We are addicted to finding a purpose in life.

These days, many people in the Western world have been raised (or chosen) to live a life without following a specific religion. We live life in spiritual purgatory.

We face the world and all of its struggles unsure of what is greater or bigger that just us. If it’s us against the world, or the world against us. Whether or not there is some sort of magic leading us where we are supposed to go.

Maybe The Universe will send us signs when we need them. Or maybe no one and nothing controls our lives, but us. Maybe if we work hard enough, good things will happen. Because Karma has our back.

For a long time, I believed travel was the only way I could be in-touch with myself spiritually. I mean, whenever I traveled, I had these amazing revelations about life.

I reminisced on friendships made abroad, and the incredible pieces of advice I was told by these beautiful, foreign souls. How the sun found its way through the thick foliage on my walks through unknown lands, so perfect it was as if those streams of light were meant just for me. Perfect moments in the arms of a new love in a new country, so well-timed that I knew the universe had created that moment just for me.

I yearned for more airplane rides over oceans so that I could feel once again. I needed to travel to feel alive. I wanted to leave my life so I could live another, one that was somehow greater. I needed more money. I needed new experiences. I needed better surroundings.

But wait. What? I needed to leave my life to really live? No. Something was wrong with this idea.

I thought about why I needed to leave. Was I bored of my daily routines, surrounded by the same voices and faces? Why was home a word that made me nervous, a word that seemed to mean I was stuck?

I felt this urge to leave because I didn’t put myself out there in my own world. Because something different, somewhere else, was always better in my mind. In reality, it is. Change is better. Change makes us grow. But what about having more? More time to travel, more places ticked off of my bucket list?

Our media is filled with information on how to change your life. How to become the real you. How to attract your perfect match, the idea that our soulmate will fix you and all your problems. How to become rich doing what you love. How to get everything you want in the world plus the things you didn’t know you wanted until now (in three easy steps!). We are being sold the keys to life, over and over and over again

I can read all of the articles I want to try and find the right path to follow. But guess what.

I’ve found what moves me to do more. To experience life outside my comfort zone. To take the pressure off of my heart and my shoulders so I can soar through life once again.

It’s less.

Less worrying about the what-if’s. Less planning. Less make-up. Less coffee. Less sugar. Less screen time. Less unnecessary things.

Less, less, less. That word over and over, sitting on my yoga mat, drifting into my pure world of less, my world of nothing but my soul. Then, maybe even a little less.

I listen more, love more, experience so much more when I have less. When I am not so focused on myself, but on my service. On doing and being good. Less negativity is around. Less worry is following me. Somehow, I find peace in simplicity. I don’t need planes and trains (although my love of travel will never fade).

I need less distraction. Because understanding is simple. Kindness is simple. The most joy in life comes from the simple things.

Because when I take the time to find less, I live so much more. Wherever I am in the world.

 

 

 

Relephant Read: 

Less is More: A Resolution of Simplicity.

 ~

 

Author: Carlene Kurdziel

Editor: Renee Picard 

Photo: Flickr/Hey Paul Studios