Addition by Subtraction

“To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day.” —Lao-tzu

It is our human nature sometimes that we look at what we can add to our routine to make us better and healthier. We look for the next supplement, the next cleanse or fad that we could do to jumpstart our healing. While those things have a purpose and can be a great addition, sometimes what we get the most out of is finding the things that we need to subtract that are creating a hindrance in our life.

The lenten season is a great time for us to focus on this. Most spiritual practices make us look at our distractions that take us away from our faith and listening to God. So, we give something up. We take a vacation from social media and watching television, we give up sugary things and may even give up our sedentary lifestyle to start exercising more.   During this lenten season, we decided as an office to take a look into the things that are personally hindering us from creating our optimal selves. We navigated these four concepts:

Pain vs. Suffering - Pain in life is unavoidable. We all come across things that are painful and downright messy. What we fail to realize, however, is that our suffering is optional. Pain is one thing, but our resistance to pain is something else. Suffering equals pain times resistance. When we focus on what we can control versus what we can’t then our resistance to our suffering decreases and in turn, so does our pain.

‘I’m Too Busy’ - We all say it. ‘I’m too busy to fit in my workout today’ or ‘I don’t have time to eat healthy.’ Responsibilities in life are there and we can get caught up in the chaos. But, the busyness we create is optional. When we start saying no to the things that don't add to our lives, we create space for our best yes and are more likely to reach our goals we have for ourselves.

Setting Boundaries - Boundaries can be a hard thing to set for most people. We continue to have that negative person in our life or have a hard time with our work/home balance. When we set ourselves free from the negativity, we can create space for joy in our lives.

Limiting Negative Self-Thoughts - We are wired for the negative. Always looking for the next attack to come at us. When that negative thought comes to your head, stop and say a positive affirmation about it. When we foster the truth over the lie, we live a much happier life.

Putting these practices into motion is not an easy task. It takes conscious effort and practice. The first step is being able to create that space for yourself. So, I ask you, what are you subtracting from your life to be on your way to Living Free?