Less is More

I've been hooked into this concept some months ago and having experienced its benefits I chose to adopt and integrate it into my lifestyle and making it become a healthy habit. I cannot say I'm yet able to switch to it automatically but every time I do I feel a pleasure that is truly intense.

“Less is more” is a counterintuitive concept in our current social and cultural model, where the common and shared mantra is “more is more”..

We are constantly under pressure to produce more, to create more, to use more, to have more, to show more, and our days are a race against time because we feel we often lag behind the schedule imposed by this “more”.

We have developed a culture of hit and run where we constantly make room for something new. We are often content to live on the surface of events and relationships because we need energy and time for additional tasks. We try something and then leave it immediately to try something else. A new mobile phone model lasts a bunch of months, the fashion industry offers something that we must have every season... We are greedy for novelty and we are hungry for more but the marginal pleasure of owning something new has an ephemeral duration: as soon as we win it, we wish to move on, obsessed by our own addictions.

Result: we are impatient, constantly dissatisfied, with no real control over anything and overwhelmed, physically and emotionally.

The solution exists and it is called “less”.

Remove fictitious needs, eliminate physical and emotional entanglements, delete things from your space and your attention, let go of people who drain you, delete roles that you are interpreting without any conviction or passion, eliminate thoughts, eliminate pressures.

Less is more.

Have less to have more because what magically happens when you eliminate something is that you rediscover the taste, the pleasure, the involvement of what you have kept.

Having fewer things and distractions, having fewer commitments and people who will take your breath away, having fewer regrets regarding the past, having less anxiety and fears about the future, having fewer options... Having less of everything gives you back more peace and serenity, more clarity, more contentment, more freedom and more joy.

Having less of everything gives you back time and time is LIFE.

A few days ago I was nervous, tired and dissatisfied: the list of what I was trying to achieve stretched for days despite all my efforts to deal with the things I had planned ... The old me would have worked till 2am to accomplish everything without stopping for a moment.

The new Annalisa went walking for two hours in the park listening to music and when she came back her motivation and her attention had found new energy and sharpness.

Result: I finished all my tasks by 9pm; in time to enjoy a good movie.

I had to empty myself and eliminate all the tension and thoughts that were filling up my mind in order to return to work with renewed efficiency.

Less is more: try it and you will adore it!