How To Create More Ease in Your Everyday Life

If you are a reader of the blog or follow me on Instagram then you know that I recently took an extended break while life and work got busy this past month. While I missed posting to both Instagram and on the blog I knew at that time that a few things would need to be put on pause while I worked my way through this busy season I found myself in.  My energy is already lower during winter like most, and my work recently went through its audit season, so I took the time and effort to infuse more ease into my everyday life. Even those of us who are most intentional with our life and try to create more simplicity, will still inevitably find ourselves in a time and space where we are simply busy and need to dedicate more time to things that require more of our attention.  Whether it be work, family, an illness, moving, buying or selling a house,  new relationships, new pets or a combination of any of these, one universal truth is that eventually we will enter a busy season.

While we may not be able evade this fact of life, there are things we can do to create more ease into our everyday life so that a busy season can be handled with grace and more efficiently.  Here are the things that I practiced this past month to help create more ease in my own everyday life.

---

-Never tell yourself “I am overwhelmed”

Life is nothing more than the stories we tell ourselves which is good news because that means we get to choose the stories we tell on purpose.  There were days at work where the work just kept on coming and could even stack up at times, but never did I tell myself that I was overwhelmed.  I simply told myself, I have things to complete and that was it.  I did not try to absorb every thing that needed to be completed at one time or look at the long list of tasks ahead.  I simply worked on one task giving it my full attention, completed it, moved it off my list and then worked the next one.  When you adopt the mindset of “I simply have things to do” instead of telling yourself that it’s too much or that you’re overwhelmed, then you create a mindset of ease to just simply take one step at a time and through this approach you will still complete everything, just with more calm and ease.

 

-Have A set weekly menu

While I love trying new recipes or getting involved with a favorite meal to prepare like a homemade soup, roast, etc., during the busy seasons of life I opt to create a set menu of meals on a constant rotation to create ease of not only knowing how to cook them without recipes night after night, but also the grocery shopping becomes routine too with an understanding of what is needed by default without too much thought. The grocery shopping and subsequent meals become as routine as bruising my teeth in that I do not have to consciously think about it and therefore conserves my mental energy creating more ease as it pertains to meal planning.

-have at least 3 meals the can be prepared in 15-ish minutes or less

Cooking a meal doesn’t have to be a time consuming pursuit every single night.  Build into your weekly menu to have at least 3 meals that can be prepared in 15-ish minutes or less.  When I say prepared, I mean the time it takes you to physically prepare the food, so for example one night a week I will bake a frozen lasagna and sauté a vegetable side.  The lasagna will take about an hour to bake, but it only takes me 5 minutes or less to turn the oven on, open the lasagna and put it on a baking dish to bake.  Then, after an hour I will sauté some veggies for a side within ten minutes and dinner is served (often with leftovers for lunch too).  Having a few meals that are quick and take little effort is a great way to create more ease into your everyday life without sacrificing the pleasure of a home cooked meal, even if it’s semi-homemade meal.

 

-savor a pre-bed time ritual

There is bedtime when it’s time to sleep, and then there is the pre-bed ritual before sleep.  For me, it’s after I have done all of my nighttime beauty routines, changed into my pajamas, and then I get into bed and either read a book or watch cozy videos on YouTube or Instagram.  I know for some that the phone befor bed keeps them from sleeping well, but that has never been the case for me.  The cozy videos actually put my mind at ease and helps relax my thoughts after a day of being “on” and productive.  It’s like watching cooking shows and getting hungry, except in my case it comforts me and makes me sleepy.  Whatever puts you into a state of peacefulness, whether cozy videos, reading, meditating, yoga or a sleep app, take some time before bed to indulge a pre-bed ritual and give yourself some peace before sleep.

 

-sleep in on the weekends (or whenever you can)

While the consensus for the hyper-productive is to wake up everyday at 5:00 a.m., I can say with all confidence that sleeping in is one way I create more ease into my life. Waking up when my body is ready provides a gentle start to the days that I am off of work.  A fun fact is that humans are actually meant to sleep more during the winter too.  While this is still a balance as too much sleep is not good either, sleeping in can help our bodies recuperate from a week of waking early and being on the go. For me sleeping in is about 7-8 a.m., but this will look different to everyone.  I will gently wake, brush my teeth, have a glass of water, make a coffee and get back into bed to read and stay cozy for a few more hours.  Being able to indulge in the extra sleep creates ease in my weekend by providing the pleasure of not being on a timetable for a couple of days and letting my energy guide my actions for ease during the weekends.

-stack and attack your outside errands

If you work Monday-Friday like I do, then inevitably you will need to run errands on the weekend.  Some weekends all I really need to do is grocery shop, then there are other weekends when I need to do several tasks such as going to Target for household items, put gasoline in the car, get a carwash, etc., when I have a weekend like this where I need to perform a few errands, I will always find a way to stack them in a way that creates ease.  I will pick the place I go first by its ease of getting there and make the grocery run the last task.  So for example, on a weekend where I run several errands I will go first to Target (closest to my home), then I will stop at the gas station to fuel up the car and run through a car wash (find a service station that offers both), then I’ll grocery shop as my furthest destination, but also as the last task so that I can go straight home to put them away quickly. Errands are inevitable, so instead of running one here, doing one there, just stack them up for one morning or afternoon, and make a plan to complete them in a way that creates ease around them.

 

-turn off the news

While there used to be a time where the news was simply meant to be a public service for people to inform them of the events of interest locally, nationally and somewhat globally, the news in this particular iteration no longer exists. News is now a multi-billion dollar business that thrives on clicks and angry/scared viewership to keep them profitable.  Most news nowadays is a blurb about an event that happened and then wrapped up in opinions and over-exaggerations to keep its audience engagement very high.  Take back your peace and turn off the news. It will simply drain your energy and leave you with a heavy heart.  All we ever have control of at any moment is ourselves, enjoy more ease as you are not taking on the worries of the world that you cannot control anyways.

 

-create a few weekly simple pleasures that you enjoy

The only thing more enjoyable than my morning coffee ritual is the looking forward to the morning coffee ritual. Having a few weekly rituals that we enjoy creates an ease around everyday life by creating space to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. There are inevitably going to be tasks that we don’t necessarily look forward to such as waking up early, doing laundry, filing taxes, unloading the dishwasher, etc., but we can also create rituals throughout the week that can counterbalance those things that aren’t our favorite.  Waking up early Wednesday through Friday to go into the office is not a favorite task of mine, but cozying into my cubicle, putting on some jazz to listen to and enjoying that first cup of coffee is pure pleasure.  Washing the dishes after dinner is a mundane task I have to complete nearly night, but making a pot of tea and enjoying a good book or magazine in the evening afterwards is a simple pleasure not to be missed.  Sprinkle some simple pleasures throughout your days to create more ease around the less desired tasks that you need to do and you’ll find that those tasks become surprisingly more enjoyable too.