This article was originally published in The Simplifier #64.

Article:  Proof: Simplifying Your Life Increases World Peace

By Shawn Tuttle

The Bottom Line: I want you to love what you are doing. All of it! The feeling of love may range from peaceful calm to bouncing excitement to wildly abundant joy. It relies on satisfaction with your current state—the things in your space, the people in your life, and how you spend your time. This may sound like a tall order, but hey, if Bill Gates can shoot for a computer in every home, I can shoot for the ease and joy that comes from loving everything that’s in your life. 

One way to get there involves simplifying your life by getting rid of that which doesn’t support you. This leaves you with everything in your life being that which you love—thus creating the perfect opportunity for a life filled with rich joy. Why only the opportunity? Because you transform a good situation into a deeply joyful experience with gratitude, a.k.a. working from your heart. Acting from the heart while in a simplified state puts you in a perfect position to make some major stuff happen that supports both you and your community. 

This contributes to the bigger picture. We generally know that we are all connected, but it’s easy to lose sight of how our day-to-day actions affect the greater whole. Just as a drop of food coloring gracefully curls and winds through a glass of water, each of our actions releases energy into the world. 

Enough with the philosophizing. Mostly, I’m trying to highlight the magnitude of this picture’s frame. We’re here to relieve the mind, not load it up! In the spirit of lightening up, having fun, and saving the world in one fell swoop…

…That’s right folks, step right up, don’t be shy! Within this tent is the wonder of the natural world that you’ve heard rumors about, babies have been crying for, and politicians have been trying to cover up, and have done so with success…until now! That’s right, it’s the scientific formula clearly demonstrating how, by merely simplifying your life, you contribute to World Peace! 

(While I present this in good humor, I am, in fact, entirely serious. This truly is my personal motivation for the work I do and share with you.)

The diagram says it all; just follow the hollow-stem arrows:

(Download a full-page PDF version here.)

A brief docent tour follows.

• When you simplify your life, your stress level goes down. Can’t argue with that, right? I mean, isn’t that one of the primary motivations for simplifying in the first place? You get rid of the stuff that’s been getting in the way of what you want to be doing. Two primary causes of stress are not knowing how to deal with what’s on your plate, and continually dealing with stuff that you don’t care about. And what a common predicament nowadays! There’s so much we are asked to do, feel we have to do, and need to do… 
  
• When relieved of stress, you feel more ease. At the buffet of life, if you put too much food on your plate, an olive or a meatball is bound to topple off. What happens when you take some of those things off the plate? It becomes more manageable. You can hold the plate in one hand and reach for a fork and napkin with the other hand. 
  
• More ease means more satisfaction. I’m talking about the satisfaction that comes from deep within. The feeling that comes from a deep-seated sense of balance. When we have it, we feel complete, we feel we have enough. When that balance gets thrown off, we find that we want/need/deserve more, and we look around to see where we can get it. It’s easy to stay at your table enjoying the flavors and the company when you have the foods you love already on your plate.
  
• More satisfaction means less conflict. The more we feel that we have enough, the easier it is to thoughtfully respond rather than impulsively react. Being satisfied helps you feel solid right where you are. It makes it easier to offer the last piece of that delicious cake to someone who hasn’t had a piece yet, rather than stabbing them in the hand with a fork because you want more, more, MORE!! 
  
• Less conflict means more peace in the world. Need I say more? Well, maybe a few words. Two people pushing for the last spot in a packed elevator is bound to cause a scuffle. The other passengers may be upset by the fighting or even shoved into another person as the situation escalates. On the other hand, pleasantly inviting someone to take that space and offering to take the next elevator adds more good feeling vibes into the world—especially for each of the people present. 

So is that the end of the story? Not exactly. It’s not a one time shot. You’ll have daily, even hourly, choices on this path, as you’ve no doubt experienced in your own life. But feeling more peace may well encourage another layer of simplifying, which relieves a little more stress, which leads to more ease, which gives you more satisfaction, which reduces conflict, which in turn allows for more peace. Not only will it keep getting easier for you, your greater simplifying, ease, and satisfaction will inspire those around you to cultivate the same. You go to the buffet because you are hungry and because you like what you get there. But just as you pick and choose the morsels that you like to eat, in your daily life you choose how you spend your time and what you spend it on. No matter how full you like your plate, make sure you enjoy every helping. Otherwise, you’ll end up throwing away perfectly good food (or stuffing yourself into a paralyzing food coma). 

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.