There is a magical time that kicks off on Memorial Day weekend and wraps up over Labor Day weekend called summertime. That might not be the official calender summer, but we all know that’s when it is.

The days are getting longer and warmer and everyone seems to be in a better mood when the sun shines. Shedding winter clothes, pounds and heating bills invites a collective sigh knowing that things are about to get light.

Sometimes all of this extra time and energy leads to more …

• more work
• more obligation
• more travel
• more creativity
• more gatherings

And, because we are conditioned to do so, we try to cram it all in and make the most of the more. Instead, to really enjoy the beauty of summer, I am calling for a slow down.

The Summer Slow Down Guide

Start a morning routine.
This is the best time to start building a little time for yourself in the early morning hours.It is easier to wake up earlier in the Summer. Your body responds to natural light. Go to sleep with your shades open and let the light in. Wake up 5 minutes early tomorrow and create a meaningful morning routine.

Clean less by owning less.
The last place you want to spend summer is behind a vacuum cleaner. A daily or bi-weekly sweep up/wipe down is so much easier without clutter on the counter and stuff all over the floor. Take a trip to Goodwill or your local donation center with anything that means nothing to you.

Say no thank you.
Wedding invitations, garden parties, neighborhood gatherings and other summer functions are all vying for your attention. You don’t have to be everywhere and you don’t need a fancy excuse to bow out. Spend time with people you love, and attend activities and events that you enjoy. A simple, “Thanks for the invite but I can’t make it.” will do for the rest.

Read a good book.
Summer is the perfect time to throw a blanket on the grass and get lost in a book. Try Brooke Berman’s No Place Like Home: A Memoir in 39 Apartments or choose something from my reading list or the ultimate book list. Tammy and CJ are offering their new book, The End of Wishing our Days Away for free until May 31st.

Take a hike.
Get into the woods or onto a local trail with your kids, friends or other people you love. Stretch your legs and marvel at how green and lush everything is. You leave everything behind when you step onto the dirt. The air smells different. Noises and views are new and different and a walk in the woods gives you a chance to reduce your stress with every step.

Unplug.
If you want to make the most of lovely summer evenings, leave your phone at home. Seriously, leave home without it and see how it changes everything about how your experience. Trade constant connection, Googling and checking the weather for an opportunity for genuine connection to the people and world around you.

Grow something.
There is magic and wonder about growing something. You don’t have to grow everything. Instead, grow just one thing. You don’t need impressive gardening skills to tend to one plant.

Visit your past.
There is a big difference between living in the past and just visiting. Set aside a little time to reflect on and learn from your past.  Celebrate your accomplishments, forgive your shortcomings and be grateful for all that you’ve experienced. It’s shaped who you are today and you are wonderful.

Make time.
If you are willing to break out of your routine and break up with your to-do list, there is more time for you to enjoy the most meaningful adventures. Learn more with the Make Time self-study course.

Reclaim the lost art of lingering.
Summer is a time for slow meals, dangling feet over docks, stargazing and lazy walks. There is no agenda, just pure joy. Learn to cultivate dolce far niente and embrace time and space to linger.

Think fresh, local, whole food.
Whole, fresh food is less expensive, easy to access and completely delicious in the summer. Go to your local farmer’s markets and discover what a tomato is supposed to taste like. Try a simple vegan recipe and eat real food. The best way to change your body and your health is to eat better food.

Joywalk.
That’s joywalk, not jaywalk. I want you to be safe. Instead of walking for exercise or walking to get somewhere, take a joywalk. Go slow. Stop and smell flowers. Say hi to people when you pass them and walk just for the joy of it.

How will you spend your time this summer? It will go by in a flash unless you intentionally decide to take steps to make it count. Linger, marvel, gaze, appreciate and soak up your summer moments. They will keep you warm next winter.

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I am in the midst of transition and don’t see that changing for a few weeks, so instead of fighting it or making it more dramatic than it really is, I am finding solace in simple, predictable chores. Doing laundry, wiping down counter tops and making the bed keep me centered, and focused. There might be an argument for procrastination as well, but leaning on simplicity eases the stress of the more complicated things.

Find comfort and escape in the mundane

• If you get lost, do the laundry. You know how to do that. You don’t need input or direction. Just do it.
• If you feel scattered, wash the dishes. Turn off your dishwasher and wash each dish as if it’s the most important thing you have to do.
• If your mind is racing, hang out by the spin cycle. Let the background noise quiet your mind.
• If you are anxious, sweep the floor. Sweep up your worry along with the dust (and dog hair in my case).
• When things get messy, shine your sink. If your to-do list is out of control or your mind is full of idea and you don’t know where to start, clean your sink.

When your life is not exactly as you want it to be or as you think it will be, time is still passing and your life is still your life, even during times of transition. Instead of thinking about today as a stepping stone to tomorrow, remember that this is it. This is your life right now. You deserve to life fully everyday, even during the craziness.

Living fully sometimes includes those periods of time where you have to get through, get by, hang on and breathe deeply, but those same chunks of time are not a pause from life. They are part of your big, beautiful, sometimes messy, whole-hearted life and you decide how you will experience them.

Your transition, upheaval, health issue, or funky mood isn’t the first and won’t be the last. Remove drama, fear and worry by centering yourself with the simple things. Don’t rush. Let things unfold. They always do.

Even simple lives get complicated, but we always have the spin cycle.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to Be More with Less and connect with me.

P.S. Together, we’ve raised almost $2000 for my charity: water birthday campaign. Your donations and birthday wishes have made my heart swell and I am so grateful for your contribution. If we reach $4400 by June 5th, I’ll be giving away my books free for a day and including some other surprises. Let’s do this!

Aly

If you had asked my mother or me a few years back what we thought about material possessions and the need to have more, we probably would have said that the best things in life aren’t free. We spent money on items we’d later toss, and didn’t bat an eye until the credit card statement or bills would come in. It had been a never-ending cycle of spending more but gaining less. We were in a rut.

Today, we each approach money and material items with a new perspective, thanks to opting for a simpler lifestyle. We honor the old saying of “Think on it” or “Sleep on it” for something we deem necessary in our lives. Before I decide to purchase anything now on a whim, I wait a week or two to see if my life would be improved with that item or if it’s just an unnecessary expense.

We’ve simplified everything in our lives, and it has lifted a huge stress off our backs. Slowly we have been embracing a life of simplicity, removing the clutter, and spending more time on our health and happiness and less on material possession. By doing so, we now have time for the more important things in our lives, such as each other.

My mother and I decided to create a website where we could chart our progress and challenges. This project has been a blessing, bringing us even closer as we tackle our challenges together while we learn who we are as individuals. Together, we offer one another love and support, advice for the hard times, or lend an ear when needed. We embarked on this journey together, but we are discovering who we are as individuals, and that is the most exciting thing.

Visit www.minimalismissimple.com to follow the mother/daughter duo and read about their challenges, discoveries, and journeys.

I am celebrating 44 years on June 5th and I’m giving my birthday away. One of the greatest benefits to living with less is that you can give more. Last Summer, charity: water’s founder, Scott Harrison asked me (and 1000 other people) to give up my birthday. He asked me to trade the cake and parties and presents and cards for life.

I said yes and I want to invite you to say yes too. This is your invitation to be more with less by making a donation. You can be more with less before you declutter your kitchen or clean out your closet. You can be more with less right now by visiting the Be More with Less charity: water page.

One in nine people in our world doesn’t have access to water: the most basic of human needs. Something we can’t imagine going 12 hours without.

What’s really cool is that 100% of the money we raise will directly fund water project costs in the field, and charity: water will prove every single dollar. When the project we help fund is complete, they’ll send us a digital completion report with GPS coordinates and photos of the community we helped and I’ll publish that report so you can see the difference you made, the difference we made together.

Make a difference and …

• make a donation. Visit the Be More with Less charity: water page.
• share this everywhere: Enough stuff! This year for my birthday, all I want is clean water. Help me and the 800 million people in need. Donate to my campaign. http://mycharitywater.org/be-more-with-less

You can donate $4.00, $44.00, $440 or any amount you choose. I know that you work hard for your money and that you likely donate to other organizations, so please, give what you can. When I was trying to decide on a goal for this project, I thought it would be really awesome to give clean water to 44 people for my 44th birthday. It costs about $65 to give clean water to one person, so the original goal was $2860. But then I remembered who you are and who we are as a community and raised the bar.

Let’s Be More with Less and raise $4400 or more together.

I started the donations with $144.00 We have 60 days to meet our goal, but if we can reach it by June 5th (my birthday), I’ll donate an additional $144.00, give away my books for free all day on June 5th, and have some other surprises for you.

Go to my campaign to donate: http://mycharitywater.org/be-more-with-less.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate my birthday than by giving the gift of clean water to people in need. Oh and before you bookmark this page and promise to come back later and make a donation, think about how many times you save something for later and never do it. Instead of putting clean water on your to do list, please take action right now.

I am so grateful for you.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to Be More with Less and connect with me.

Jeane

My name is Jeane George Weigel and I am a working artist living in a tiny Spanish land grant village in the mountains of northern New Mexico. There are many other serious artists here and we earn our livings from our art. It hasn’t always been like this for me. I didn’t paint for 26 years after college and I used to think it was because my teachers discouraged me (being a realist painter during 60’s conceptualism) or that I’d bought the whole cultural view of it being impractical. But now I know it was mostly because, as a young woman, I wasn’t strong enough to withstand the energy that flows through me during my creative process. When I paint, the room fills with light, color bleeds from my brushes, and heaven and hell exist there in my studio. The power is immense.

But leaving a corporate job to be an artist does take some courage and it certainly hasn’t always been easy. I’ve faced issues that test my faith in the life I’ve chosen to live on almost a daily basis. But this life has also fostered growth, connection, awareness and transformation in ways I couldn’t have imagined 16 years ago when my journey began. This artist’s path has demanded an ongoing shedding of my old identity, my old ways of being. I’m immersed in an exploration of what it means to live my truth.

I didn’t make these major changes quickly or easily. I was aware for years that my life didn’t seem to fit me, or I didn’t fit it, but I wasn’t sure what else I was supposed to do. I felt unhappy on a level I wasn’t willing to acknowledge and I used to say that if I knew what I wanted to do I’d go do it. Life flowed by, day after day, and I ignored my own restlessness. I told myself to grow up and get real—to be practical: Life wasn’t meant to be fun and work certainly wasn’t. Finally, I believe, the universe dealt me an ultimatum: paint or die. So I began. I trusted. And my vision continues to unfold.

Read more from Jeane at http://high-road-artist.com/ and follow her on facebook.com/HighRoadArtist and https://twitter.com/HighRoadArtist.

Thank you mom.

There is so much good happening in the world, but it’s not as exciting as the bad stuff. The focus of news and big, breaking stories could certainly explain sleepless nights, stress and anxiety. And it’s not just breaking news. The regular nightly news will break you too. It will break your heart and your spirit. The onslaught of information about broken people and traumatic experiences can be more hurtful than helpful.

While I don’t discount the importance of being informed, I think we can be over informed.

When you take a break from breaking news you can …

• sleep better
• be more optimistic
• laugh more freely
• engage in meaningful relationships
• reduce fear and stress

This story from Slate.com offers these great suggestions for breaking up with breaking news, ”When you first hear about a big story in progress, run to your television. Make sure it’s securely turned off.

Next, pull out your phone, delete your Twitter app, shut off your email, and perhaps cancel your service plan. Unplug your PC.

Now go outside and take a walk for an hour or two. Maybe find a park and sit on a bench, reading an old novel. Winter is just half a year away—have you started cleaning out your rain gutters? This might be a good time to start. Whatever you do, remember to stay hydrated. Have a sensible dinner. Get a good night’s rest. In the morning, don’t rush out of bed. Take in the birdsong. Brew a pot of coffee.

Finally, load up your favorite newspaper’s home page. Spend about 10 minutes reading a couple of in-depth news stories about the events of the day. And that’s it: You’ve now caught up with all your friends who spent the past day and a half going out of their minds following cable and Twitter. In fact, you’re now better informed than they are, because during your self-imposed exile from the news, you didn’t stumble into the many cul-de-sacs and dark alleys of misinformation that consumed their lives. You’re less frazzled, better rested, and your rain gutters are clear.”

7 Simple Ways to Break from Breaking News

1. Take a regular digital sabbatical. Once a day or for a full day every week, unplug. Disconnect so you can fully connect to what matters most in your life.
2. Change the channel. If you listen to news in your car, switch to music or silence.
3. Disconnect from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. This is often where the breaking news breaks. Visit your favorite social media sites but don’t stay there all day or check in multiple times a day. Include them in your daily or weekly digital sabbatical.
4. Take a walk. Go outside and experience all of the beauty right outside your front door. Leave your phone at home.
5. Read. Get lost in a good book or read a classic before you see the movie.
6. Create and support good news. When you aren’t lost in bad, breaking news, you can create new projects and opportunities to help people and support people who are sharing good news.
7. Be uplifting. Spend time with people who lift you up and then lift them right back.

While these simple ways to take a break from breaking news will help, a self-imposed media fast will demonstrate the real effects of the news on your physical and emotional health. Declare a 30 day media fast. You’ll still get a steady stream of information from friends and family, but without the drama and special effects of hyped up news stories. After 30 days, you will likely feel happier, less distracted and more relaxed.

I haven’t followed the news on a regular basis in years and I am still informed, educated and aware of what’s going on in the world.

How does the news affect you and would you consider a media fast?

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to Be More with Less and connect with me.

Zoe

I discovered voluntary simplicity at the time in my life when I had the most space–and the most stuff. My husband and I were living in a two-bedroom apartment and my mother had just died, so my stepfather kept bringing over boxes of her possessions: canning jars, craft supplies, and decade-old toiletries. My huge apartment was brimming with stuff, mine and my mother’s, and it was time to do something about it.

With inspiration from Be More With Less and other blogs, I dug in and started getting rid of things, box by box. In the end I only kept two things from my mother: her car and her guitar.

Over the next two years my husband and I moved three times, first into my sister’s attic, then into a room in a shared house, and finally into a studio apartment. With each move we decreased our possessions until it was time to prepare for the biggest transition of all: full-time travel. I drew up a packing list, spent months selling, donating, and occasionally throwing away our last few extraneous possessions, and finally the day was upon us. We loaded up our car with our camping gear and backpacks, stored a few boxes with family members, and hit the road.

After a three-month road trip we moved to the final stage of minimizing: preparing to live out of our 46 liter backpacks. We left our camping gear and a few boxes at my sister’s house and squeezed everything we would carry with us for the next year or two into our backpacks. Amazingly, it fit! As I write this we’re about to finish up a month on Maui and head to Australia and New Zealand. We’ve never felt freer or lighter, and none of this would have been possible without a concentrated effort to live more simply.

Our travel goal was the best motivator to actually get rid of our things, but voluntary simplicity has affected other areas of our lives as well. When I realized how many things I held on to “just in case” I simplified my idea of myself. I decided to focus on one or two hobbies, rather than keep all of my art supplies, massage supplies, musical instruments, and sports equipment that were just taking up space.

Now I focus on writing, which requires no extra supplies. I have no gym, so I run and do bodyweight exercises. My music, movies, books, and photographs are all digitalized. My hairstyle and clothes have become more simple and versatile, and I require only one bath product. My relationship with my husband has become focused on making our dreams come true, and enjoying them together when they do!

No part of my life has been unaffected by my transition to simplicity. And while travel was a huge motivator to downsize, our decluttering and simplifying is also what made our long-term travels possible.

On the road we need less, enjoy more, and do it all on an extremely frugal budget. I am so grateful that I found minimalism and voluntary simplicity, put in the long hours required to transform my life, and can now enjoy the freedom I’ve always longed for. This path may begin with emptying out a box or a drawer, but where it can lead is limited only by your imagination!

Read more from Zoe on her blog, Born Naked.

The better you respond to change and uncertainty, the happier you will be. I used to resist change. I was slow to adopt and adapt, but now I welcome it because I see it for what it really is. I don’t just accept change, I instigate and challenge it, because change is hope and possibility.

The possibility of change offers …

• a chance to start over
• time to rethink the beliefs that have we never questioned
• an invitation to the new and different
• less judgement on ourselves and others
• connection with people who are most like us
• a release of past mistakes
• a looser grip on plans and expectations
• recognition of  our beautiful and not so beautiful flaws
• opportunity to do something we never thought possible
• apologies and acceptance
• a reminder that things can be different
• the realization that we deserve better
• inspiration through action

What I most love about change is that I can choose it anytime. When I am fully present and undistracted, I can change to better serve and love the people around me, my health, and all of the things that I value most.

Simple truths about change

• Change isn’t about perfection but in many ways inspired and motivated by imperfection.
• Change is adding and subtracting, experimenting and trying again.
• Change cannot be measured by one end result.
• There is no one right way to change.
• You can’t completely change for someone you love.
• You can’t love someone enough to make them change.

Real change is more than a haircut or a nip and tuck. Real, true change is an inside out transformation through a deep connection with what you most care about. That doesn’t mean the tiny changes don’t count. Big, beautiful change is almost always at the intersection of many small, slow changes.

Maybe change is scary and difficult, but it will never be as uncomfortable or disappointing as complacency or hopelessness. When you stop changing, you close the door on possibility. Give change a chance to work in your life. You can choose it anytime.

What do you want to change?

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to Be More with Less and connect with me.

I’ve often wondered why we encourage play and creativity in children, but make it completely optional as adults. When you are creative, you are a better problem solver and have a built in outlet for stress.

Tony Wagner, Author of Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World says, “imagining and creating give us a sense of purpose. If you lack those things, a pervasive sense of emptiness becomes the default. The great seduction later in life is that many of us fill the vacuum with false friends, material things and medication, both legal and otherwise.”

My friends Joshua and Ryan recently wrote a great essay, Create More, Consume Less and I whole-heartedly agree. There are many benefits to living with less, but one we don’t mention enough is this:

When you live with less, you have the time and mental clarity to be more creative.

When you have fewer obligations on your plate, less stress in your family and fewer distractions, you have the freedom to be creative. That creativity could be anything from writing music, crafting blog posts, painting, photography, choreography, poetry, to making beautiful desserts and many other things.

Sometimes it feels silly to be creative, or you might not think you have the time, but your creative work is so important.

Kayla, a writer that I’ve been working with recently told me that she feels her work is self-indulgent and that it is hard to justify time to create. With household obligations and making time for family and friends, her creative work came last.

I shared this Steven Pressfield quote with her as a reminder that her creativity was not only important, but essential.

“It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself,. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.”

Her creativity is important to her, to her family and to the world. And so is yours. Just because your creativity might not pay the bills, or put food on the table doesn’t mean it doesn’t feed you, your family and community in so many other meaningful ways.

Awesome ways to get creative right now …

• Write out loud. Learn how to tell your story in the digital age, how to feed your creative juices, how to make time to write, and much more. Join author Tammy Strobel for a creative writing course: Writing in the Digital Age

• Play DJ. Create a playlist on 8tracks to share with friends and play it while you create.

• Document your life. 31 Things with Ali Edwards will help. Over the course of 31 days you’ll receive daily email that prompts you to document one story from your everyday life. Each email will include a specific word/theme for the day, a detailed writing prompt with suggestions on how to tell the story, and a photo prompt.

• Take a walk. Stretch your legs and clear your mind to ignite your creative spark.

• Read. Drawing Your Life by Michael Nobbs and The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron will inspire and encourage.

• Be playful and curious. Go outside and play! Balance on a rock and take a picture of your shadow as you are falling off, juggle lemons, or see if you still have the hip action to make a hula hoop go round. Author, Wagner says, “Creativity, imagination and innovation usually find us during moments of play.”

• Start a morning routine. Feed your body and brain before anyone else needs you in the morning. Create a meaningful morning routine and you will naturally be more intentional about creativity or other things that matter to you during the day.

Each of these ideas can help you get started creatively, or help if you are up against a creative block. When I am writing, if the words don’t flow, I take a walk or get on my yoga mat. Instead of trying to force ideas, I let them go completely. Often, you have to let go to let in.

There are many ways to be creative, but first you have to give yourself permission to do creative work. Think less about what you will get out of it and more about what you will put into it. Your efforts may result in a beautiful work of art, but regardless of the outcome, you will benefit from the work and play.

In that split second when you get lost in your scrapbooking/writing/painting/baking/photography project, you’ll discover why it’s so important.

What creative project are you thinking about or working on right now? 

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to Be More with Less and connect with me.

P.S. and final reminder

The Goodblog Project starts next week!

After a week of talking with great people like you, I am convinced that in 15 minutes, I can help you determine if this course is right for you. If you are wondering if this is the right time, if I am the right person to work with or if your ideas are viable, let’s talk about it. Send me an email to schedule your 15 minutes: bemorewithless @ gmail.com.