I've grown up a bit along the way
Do you live with less to live better?
Yes, in my case, living with less definitely helps me live better. Due to my nature and the way I learned on my own as I grew up, among other things, I am an overly anxious person. There are times when this is more noticeable than others, but something that has helped me manage it and prevent these moments from happening so often is having a calm lifestyle.
So for me, calmness, tranquility, and the absence of excesses are things that benefit me greatly because they help me keep my nervous system as stable as possible to avoid episodes of anxiety. And although they haven't completely disappeared, the truth is that living a simple life is part of my treatment to keep it under control. Of course, not spending my life worrying about things to buy in order to have a certain lifestyle is a burden I don't carry.
However, beyond anything physical, this has benefited me greatly emotionally speaking. Although I am subconsciously aware that there are still many burdens I carry, I have also learned to free myself from many of them, which has benefited my mental health. For example, I used to carry a lot of weight with other people's opinions, because of how I was, how I felt, or how easily I was overwhelmed. Now, I focus on knowing who I am and understanding that I am more than my weaknesses.
Learning this took me a long time, and it had even become a constant burden for me, reproaching myself for having wasted so much time carrying certain burdens, so having to stop dealing with burdens created a new burden for me to deal with. And although I work on my mind to overlook thoughts like these, from time to time they still have some power, but even so, the important thing is that living with fewer of these emotional burdens has helped me live better.
Also, and I think this is the most important thing for me, is that I now have the emotional and mental space to be able to have the strength for what is most important to me. Of course, when we are emotionally burdened, we have very little energy left to even do the things we like, let alone the things that help us grow as a person. That happened to me a lot. I stopped doing many things because, honestly, mental fatigue prevented me from doing them.
Right now, I'm still very prone to getting emotionally overwhelmed easily, but now I have a couple of tools and techniques to prevent this from happening often. Instead, I take the time for what is most important to me. I'm a fan of reflection, and I love to notice how it has helped me improve and also made me aware of how I can help others.
This may seem simple or could be considered by many to be worthless, but from my point of view, I firmly believe that awareness, being present, and recognizing our own weaknesses and flaws can contribute greatly to living a full life despite everything that may happen around us. Because honestly, neither material possessions, money, nor appearances can buy these kinds of things.
Living with less, whether physically or emotionally, not only helps me live better because I can have more peace of mind and devote time to what is really important to me, but living with less has also helped me personally to be a better version of myself, a version that, even with anxiety, can bring calm and experience calm, something I never imagined I could do.
-Content entirely of my authorship and inspiration.
-Original text in Spanish, translated at DeepL.
-Personal photographs, taken with my Huawei p30 Lite Phone.
-Banners designed in Canva Pro.
I keep my stand on “peaceful existence” that’s what actually really matters. Not all that live in excess have that peace of mind the needed.
Embracing the little challenges that comes one’s way each day is just another way to grow at one pace having everything in peace and sanity.
I love how you propelled your lifestyle with you minimalist life and putting thing in proper order.
Nice images by the way. 👍 😊
This image belongs to millycf1976 and was manipulated using Canva.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your support.
"Growing up and learning from experiences shapes us into who we're meant to be." Thanks for sharing
Yes, although I firmly believe that we are the ones who create our own reality, meaning that we can strive to break certain habits, customs, and deeply ingrained behaviors. Although I am aware that this is not easy to achieve.
Thanks for stopping by. Much love
It's so great that you've found the way to cope with things in your life. If you could share, what are those ways and tools that help you cope with difficult feelings and emotions?
Oh, thank you for asking. This is something I like to talk about. So, I'll tell you that something that changed my life was understanding that feelings should be felt, and in my case especially anxiety, because it teaches me a lot about myself, my past, what overwhelmed me, and what I didn't resolve at the time. This helps me even in an anxiety crisis, with all that noise and mental disorder, to start putting one piece on top of the other to understand where it comes from, what caused it, and to be understanding with myself.
Writing it all down is part of it too, both everything I feel and the moment I am feeling it. Like the good things I have, which usually require a lot more effort to notice in those moments, but it helps you turn your mind around. It's like a hack that works well and gets a little easier the more you practice it.
But there's also something that's purely physical, like noticing sensations, sounds, or even tastes. Some people find it helpful to put their hands in cold water or hold an ice cube, but that doesn't work well for me; in fact, it makes me a little more anxious. But breathing works for me, and focusing all my attention on each part of my body, one by one. That distracts my mind and helps me get out of the darkness that forms when anxiety becomes too much.
These are small tools that accompany the long process of changing certain ways of thinking, habits, and what I share in my post, which are all those burdens we carry for a long time and only become aware of later.