this is how I practise simplicity
let's be honest about the juggle of our ordinary lives
Hi, I’m Jodi — bestselling author + mother of four. I write from my small home in Lutruwita/Tasmania where my family and I settled after selling most of what we owned and travelling in a caravan for over two years. Each week I send a letter about living less distracted — quiet thoughts, tiny joys, ordinary days. Join me?
I recently spoke with a neurobiologist about simplicity and we agreed that it’s hard to define. It’s also difficult to practise because we all have what’s known as a ‘scarcity mindset’ and we’re simultaneously living with abundance and inundated with choice; we instinctively want to have it all.
I like to consider simplicity as a chosen mindset — a lens for my decision making. Simplicity can be your moral code; a reliable guide in a world that requires almost constant decision-making and therefore, overwhelm. In uncertain times, reliability is incredibly valuable and comforting. We feel better if we know what’s coming next.
It’s our most innate nature to search for meaning; we look for it in everything we do (and everything we buy). We’ve been conditioned to find it in accomplishment, but meaning can also be found in the little things we prioritise each day: chatting with someone we love, walking down the street and stopping to notice the details, turning the pages of a really good book, sitting under a tree for a while.
In a world that’s often focused on getting things done and doing them perfectly, I think it’s helpful to admit that we’re all juggling in some way, etching out time to create and rest between loading the washing machine, answering the emails and getting dinner on. Simplicity is acknowledging this juggle, honouring the season you’re in, and when necessary, taking yourself off to bed for an early night.
Mostly, it’s learning to slow down long enough to recognise the dependable joy that exists in ordinary days.