Simplifying our lives can reduce our stress.
Here are three suggestions:
- Donate stuff.
- Let go of draining relationships.
- Act as if you already have more than enough.
This is a non-affiliate link to Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s book, Gift from the Sea.
And here’s a longer passage (pages 17-18) from the 50th anniversary edition:
“I want first of all . . . to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact—to borrow from the language of the saints—to live "in grace" as much of the time as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony. I am seeking perhaps what Socrates asked for in the prayer from the Phaedrus when he said, "May the outward and inward man be at one." I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God.”
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea