Less IS Really More…

We live an indulgent, information overload, marketing explosion world. Every where we turn someone is trying to sell us or tell us something. I passed an electric charging station and within one minute there were three different messages. I passed a street sign and it changed twice to reveal new messages. And once I was in the store the checkout line and aisles all had different advertisements for products throughout the store. It was all overwhelming and felt like a barrage of information I didn’t really want to know. Everywhere I turned someone was trying to tell or sell me something.

These words from Jeremy Taylor remind us that pleasures are not really pleasures if they trouble our ability to live the life we want. Peace and quiet may sound boring and yet without them we travel through each day fractured, fragmented, overwhelmed and unable to think. We have the power to control the information we take in and what we send out. If we want to relax we need only turn off our devices and let the calm soothe our soul. If we want to have peace we need to choose to let the turmoils, sales pitches and online information from the day go away. We have the power to savor the quiet of our time, the purpose and presence that no input provides. Which may feel very counter to our ever “on” culture, and yet it seems to be the only way to hear ourselves think.

Just as we have choices in how we spend our time, we have choices in who or what we let into our personal space. Advertisements, information, and all that does not make more better. In this case less is really more…more peace, more quite, more calm. So today let’s exercise our choices and cherish what we want and tunE out what we don’t.