feeling foggy and I can tell you, I feel so much better already. It feels like the pressure from the outside is lessening and clarity is emerging. And with the clarity comes the energy and with the energy comes the creativity and the desire to create. Because free-flowing creativity is on the other side of “survival mode” in which we only use our resources for what is necessary. And the exciting thing is: nothing bad will happen if you do this - on the contrary. We are often almost overwhelmed at first when we press the pause button and simply do nothing. A guilty conscience quickly arises, thoughts of being lazy and so on. But that's just the unconscious “hustle mode” kicking in again, the addiction we're stuck in because we're used to constantly processing content.

In my opinion, we humans are in the world to create things and to consciously shape and live our lives to the full. This requires space, clarity and energy. Just try out what it does to you when you focus on the few things that are important to you and simply let the rest go. There is nothing better than when this open space is created, which we can then fill with the things that really bring us joy. And then new things emerge that we might not have expected.

Exercise: Write down three things that are really important to you and three things that you can easily delete. What difference would that make?

What do you do every day? What is good for you? And what causes you stress? Do you do things that make you feel more distracted afterwards? What would you like to do, but can't find the energy? What could you cut out? What are the few “basics” that you would keep? How do you think your life would feel and change afterwards? Do you think you would want to “go back” afterwards?