Simplifying Life – before others take control ..

I was once told by someone older and fairly smart: 'if you're useful you'll be used'

How true! At the time I thought it was cynical. And maybe it is, but it's also correct; useful peole can't help but be useful ... and contributing and giving. If the world is divided between the givers and the takers, then the givers are going to go on giving. They are happy that way.

It's a different matter when we become, perhaps unconsciously, victims of our own need to be out there and doing and giving, and therefore ripe for exploitation - relatives, friends, colleagues, total strangers we feel sympathy for. Bombarded with the ramifications of the gurus of social conscience, together with the informational highway around us, we find it hard to stop being part of it all.

Simplifying means taking back control, saying no, even ignoring people - Collective gasp!

Not allowing others to hijack our time, our energy, our image. Yes, because that way we get to bring back our power through choice, and do more of that which is a two-way energy stream, nourishing us instead of just draining us. We do play the roles we are cast in. It is true. If we are known for something or do it well, whatever it may be, we are prone to doing it for the world. We cannot help it. But now the world is bigger, huge - even as we leave our own doorstep – and there is the need to cut back. To rein in, to simplify. In case we lose sight of who we are or - more importantly - who we might want to become.

In that sometimes lonely place that is our own mental territory or solitary space in our own kitchen, is the space to breathe and to know the invisible places of strength, the grounding of our own unique energetic footpath.

Enough is enough, whether it's sorting the attic or sorting the mailbox. Sorting, sifting, constantly vetting and primping or pruning our lives.

Simplifying has to be the new detox.