I have been looking at ways to bring more simplicity into my life. Perhaps, you have too. Recently I've had some exciting thoughts about simplicity. What about simplifying your life on the inside? When we declutter we look for ways to make our external lives much simpler. We work diligently to clean up our homes, but we don't think about looking within.

Internal decluttering might mean that we look inside and look at the thoughts and emotions that are in constant motion. We can often let our minds fill with things like worry, doubt, or fear. We might tell ourselves that there is nothing we can do about our nagging and persistent mind chatter. And yet, simply sitting or being in silence might be an easy answer for our active minds, and our desire for simplicity.

You don't even have to meditate regularly to work with silence. You might start to allow for silence by beginning to unplug. Perhaps, you could turn off your electronic distractions for a few hours a week. This means turning off and stepping away from your television, computer, radio, mp3 player, clocks and phone. Turn them all off. Yes, even the clocks! Put down, and put away the newspaper, magazines and your books too. This includes bookkeeping, bills and paperwork; which you'll come back to.

This process might be challenging at first. But, I encourage you to set an intention to create time for silence in your life. You don’t need to do much beyond the unplugging. You might even be surprised at how easy it is to do. Once everything is unplugged and you have removed the other distractions, you can simply be silent. Sit, lie down, or walk around.

Be in the silence. How does it feel? What do you think about in the silence? Let whatever thoughts or feelings that you have come and go. If you wish, you could work with a journal. But, don’t journal if it is distracting. The simpler this process is for you, the better. Enjoying the silence can be enough. Be in the quiet. Be in the silence.

There it is. Silence. You are now one step closer to learning how to meditate. If you do not meditate regularly, then you might have wondered about how you could begin. Now you know. Now you can see that meditating doesn’t have to be as complicated or as big a task as you thought. It can be as simple as finding a moment to be in silence. And, it can be a great way to relieve stress and anxiety.

You can do this as a regular practice. Once a week, or as often as you like, turn everything off and clean up your living space. Put away the books. Recycle the newspapers. File your paperwork. You’ve begun to declutter!

As you make progress, you’ll find that it becomes faster and easier to clean up, turn everything off, and unplug. Give yourself the permission to sit in silence. Gradually you’ll develop a greater appreciation for it. When your life becomes cluttered and chaotic, one of the most powerful steps that you can take is to welcome the simplicity of silence.

Tags: Peace Calm Serenity Silence Meditation

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