I've grown up a bit along the way

Do you live with less to live better?

Yes, in my case, living with less definitely helps me live better. Due to my nature and the way I learned on my own as I grew up, among other things, I am an overly anxious person. There are times when this is more noticeable than others, but something that has helped me manage it and prevent these moments from happening so often is having a calm lifestyle.

So for me, calmness, tranquility, and the absence of excesses are things that benefit me greatly because they help me keep my nervous system as stable as possible to avoid episodes of anxiety. And although they haven't completely disappeared, the truth is that living a simple life is part of my treatment to keep it under control. Of course, not spending my life worrying about things to buy in order to have a certain lifestyle is a burden I don't carry.

However, beyond anything physical, this has benefited me greatly emotionally speaking. Although I am subconsciously aware that there are still many burdens I carry, I have also learned to free myself from many of them, which has benefited my mental health. For example, I used to carry a lot of weight with other people's opinions, because of how I was, how I felt, or how easily I was overwhelmed. Now, I focus on knowing who I am and understanding that I am more than my weaknesses.

Learning this took me a long time, and it had even become a constant burden for me, reproaching myself for having wasted so much time carrying certain burdens, so having to stop dealing with burdens created a new burden for me to deal with. And although I work on my mind to overlook thoughts like these, from time to time they still have some power, but even so, the important thing is that living with fewer of these emotional burdens has helped me live better.

Also, and I think this is the most important thing for me, is that I now have the emotional and mental space to be able to have the strength for what is most important to me. Of course, when we are emotionally burdened, we have very little energy left to even do the things we like, let alone the things that help us grow as a person. That happened to me a lot. I stopped doing many things because, honestly, mental fatigue prevented me from doing them.

Right now, I'm still very prone to getting emotionally overwhelmed easily, but now I have a couple of tools and techniques to prevent this from happening often. Instead, I take the time for what is most important to me. I'm a fan of reflection, and I love to notice how it has helped me improve and also made me aware of how I can help others.

This may seem simple or could be considered by many to be worthless, but from my point of view, I firmly believe that awareness, being present, and recognizing our own weaknesses and flaws can contribute greatly to living a full life despite everything that may happen around us. Because honestly, neither material possessions, money, nor appearances can buy these kinds of things.

Living with less, whether physically or emotionally, not only helps me live better because I can have more peace of mind and devote time to what is really important to me, but living with less has also helped me personally to be a better version of myself, a version that, even with anxiety, can bring calm and experience calm, something I never imagined I could do.