Simplify: The Way to a Harmonious Menstrual Cycle and a Happy Life

For the past 6 years I’ve been on a mission to find out how I can be free from PMS and period pain, do what I love, and live more deeply and joyfully.

And what I’ve discovered is that one of the most important keys is simplifying my life…

Over the years I’ve gradually removed many things that cluttered my home, my feelings, and my mind.

Some were big things, such as leaving a financially lucrative but soulfully unfulfilling investment banking career.

Some were much smaller, such as donating large bags of items that I used to like but no longer fit with who I am today.

The process of discarding these things that drained my energy allowed me to add other things that bring me joy and fulfillment.

Among them are writing, playing with my daughter, and taking time to read, contemplate and meditate. As you can see, the new list is not very long.

In short, I have filled my days with a few things that truly matter to me in place of a lot of activities that don’t. Some people call this a minimalist lifestyle.

Why Simplify Your Life

Joshua Becker, author of Simplify: 7 Guiding Principles to Help Anyone Declutter Their Home and Life, defines minimalism as the intentional promotion of the things we value most and the removal of anything that distracts us from them. I like his definition.

Simplifying requires us to be clear about what’s important to us, to acknowledge the fact that we can’t do it all, and to understand that we can’t please everybody.

It also invites us to take a curious look at our lives, and to make a conscious effort to remove the clutter that blocks our flow of energy, creativity and joy.

3 Primary Areas to Simplify

We tend to create clutter in the following three main areas of our lives:

Physical Clutter:

In his book Simplify, Joshua reminds us that clutter is a form of visual distraction.

Everything in our vision pulls at our attention, at least a little. The less clutter, the less visual stress we have in our environment. That’s why a simple, minimalist home and office are calming.

Let’s face it, the more things we own, the more things own us. Reducing physical clutter not only reduces stress, but also frees up energy, time and money spent on things that don’t matter much, instead on things that we truly love.

Mental Clutter:

Like physical clutter, mental disorder drains our energy, clouds our judgement, and damages our self-esteem when we are unable to finish projects or keep commitments.

Examples of mental clutter include:

• Promises not kept, not acknowledged, or not renegotiated;
• Projects started but left unfinished;
• Unreturned phone calls or emails;
• Personal relationships with unresolved emotional entanglements;
• Unpaid debts or financial commitments, etc.

It’s a terrible feeling to have multiple strands of unfinished business tangling our minds, creating anxiety, frustration and mental fogginess.

The good news is that they can be cleared relatively easily, though it may take some time.

You can get started by creating a list of your incompletes and crossing them off – one by one – by doing, delegating, scheduling them for a later time, or by simply dumping them.

Emotional Clutter:

Just as we have a messy junk drawer in the house and an unemptied trash bin on our computer, we also have a similar receptacle for our emotions.

Our emotional dumpster is stuffed with tangled emotional knots that are left unexamined, unattended and untied. These suck the energy out of our bodies and the joy out of our lives.

To free up space in our heart for love and joy to flow in, we need to lift the lid of this dumpster, take a look at what’s in there, and untangle the knots, one by one.

This may be the hardest clutter to remove – but it can be the most rewarding and liberating.

As I emptied the physical, mental and emotional garbage from my life, my long-standing PMS and period pain left with them. At the same time, I began living a life far truer to myself and my values.

In my heart, I believe this can help you too, though your version of a simpler life may look different from mine.

All you need to do is to be clear about what’s important to you for the precious time you have left on earth, and then bring these things to the center of your daily existence, gradually discarding the rest…

What are some ways you can simply? I’ve love to hear your thoughts, ideas and experiences.

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