I woke up one morning last week in a panic.
There was something I hadn’t finished. I couldn’t remember what it was– perhaps it was a work responsibility, or a blog responsibility, or a familial responsibility, or a relational responsibility. Or perhaps I had forgotten to plan lunch and dinner for that day, and all we had in the refrigerator were radishes.
Whatever it was, it raced to the forefront of my mind. I started my day feeling behind, afraid, and anxious.
The thought that followed the mental train wreck? If I only took my own advice, I wouldn’t be in this predicament.
You may be noticing at this point that this is not a typical blog post from me. And if you’ve been around SR for a while, you’ve come to expect a few insights and action steps in each blog post, all pointing toward a life of simplicity that leads to adventures worth chasing.
I still believe in that life. I still believe in blogging that way. It’s just that I am beginning to realize this: it’s all too easy to settle for a false sense of simplicity– one where the outward behavior points beguilingly toward an internal reality that does not exist.
In other words, we can live lives that look simple, only to mask deep internal chaos that can only be sorted out by divine intervention.
You see, I’ve done the capsule wardrobe thing. I’ve connected minimalism to a reshaping of my perspective in so many ways. I’ve written about stress, rest, rhythms, and slow living, each with a few executable actions to boot.
What I haven’t done is be honest. What I haven’t done is to get off a hustle bus driven by a strange phenomenon once dubbed the “eternal inner murmur of self reproach” (source). This is that inner voice telling us that we just have to get to the next thing, or else.
It says if we don’t hustle, then we don’t matter.
It says it is always better to work, and to win, than to rest.
Endless check lists. Endless emails. Endless hurdles on a sprint that has passed its time limit.
I confess that I come to this blog tired on Sunday evenings, attempting to eke out a piece of writing that will pass the standards of non-existent judges. I haven’t been writing about my heart. I have been writing to write about what I always write about.
So here’s what I am saying.
Don’t believe that simplicity is found in throwing stuff away.
It’s just the beginning. The rushing around is what actually makes life feel complicated, overwhelming, and constantly stressful. Having fewer items will clear that calendar– slightly. But so much more needs to happen too.
Don’t make simplifying your life– from your possessions to the desires of your heart– yet another thing to achieve.
This is different. This is about revival. This is about living in the overflow of what you receive. This is about discovering the true meaning of “enough,” which, when fully understood, is abundance.
Don’t expect empty words and a new aesthetic sensibility to change your life.
We recently witnessed an outdoor yoga class where the teacher, over a loud microphone, spoke in a breathy voice: “Now re-center on your soul and move back through the wind of your heartspace.” That means nothing. Similarly, you might find the minimalist design aesthetic to be beautiful, or the worst in the world. It doesn’t matter. These things change moods, not lives.
Don’t mistake simplicity for true sabbath rest.
I have said over and over again on this blog that simple living is not the final destination. Rather, it is one of many vehicles that can take us toward our God-given place, where we walk humbly in our calling until the very end. It is so easy for us in this movement to expect that once we finally finish simplifying, once we finally achieve balance, once we finally get our routine together, then we will have arrived. We will not have arrived. Not by this alone, anyway.
You see, friend, I’m not interested in becoming better at simplicity, and neither should you be. I’m far more interested in spending my time, energy, and resources on the things I’ve been placed here to do.
And with each courageous yes or no, we will get there.
[Tweet “Don’t fall into the snare of false simplicity. #minimalism via @daisysrosales”]
Oh thank you so much Susannah!! <3
So true, Brittany. It’s often in that empty space that I forget to rest and actually enjoy– instead of adding one more thing to the list of things I did that day. So glad we’re reading Present over Perfect together! We should talk about it some time!!
Thanks, Emily! So glad you can relate– we’re definitely a busy culture and overcoming it sometimes means swimming against the current.
Yes absolutely! Thanks for reading, Alyssa!
So much truth in this, Melanie!!! Thanks for sharing all your thoughts– you should definitely write a blog post on this topic too, because you have so many great things to say!! Best wishes to you as well, friend.
Thank you so much Aimee. So glad it resonated with you, and grateful to be on this journey together!
I love this so much! Thank you so much for opening up your heart and smacking some sense into all of us at the same time! You’re so inspiring! <3
Daisy, I always appreciate your perspective, and today I doubly appreciate your honesty. Lately I have felt overwhelmed and bone-tired — but my life looks simpler than ever. I think it’s the sneaky things that have been zapping me (social media, blog promotion, etc. — things that feel like virtual shouting) and I need to find a better way to truly rest, not just create more pockets of time to fill up. Thank you, as always, for challenging me to think about what my soul and body are saying to me. Love you, friend, and I’m cheering you on!
Thank you for this. I’m currently sitting on my couch, computer and planner in hand, for over an hour now, just staring down the to-do list I’ve made for myself. I fill it up just to do so, then panic when I realize how many things I “need to do”. It’s a ridiculous cycle, feeling like you need to be busy and then trying to keep up.
I totally agree about the “destination” mentality. It can become all too easy to think that we can have all of the boxes checked off at some point, but realizing that there is always something to work towards is also invigorating (and keeps life from getting boring).
I totally agree with everything you’re saying! I think many of us live in a world today where we expect from ourselves to make the absolute most of every single moment which usually means to be super productive from the moment we wake up in the morning (which, apparently, should be at 5 in the morning at the latest to go through a large amount of morning rituals) to the moment we go to sleep at night. Any time spent on pursuits that don’t directly contribute to our worldly success is seen as wasted and as time that somehow needs to be improved – and as a result many of us have obviously become very exhausted and left feeling like we’re failures since we cannot hope to ever fulfill these arbitrary expectations. It’s the reason why so many people turn to minimalism and simple living these days – but sometimes I can’t help feeling that one of the main aims of the kind of minimalism that is popular online today is supposed to get us closer to that perfect ideal of ever-present productivity! And as you point out, this really doesn’t lead anywhere in the long run.
But letting go of the things that we have held to be true for so long (you know, the “always hustling” mentality) and accepting that it is okay to take for whimsy and to do things just for the heck of it is challenging – especially when the world seems to tell us that doing so makes us lazy/unambitious/unable to achieve success. So, in other words, I think your post is wonderful! I didn’t intend to write such a long comment, mostly because I only realized most of the above while I was typing, but now that I have I have really come to understand why the message of this post is so, so important and I hope that many other people will realize that as well. And with that being said, I wish you the very best, just as always! 🙂
This is beautiful, truth that needs to be spoken. I, too, forget that simplifying is not the end goal, but being rightly related to God and living out His purpose for my life is. All of the things (physical, mental, etc.) that we seek to accumulate are simply barriers to the abundant life we can have in Him. Thank you for writing this.