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1. A Note From Shawn

Another possible title for this issue, which was dismissed in my mind before reaching the light of day, involved the epic and paradoxical “chicken or the egg” question. It was likely summarily nixed because that line of questioning, the chicken or egg conundrum, sucked me right back into college Philosophy 101. (If you replaced your leg with a prosthetic limb, would you still be you? If you replaced every limb and every organ of your body, would you still be you? So if you aren’t your body, then if you had total amnesia and lost your mind, would you still be you? And so on.) Drove me nutso.

Conversely, contemplating relationships in a cyclical sense, i.e. how they build on each other, is quite an enjoyable pastime. Read on for examples of the relationships between simplifying & world peace (Article), nature & happiness (In the News), and jokes & smiling (Keep Smiling). The final cyclical relationship is between this and last issue’s Tip. Last issue’s was about inviting temporal space into your schedule and this one is about inviting spatial space into your space (I know, terrible phrase, but it works)—they definitely complement one another.

So here we are, far from the days of freshman philosophy—but where is here? No paradox there – you’re at the end of the Note, which is the beginning of the rest of the newsletter, which means you are in the middle of reading this newsletter, therefore you are exactly where you are meant to be—perfect!

Enjoy,

Shawn Tuttle
Head Simplifier, Project Simplify
Co-editor, The Simplifier

“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the world.”

- Marcus Aurelius

3. 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.

Creating “Museum Space”

During a talk recently, a woman in the audience offered this technique when we were talking about visualizing. She said that when she needed inspiration for clearing stuff out of her house, she’d go spend time at a museum. She’d take in the feel of the spaciousness—the white space, so to speak—and use that for her ideal home space. The museum metaphor is extra relevant because everything is placed intentionally. What a great example of the organizer’s maxim, “everything in its place”!If most people feel about 80% of their space is occupied with stuff, and a museum uses, let’s say, about 5-10%, what percentage do you prefer? If there is a gap between what you have and how you’d like things to be, which items make a positive contribution to your space, and which are just too much? Is it time to let the surplus go? Maybe that stuff is ready to be a part of someone else’s museum. =)

Compiled by Lance Brown

Science of happiness leads researchers back to nature (Calgary Herald – Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/682aht  
Money can’t buy you happiness—but luckily it’s available for free, just by getting closer to nature. (That’s happiness that’s available for free, not money. If there was money to be found in nature walks, I’d be a millionaire.) This two-fer article covers both sides of the story—what money can’t buy you, and what nature can.

I never have time on my hands – or even on my wrist  (Liverpool Daily Post – Liverpool, U.K.)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/55ya6d    
Are you a watch person, or watch-free? Hare or tortoise? Is there a connection? I don’t know about causality, but I used to be much more of a “hare”, and I used to always wear a watch. Now—more tortoise, less watch. In fact, according to my myspace page, I haven’t worn a watch in over 10 years. As far as which came first, the tortoise or the watch-free egg, I can’t say. (I think I stopped wearing my watch at the time because I was a working as a dishwasher.) Author Laura Davis has more to say on the subject of watches and time, and hares and torti. Including a hare-razing point about the comparative lifespan of the two types of animals…

All About You Docs  (Telegraph-Journal – Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/5u7t8p          
Frankly, I think having a last name like “Oz” is kinda cheating. The word has an automatic flair to it. (Kind of like “Jack Black”—how do you not become a star with a name like that?) Anyway, Dr. Mehmet Oz is all the rage these days. It could be his association with Oprah, or his bestselling books, or his reputation as a talented doctor and surgeon…or his magical, hope-filled last name. Either way, “Doctor Oz” has a ton on his plate these days. How does he do it? And what views does he have about health (which totally serve to underline the point Shawn’s always making)? Click to find out.

If you know of something in the news that should be featured here, let us know!

Emerging from the Blog

“Blog” is one of the more awful words to come out of the Internet revolution. It sounds lame, it doesn’t convey any inherent meaning, and it’s got a very limited range of funny puns that I can think of to use with it. “Weblog” (blog’s parent word) is better on both of the first two counts, but it’s even rougher when it comes to making half-witty turns of phrase. (And if I can’t say something half-witty about something, I’d rather say nothing at all.)

So, straight from the blogosphere, here are the latest blogs from our Blogger-in-Chief, Bloggy McBloggo:

(click on the blog entry’s title to blog your way over to the blog)

Networking nametag tip

Introduced by Lance Brown

Jokes Place

Jokes Place is “the place for jokes”. That’s not a lame attempt at humor—at least not by me. That’s their actual slogan. But what they may lack in creativity, Jokes Place makes up for in jokes…jokes like Speeding Ticket and Computers: Male or Female? and The Murder Trial, and many others. There’s not much more to say about Jokes Place; it’s a place where there are jokes. So if you dig jokes, it may be a place that you dig.

Here’s the URL: http://www.jokesplace.com/