While longer articles, compelling podcast interviews and entire books can inspire your next step, sometimes all you need are a few words that connect with your heart. Here are a few of the minimalism quotes I posted (image + caption) on Instagram recently. If anything resonates, makes you smile, or helps you take action, feel free to save, print, share, or use in anyway that you’d like.
Find the somethings in your home, closet, work, brain & heart. Then look at your calendar and lists. Let go of lots of somethings and make space to heal and recover. If you want to be light, you have to let go.
Clean counters and shorter to-do lists are nice but thats nothing nothing compared to trusting yourself. Use that precious time and space you are creating to put your hands on your heart.
This one is less about minimalism and more about simply smiling. And please consider that perhaps it’s not your job to make everyone happy.
Right?
When I saw these words from @introvertdear, I thought, “That’s so me.” I’m done fake smiling. I will not say yes when my heart says no.
Mix and match to your heart’s desire.
I want to spend time with people who make me laugh. I want to take really long walks all by myself. I want to create for days on end. I want to linger over a good meal. I want to see the world, stand up for what I believe in, sleep 8 hours, write my next book, take a dance class, and read every day. I want to help people with their work. I can’t do any of that all at once. When I’m doing one thing, I let go of the other stuff for days or months. It’s not balance. It’s being in it. I don’t want a balanced life, I want a meaningful one … a real life.
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I enjoy sharing and connecting on Instagram. It seems to be the most social of the social media platforms. I’ll be hosting an Instagram Live session on Monday, April 16th at 5:00 pm ET (NYC TIME) and have a fun giveaway for next week too. If you are interested, please join me there by clicking any of these images.
Your article reminded me of the book I’m currently reading. Sarah Knight’s “the life-changing magic of not giving a f*ck” or how to stop spending time you don’t have with people you don’t like doing things you don’t want to do.
I changed the f-word in the text (in my head) to “not care about” or “care about”. Easier to understand, actually. And softer on the soul.
Delurking to say thank you, for all that you share. You have been such a massive positive influence in my life. I remember sitting on my commuter train to London (having woken at 4am to make the train) and listening to you on a podcast. I so related to your story and I have been taking tiny steps since then to change mine.
What is fake smiling?
Hi Jennifer
Fake smiling means your smile is not sincere or heart-felt. You are just doing what is socially acceptable and considered polite. There’s a world of difference between when your face hurts from pinning a polite smile to it for any length of time and when your abs hurt from laughing.