While watching Bargain Bethany on YouTube creating gift baskets for Christmas, I heard her say, “That was a simpler time,” while making one from the 1950s. It struck me as important, and here comes the blog.

I can recall a simpler time, as I’m sure a lot of us could, too. We think about it with nostalgia, a time that once was but will never be again.  It can’t be because we’re getting older. After all, Bargain Bethany, I think, is in her thirties. She knows the 1950s were a simpler time. And they were.

So, this post is about me trying to understand what happened to change that and how we can create some simpler times now.

I know I go from the time I wake up till I fall asleep. I don’t have much downtime, and I know that’s not good. I can’t remember the last time we went on a vacation, but I know it was years ago. My husband’s business doesn’t offer him the opportunity to take time off. My current job doesn’t offer any benefits like paid vacation days (I have been working on finding a new job), so I try to make the best of it, finding tiny pockets of fun here and there to balance the stress. Here’s what happens, though: time flies by. Life is complicated. You can’t call the phone number of a business and get through to a human being within an appropriate amount of time. It seems we’ve gotten accustomed to having a phone attached to us at all times, and as soon as we hear the ring or ding, we are all over it. We go go go, not even slowing to eat a nutritious meal at a pace that’s good for our digestion. Nope, life is moving, and we’ve got to be keeping up!

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of it.  And though I’ve never had the fantasy of quitting my job just to lay on a Caribbean Island, that relaxation time would be most welcome now. When we keep rushing through life, we’re playing “rushin’ roulette” with our time. We throw the ball into our days and see where it lands. Then the wheel keeps moving, our ball tossing on it over and over until the end of our day comes, and we’re wiped out and just veg out on TV or whatever we do to unwind.

Weekends used to be wide open, with plenty of time to do what I wanted to do. It seemed like we had to think of things to fill up the time, right? Not anymore! It’s Sunday night, and I’m like, what the heck happened to the weekend?  Not a good way to live, trust me.

If you find your life whizzing by and you feel like you’re playing the “rushing roulette” game to get so many things accomplished, fret not. I came up with some ideas to help simplify our lives.

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• Make a mental note of what’s taking your time the most. Is it something you enjoy doing? Are you being in the present moment doing it or allowing your mind to drift off just to get through it?  Once you find out what that is, you can change it to doing something you really want to be doing.

 

• Get rid of excess. I know this too well. We accumulate things and then don’t want to get rid of stuff that we think we’ll use or need. But if you don’t have the space to handle it, then it becomes a burden taking care of the stuff instead of enjoying it.

 

• Make time for fun experiences. Not create time for it. Make time. Force yourself to put other things aside and do the thing that makes you happy. Repeat this over and over.

 

• Be present with people. Put the phone away, look into another person’s eyes, and connect. I want a time in my life where I can sit on a porch with a glass of lemonade, talking to someone with nowhere to be, just being in that moment enjoying one another’s company. We have experiences with people, and if we’re focused on the interaction happening right before our eyes, we get to slow down time.

 

• Find the present moment and stay there. What I mean is to focus on the present moment right now. When we become more aware of our present moment, time doesn’t rush by so much.

 

The simple truth is that society has led us here with industry and commerce leading the way, telling us what we should be doing, having, and being. I’ve cluttered my life so much I’ve lost sight of what is most important. Seriously. But when I get myself back to the present moment, I’m aware of what I’m doing, and I adjust the sail to get back on course. Sometimes, it’s too late by the time I get there, and I’m exhausted and need to get to sleep, but I’m working on it. Once we get on the rushin’ roulette wheel, it is hard to get off.

Should we be proud of being so busy? Moving so fast and rushing through life makes it all a blur. Did you ever notice, when you’re on vacation, how the time goes by slower? That’s because we’re not distracted by all the things that fill our normal lives. Once we figure out the distractions, we can change it. We don’t have to go on a vacation from our lives to feel like it. All it takes is being aware of what we allow to take our attention.

Thank you for reading this, and I hope I offered something to think about.

To gettin’ off the wheel,

Francesca