“Brilliance is not in complexity found; keeping things simple, riches abound.” ~ John Peitzman (JP)
Most of us have heard the saying “less is more” and yet we have not come to realize how applying this Zen like approach to our lives can be transformational.
It is very easy to feel overwhelmed in today’s world. We are literally one click away from finding the answer to almost any question we can think of. We compile information and data, tools and processes, new techniques and methodologies – the list goes on… all in an effort to gain some improved sense of movement and momentum.
However, many times in doing this we become overly burdened with carrying the weight around of things that no longer serve us. We overcomplicate when simplicity will do. We make things much harder than we need to. We embrace complexity thinking that more will be better.
There is a common practice across many self-improvement disciplines that includes ‘decluttering’ our lives. The concept is that our physical reality is a manifestation of our mental constructs and ‘baggage’. The notion is that a cleaner house can equate to a cleaner mind. This can be a powerful and positively impactful practice.
For example, by physically decluttering our homes and finally throwing out (or giving away) all of the extra ‘stuff’ that is only taking up space and collecting dust – we can find that we feel lighter and more open to accept things into our lives. We literally ‘make room’ for new ideas, new opportunities, new relationships, and new dreams.
That physical change can become a catalyst for mental transformation. Although certainly beneficial, we don’t need to do a spring cleaning of our residence to free up our mental and emotional baggage. When we are able to have the insight into what mental patterns, practices, emotions, and reactions are no longer useful (and in many cases detrimental) – we can let these go and, in doing so, drop the weight of complexity and clean up our ‘messy’ environment.
When we are able to simplify, we can find brilliance because we make room for brilliance to arise. Moreover, when there is less clutter and we are able to ‘keep things simple’ more often in our lives, we can become more aware of the riches that abound around us all.
