every human being matters

I began to write another article on simplifying your life but stopped.

Something wasn’t right.

Like everyone else, I was too focused on all the steps to make one’s life “simplified” – but it all revolved around the physical, visible world. Organizing your environment, your time, your energy, your physical health, your relationships, your meals…you get the idea.

But I didn’t get the sense that any of that was really at the root of the human experience.

And when we die, how does what we did affect the life beyond?

Where to start?

To simplify one’s life doesn’t begin in the material world. It begins in a place within the human psyche that is much deeper. In a place where we clutter our very being, creating confusion and melding of conflicting ideas as if they are all equally true.

We declutter our homes, our methods, our relationships, our desks, and even our smartphones. But do we ever declutter what is more important? That which makes us who we are, determines our core beliefs, directs our actions, and decide what is most important?

That place is inside a world unseen, yet is touch by the outside world daily. It guides and shapes us by determining what we observe and take in through our senses. It untangles it and sorts out what is deemed “necessary” for our survival as a human being.

To simplify one’s life doesn’t begin in the material world. It begins in a place within the human psyche that is much deeper.

But in today’s world, that part of us is constantly and increasingly flooded with confusing and even conflicting ideas. And each of them claim to have the answers to our woes and unrest. It says that even those diametrically opposed views and beliefs are all fully equivalent and valid.

Yet inside each of us is a restlessness that isn’t satisfied with all of this. And it is growing in intensity. We know that something is wrong, but we cannot determine its cause.

So we focus on what we think we can control – on the material world immediately around us – and try to declutter and change our environment to reflect our inner determination to create a solution our of the chaos that surround us. It makes us feel like we can simplify our complex world somehow – at least where it directly affects us.

Even so, the world with all its noise, still manages to creep in. It invades our very soul. And deep down in our souls, we find the longing to escape its web and find the peace that comes from being beyond its grip.

It is an inner struggle that gets ignored by the increasingly alluring offers of the world.

If we let it.

Is there a solution?

It begins with the mind.

What we think, we will believe. Even if the other thoughts cannot align with each other we try in vain to make them fit. But all it does is create a turmoil inside of us that we cannot identify.

So we have to dig a little deeper to find the answer.

It begins with knowing what our priorities in life are. Within the human spirit there is a need for certainty, unchangeableness upon which we can hang all our decisions, directions, goals, actions.

But we cannot do that if our thoughts are overflowing with concepts truly foreign to our human nature, such as the influences of social media, endless marketing campaigns, and unreasonable demands from our jobs which interfere in our personal lives.

So how do we handle all of this?

We start with finding out what is most important to us.

Prioritizing our thoughts…

Begin by writing out a list of things that are important to you. The order doesn’t matter right now – just the concepts. These should be the principal ideas that affect how you view yourself and the world around you. Such as:

• faith, spirituality
• health
• personal interests
• personal core values – what ideas influence your decisions which affect how you act and interact with yourself, relationships, money, business, goals? Suggested concepts could be:
  • honesty
  • integrity
  • charitableness toward yourself and others
  • guarding personal space and timeframe

Notice such things as “wealth” and “relationships” are not on the suggested list. That is because the relationship we hold with the material possessions, money, finances, and even interpersonal relationships all come from your core values. Those values provide the framework we need to decide how to interact with things outside ourselves.

Notice such things as “wealth” and “relationships” are not on the suggested list.

If those “outside priorities” become more important than your own core values, then it’s possible that your values are upside down. You have taken on someone else’s values and made them your own – even if they conflict with what you know to be true.

We have a set space in time in order to grow and perfect ourselves. And if we pursue such things as “making lots of money”, what value is all that when we are gone? Why would we care if it affects anyone else? We wouldn’t be around to care.

There is something far greater than this life. It is the spiritual part of the human being – the soul – that feeds our very being. Unless you can evaluate what is important based on that higher value, it won’t allow you to grow as a human being. And what you become will be revealed when life strikes and all those material support systems fail. The material world can only get you so far before it utterly fails.

So prioritize your interior core values. Get to the solid foundation of your beliefs. Then ground yourself on them, practice them, so that when the road becomes rocky, you will not fall.

Where do your values come from?

They don’t just magically appear inside of you. You have to work for them. Even if your childhood was the worst in human history, the advantage of being human is that you can will to rise above your past. You can work on become a better person by replacing the past pain with something greater – the means to grow from the pile of manure in which your life placed you. And you will become stronger for it.

“If you pray for Truth – sincerely – it will find you. Be open to it and ready to receive it when it comes, even if it is painful.”

M Alley

Something I have adhered to my entire life.

It is found in the stability and unchangeableness of the original, immutable teachings of ancient Faiths. It doesn’t shift with time, but adapts to the culture. Pieces of It are discoverable within old traditions and even in Nature itself with its Natural Law.

Seek for opportunities to find the Truth – the Objective Truth, not relative truth. It is the only one which will not waver or change with time. It doesn’t come from another person’s personal interpretations, nor from someone’s interpretations about some great religious belief. It just is.

And it permeates everything.

It is from this that your core values will be built on solid stone instead of the shifting sand of the modern cultures.

Then what?

When you have found those most important ideas, prioritize them.

…you will never find that ultimate inner peace that helps guide you in this physical world that is filled with confusing, contradictory, divisive, intrusive thoughts.

Reevaluate your list based on your new discoveries. They will become deeper over time if you do not discard your desire to seek interior perfection. It is the only way to lead to inner peace. Everything else around you that the world deems of value will become less important as you lean into those core ideals.

It is not the purpose of this article to direct you to any one thing. Each of use had our own journey to take along often very different paths.

But the key takeaway should be to not settle for less than the Truth. Without It, you will never find that ultimate inner peace that helps guide you in this physical world that is filled with confusing, contradictory, divisive, intrusive thoughts. It will give you that basic foundation upon which to decide what really is important, and what can be discarded along your journey.

It doesn’t matter which way the world is going, not what direction the wind is blowing.

A fish that is alive swims against the flow of water. One that is dead floats down with the water. A true Christian goes against the current of sinful age. A false one is swept away by its swiftness.” 

+ St. Philaret of Moscow, Orthodox Life Vol. 63 No. 3 May-June 2012

Which one of these do your values reflect about who you are?

If you find that inner peace wavering, go back along your path and find out where something caused you to stray. Some intrusive exterior thought or fear that has caused you to deviate course.

Once recognized, you will be able to remove it and regain traction, moving forward once more…in peace.