If you were to chart exactly how you spend your time and energy each day, how much of it would be unnecessary? In today’s world you can all too easily squander every last ounce of your life force accumulating unnecessary stuff and doing unnecessary things. It’s time to simplify your life—and that goes for your diet, too!
Spinning in Circles
So many people needlessly spin all day long because they think life must be busy to be counted. Sometimes they are keeping busy with needless activities (which they validate with a million little reasons) to distract them from their inner life—feelings of inadequacy, difficult situations at home or at work, relationships that are not working, etc. There is no quicker way to become old and tired, inside and out, than to spend your days spinning—always doing, doing, doing.
Our world has taught us a great deal about how much we can do in a day, and almost all of our infrastructures, business models, and technological breakthroughs are geared toward accelerating output. We are conditioned to do, never to be. Even much of the self-help literature that instructs you to take a moment to breathe deeply is marketed as a way of showing you how to become more productive in the modern world, not to liberate you from the exhausting rat race.
Consider the actual importance of everything you do in a day. Where you put your energy is where you are sending your life force. Which of those activities are truly helping you to conduct life force where it’s most important? And which of them do you carry out mindlessly according to convention and consumer-driven ideas of measuring up?
Remove the Clutter
The less toxic you are, the fewer needs you have. The fewer needs you have, the freer you are to pursue what’s most important to you. Take a moment to revise your consumption. Even if you do not make any big changes today, take a moment to consider what is essential, what is less essential, and what no longer serves any real purpose in your life.
Begin by applying the principle of simplicity to everything that inhabits your physical space, from the items in your closet, to your office, to your home. Identify ten items that needlessly clutter up your environment and imagine all the beautiful space that would open up by removing them. Then apply the same principle to your social life, to your work schedule, and to your family life. Identify ten activities or behaviors that you don’t really want to engage in anymore that you still find yourself doing. Imagine how much more positive energy you could conduct where it really counts if, for example, you stopped saying yes to every party invitation or shopping for the latest fashion trends. Imagine the sense of release!
Eat for Simplicity
In the modern world, we live amidst so much conflicting noise, confusion, and obfuscation. We are constantly bombarded with commercials, ads, messages, and images all vying to sell us something. Is it any wonder that our heads are spinning? At every level and sector of society, from our Byzantine infrastructures and political systems to the long lists of indecipherable ingredients on most packaged foods sold on supermarket shelves, we find ourselves mired in complexity and confusion. And chief among our areas of confusion are health and diet. Yet it doesn’t have to be this way!
Your body will make itself ill trying to break down all the unnatural substances that pass for mainstream fare today. What your body truly craves for its cells is what you crave for your daily life: energy, freshness, clarity, simplicity. So you can say good-bye to all the complicated, time-consuming recipes and expensive “health food” products (the endless vitamins, supplements, superfoods, powders, soy products, dehydrated foods, etc.) that could not in a million years offer the kind of health that comes with a simple diet of mostly fresh fruits, vegetables, and, for those who crave it, the occasional flesh-based dish. Be wary of diet trends and fads that follow the market rather than the simple laws of nature. Even terms such as “vegan” and “all-raw” and “healthy choice” more often than not come with a whole lot of dogma and strange foods that are far from simple. We need to reintroduce our bodies to the gift of simple, fresh, deeply satisfying food—so that our dietary choices become intuitive and joyful, not misguided and tortured.
The gift of simplicity is a principle I come back to again and again, and it has helped me immeasurably in all aspects of my life. I know it can help you, too. The next time you’re feeling overwhelmed with too much of everything, force yourself to slow down and draw your attention back to what matters most in your life. Take the time to find your center, and let all the inessentials will fall away. Once you know what you truly and deeply need—down to your very cells – you will realize how much else you don’t need or even want, and no amount of outside noise will be able to tell you otherwise!
This concludes our sixth lesson. In next week’s edition of The Rose Program Insider, we will talk about the cleansing powers of unobstructed love and compassion.
