More ease in our day to day lives can reduce stress and improve not only our health but how we treat each other. Life is hard enough without adding these ease stealing habits.
More ease? Yes, please. More ease is the respite we need from our hurried, stressful days. More ease soothes us when we don’t trust ourselves to make a big decision or when we are going through something painful. We are so conditioned to prove ourselves by working hard and pushing through. We try to earn our rest by doing too much, and we think we deserve ease when we reach whatever we imagine to be our version of success. By the time we get to the rest and ease, we’re so worn out that we don’t even get to enjoy it.
It’s time for a new approach. Instead of waiting and questioning our worthiness of things like love, joy, rest, and more ease, it’s time to make space for it and build it in every single day. Start small with simple pleasures, mindful habits, and gentle steps, making yourself a priority and slowing down to process how you feel and the world around you. These are small ways to create more ease in daily life.
Ditch These 5 Habits Stealing Your Ease
To create some immediate space for more ease, more joy, more intentional living, and happiness, it’s time to ditch the following 5 habits. I’ll share how I recommend saying goodbye, and if that feels like too big of a step, take a look at the gentle step. Find a way to step into what you want, even if it has to be the tiniest, gentlest step. Those steps count too!
1. Trade frustration for calm with mindful habits.
How do you respond when things don’t go the way you want them to go? Being upset and frustrated takes a lot of energy. Before you fall into a frustration spiral that turns into stress and anxiety, check in. Ask yourself what’s really bothering you. Then make a list of potential solutions, people who can help, and what you might be able to do in order to let the air out of the frustration balloon. The habit of being easily frustrated will steal your ease.
How can you trade frustration for more ease and reduced stress? How can you remove the power that the frustration seems to hold over you? Is your response to the frustration an appropriate reaction? For instance, if you go out to breakfast and completely lose your mind because your order comes out wrong, is it really about the eggs? Is your reaction serving you or moving you closer to a solution? Even if you aren’t in agreement, or if you are feeling disappointed, could you find some relief in accepting the reality of the situation and moving on?
This mindful habit of pausing will help you create calm and make space for ease. As Byron Katie says, “It’s not the problem that causes our suffering; it’s our thinking about the problem.” I’m always surprised by how simply remembering this quote, I’m more at ease.
The gentle step: Make a list of 5-10 things that calm you when you feel overwhelmed. From taking a few deep breaths to talking to someone who helps you feel better, having this list on hand means that you can self-soothe even before dealing with the thing that frustrated you in the first place. You are allowed to experience more ease before you have everything figured out.
2. Let go to create more ease.
Don’t hold on to something just because it used to be a good idea. Whether you want to let go of stuff and clutter, a relationship, a job, an old goal, thought or belief, give yourself permission to know when it’s time. We convince ourselves that letting go of things is hard, so we hold on. The truth is that holding on is harder. We have to hold on every day, questioning our decisions and keeping things in our lives that weigh us down and distract us from what we care about now.
Holding on when it’s time to let go is a habit that will stand in your way of more ease. Letting go is a cornerstone of simple living and one of the gentle steps that will help you create more ease and peace.
The gentle step: Of course, some things feel easier to release than others, so be gentle with yourself and start with the easiest thing like an extra coffee cup. Along the way, you’ll learn to trust your heart and let to with more ease (for more ease).
3. Slow down and protect your time.
I shared this here, and I think it’s worth repeating. So often we think we are obligated to do things when we don’t have something else to do. We are not. You are the only person who can protect your time and energy. That means if you want to have free time, alone time, or time for whatever you want, you have to save some time for yourself. It might feel hard to say no at first, but it may soon become one of your favorite tiny habits. The habit of saying, “yes” just because you aren’t busy will steal your ease. And it usually feels worse to be completely overextended.
For more ease in the form of more time, slow down and create some margin for yourself. This might mean not doing things you don’t want to do, and sometimes it means you don’t even do everything you actually want to do. This looks like more white space on your calendar.
The gentle step: Schedule some time for you. It’s not as hard to say no to something or someone if you have another commitment. So, commit to yourself. Put time for you on your calendar and honor it.
4. Choose intentional living over obligation.
Often, especially when we want to make a change in our life, we get discouraged by people who don’t believe in us, don’t support u,s and seem to thrive in bringing us down. The good news is that it’s not you, it’s them. And more good news, in most cases, you can limit the time you spend with those people or the parts of your life you share with them. Spending lots of time with people who don’t support you will drain your ease.
Not every relationship you have will be the same, so identify the ones that hold you back, and limit your time spent sharing things that are really important to you. Work on your relationships, but don’t seek support from unsupportive people. You’ll be disappointed. This reminds me of Maya Angelou’s words, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Prioritizing intentional living means protecting your peace and choosing connection that nourishes, not drains, you.
The gentle step: If limiting your time with someone who doesn’t support you feels like too big of a step, instead identify the most loving, supportive person in your life and share with them first.
5. Start with mindful mornings, not phone first mornings.
The habit of phone-first mornings prevents you from starting your day with mindful habits and more ease. It removes you from how you want to feel and what you want to care about during the day. Instead, you immediately fill yourself with the news, or requests in email, or opinions on social media.
Unless there is something on your phone that is truly urgent, imagine how you might create more ease by checking your phone after you’ve spent some time waking up and taking care of yourself. Phone first mornings remove all hope of more ease. Experiment by keeping your phone in sleep mode for an hour or two after you wake up.
The gentle step: If an hour or two sounds impossible, try 5 minutes. Can you spend the first 5 minutes of the morning without input from your phone? If you like how that feels, add a minute and repeat until you find something that works well for you.
Final thoughts on the habits stealing your ease
Ditching these habits that steal your ease will help you create more ease, joy, peace and Go slowly and take gentle steps. Give yourself permission to take the gentle step and notice the progress you are making and the benefits you experience through simple living and intentional living.
