My Intentional Living Journey: Steps to a Simple and Intentional Life
Living intentionally is not a one-time task that you can complete and be done with. In this article, I will share my own journey towards intentional living and encourage you to take your own steps towards a simpler and more meaningful life with less stress and possessions, and more time and freedom to focus on what truly matters to you.
Simple and intentional living
I thought it might be helpful to let you have a look at my own personal path to simple and intentional living, especially if you are new to my website or simplicity as a lifestyle.
I want to share the knowledge I’ve gained on simplifying life and the actions that helped me achieve it. I hope this will inspire you to view your life from a different perspective, allowing you to focus on the things that matter to you at the present moment, instead of getting overwhelmed by never-ending to-do lists or household chores.
Life can be complicated, and it may take a while to unravel it. Despite the term “simplifying life,” it’s not an effortless task. Decluttering and streamlining your life is a gradual process, and it cannot be accomplished overnight or as a one-time project that can be checked off and considered complete.
Simplifying life involves making intentional choices about various aspects of your life. This includes identifying what is important versus what is unnecessary clutter, saying “no” when necessary, and discovering easier methods to accomplish your tasks, providing you with more time, room, and flexibility to do what you want to do.
In my opinion, simplifying life is about creating a life that’s not necessarily perfect but easier. It’s about filling it with more of what’s important and eliminating the unnecessary clutter.
My Intentional Living Journey
I would like to share the path of my intentional living journey. While your journey may differ slightly, I’ll outline the steps I took, how one step led to another, and the benefits I gained along the way. My journey involved taking small steps that helped me build confidence, gain clarity, and develop momentum. The more I simplified, the more space I created not only in my home, but also in my schedule, heart, and mind, resulting in a snowball effect.
1 Recognising where things went wrong
Let’s go back to about ten to twelve years ago when my children were younger, and I was trying to balance work, school, family, and everything in between. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the stresses and pressures of life had caught up to me while I was preoccupied with other things. I was striving to excel in my career, motherhood, and marriage, working tirelessly and believing that I could have it all if I just kept pushing harder.
It was foolish and naive of me to think I was Superwoman when I clearly was not. I ignored the warning signs for too long, sweeping them under the rug so that neither I nor my loved ones would see them. However, one day, things came to a head, and I was forced to take a break from work to re-evaluate my life and its impact on me and my family. At the time, it felt like a major weakness, but looking back, it marked the beginning of profound change.
2 Knowing when things need to change
My health crisis was the catalyst for change in my life. Battling with high blood pressure, digestion problems, nausea, eczema, fatigue, foggy brain, anxiety and emotional problems, I was signed off from work and forced to take a hard look at my lifestyle. From the moment I hit rock bottom and realized that things HAD to change, to the point where I can now confidently say my life is where I want it to be, my journey came about through small, daily changes to my lifestyle.
In my quest for intentional living and simplifying my life, I realized the importance of self-care. I took a deep dive into the eight pillars of self-care and evaluated where I needed to make changes. It was clear to me that my home environment needed a revamp, and I also needed to prioritize my mental well-being. I started by decluttering my physical space and creating a calming atmosphere at home. I also started practising meditation and mindfulness, which helped me manage my stress levels and improve my overall mental health. Taking care of myself became a top priority, and I started to see positive changes in my life.
3 Understanding the role of clutter
Studies have shown that the amount of clutter around you is directly proportional to stress levels, especially for women. To put it simply, the more clutter, the higher the level of stress. Additionally, having more clutter means spending more time managing it, such as cleaning, organizing, and moving it around.
Hence, research indicates that reducing clutter leads to lower stress levels. This applies not only to physical clutter, but also to other types of clutter that can take up space in our lives, such as bad habits, debt, and a packed schedule.
Reading about these findings motivated me to give it a try since clutter around my home was causing me stress and taking up my time and energy. I was constantly overwhelmed by the mess and felt like instead of giving my home a proper clean, my time was spent moving my clutter from one place to the next. Leaving me exhausted and frustrated by getting nowhere in getting my house sorted at the end of each day. I knew I needed a change to enjoy life more and not just get through each day. It was time to declutter my life in every way possible.
4 Decluttering my stuff
And so started my decluttering journey. I decided to take my first step towards simplifying my life by starting a small project. After reading up on decluttering, I decided to begin with my clothes. It was time to reduce the amount of clothing I owned and clear out items that were no longer serving me.
With my closet decluttering being a great success I decided to tackle more areas of my home. During the decluttering process, I asked myself questions to help me figure out what to keep.
As I continued with my decluttering journey, I noticed that my home started to have a more serene and organized look. Keeping it clean and tidy became less of a challenge, and I found that I had more time, space, and energy to focus on the things I wanted to do. With less clutter in my life, I had more room for living!
While decluttering is not always an easy task, there are helpful tips and tricks that can make the process easier. I have personally tried and tested many of these tips and shared them on my website to help others avoid the same mistakes I made.
5 Learning how to think differently
I realised that decluttering was just the first step and to maintain its benefits, I needed to develop new habits and ways of thinking. This included owning less, being mindful of my purchases, and embracing a minimalist mindset. These changes were not always easy, but they were necessary to create a lasting change in my home and life.
Through my journey of simplifying the focus was not on disposing of items for the sake of it. Rather, it was about removing the things from my life that did not serve a purpose, add value or were unappreciated. This created space for the things that did matter. Decluttering served as a tool to achieve this, but it was more than just that. Simplifying my life or adopting a minimalist lifestyle involved a fundamental shift in my outlook towards having fewer possessions, commitments and mental clutter, and more time, space and freedom in all aspects of life.
Eliminating the clutter and excess in my life led to a complete transformation. As I enjoyed having fewer clothes, I also discovered that I naturally chose less in other areas of my life. For instance, I yearned for less stress, so I could feel happier and calmer.
Additionally, I aimed for less clutter in my home, so cleaning and tidying would be a breeze. I also aimed for less complicated finances to have more freedom to save, donate, and spend on experiences rather than stuff. I preferred simple recipes that took less time to prepare but were equally delicious, and fewer commitments in my diary, so my kids and I could have more free time. To put it simply, I wanted less of the things that drained me and more of the things that nourished me.
6 Living Intentionally
Simplifying life involves deliberately selecting and incorporating what’s suitable for you. It’s about eliminating the excess, rejecting what doesn’t serve you, and making room for what does. Discover straightforward ways to accomplish what you must do, so you can have the time, space, and freedom to do what you want.
I firmly believe that decluttering and simplifying life begins with intentional living. You could certainly undertake a few decluttering tasks and dispose of some items, but if you want to make more significant changes, you need to make conscious choices.
Intentional living is essentially about recognizing what you want in life and finding ways to achieve it. As we mentioned earlier, it all starts with your mindset and being prepared and willing to make changes, even if you don’t know how they’ll turn out in the end.
My Intentional Living Journey: Steps to a Simple and Intentional Life
Embarking on Your Own Intentional Living Journey
When I started my journey, I had no idea how immensely beneficial simple living would be for me. From decluttering my home to simplifying my schedule, every step brought a sense of freedom and peace that I never knew existed. It wasn’t always easy, but it was always worth it. And as I continue on my intentional living journey, I know that there will be new challenges and lessons to learn, but I’m excited about all the possibilities that lie ahead.
If you’re ready to start exploring the benefits of simple and intentional living, here are some actionable steps you can take. You might want to grab a notebook and pen to jot down your thoughts and ideas as you go through them.
- Clarify how you feel about your life right now. Identify what brings you joy, what stresses you out, and how you feel at the end of the day.
- Determine what you want to change. Consider if you are too busy, frustrated with treading water, scared to try something new, or overwhelmed by responsibilities or possessions.
- Establish your priorities. Decide what is most important to you right now, whether it is getting out of debt, raising a young family, caring for an elderly relative, retraining for a new career, enjoying retirement, or finding yourself and enjoying life again.
- Create a plan. Choose one or two key stressors or changes that would make the biggest difference to you and break them down into simple steps with clear goals and a timeline. Start taking action today.
- Review your plan frequently. Regularly check in with yourself and your plan to ensure your decluttering goals align with your priorities. Adjust your plan as needed.
- Take small steps consistently. Build little habits that integrate with your daily life and have a big impact over time. For example, declutter one item a day, remove one activity from your schedule each week, stop mindless shopping for a month, and spend 10 minutes each day on self-care, reflection, and mindfulness.
- Stay persistent. Don’t get discouraged if everything doesn’t fall into place immediately. Consistent effort is the key to successful intentional living.
