Happiness within simplicity

Simplicity

When I went to college, I couldn’t take everything with me.  I couldn’t take all the clothes I possessed.  I couldn’t take every pencil or pen I wanted to bring along.  I couldn’t take all the fluffy stuffed animals that accompanied me every night.  (That was the hardest part.)

That is also a reason I used to hate packing.  We can only fit so much into a carry-on suitcase or a duffel bag.  No matter how hard I tried to use my entire body weight to sit on my bags in an attempt to fit in one more t-shirt and hopefully still close the zipper without causing all of the contents to explode from suffocation, I never felt satisfied.  I must need this hoodie, too.  Oh, it might get really hot, so I should bring these shorts that I never get to wear in our foggy city.  And what about this pair of shoes?

Both fortunately and unfortunately, I went to a college that was only a half hour drive away (given there was minimal traffic).  That meant I didn’t have to worry too much about taking every single possession in my room.  However, it also meant I felt obligated to come home nearly every weekend.  Which meant lots of packing and unpacking and repacking… every. single. time.

Each time I left my college dormitory or apartment or my home to go from one place to another, I feared that I had forgotten something utterly important.  It was never a truly comforting feeling sitting in the car or train as I traveled to and from.  Over the years, I learned that feeling was all constructed in my mind.  There was one incident when I had left my flash drive at home and thought I had lost it, but other than that, all those times I had worried for… nothing, really.

I kept thinking I would need everything with me all the time, but in reality, we can live off of the very basics and be happy.  In fact, I loved the way I had lived in college because I didn’t have to rummage through a thousand different clothing combinations to decide on my outfit of the day, which usually ended up looking like yoga pants and a hoodie anyway, since we had 700-people lecture halls where people hardly bat an eye on our clothes.  I had lived in a small space, but I felt more contented than ever before.

Now that I’m living at home again, I truly miss living so simply just a couple years ago.  It’s something I will continually work on because now I know, less is more.  Let’s all try to find happiness within simplicity.

Question: What are some things you have done to simplify your life?