Seven Ways to Immediately Simplify Life

Urban Meyer, head-coach of the Florida Gators football team, recently retired because of stress related health issues. Like most people, Coach Meyer has not researched causes of stress or ways to relieve it. Here are 7 ways to immediately simplify life and stop the stress.

Homemade Prepared Meals

There are good reasons mom used to make us eat our meals at night. They were nutritious for one. Meals made at home are healthy because mom would use healthy ingredients.

We also sat down as a family and ate together listening to each other's reflection on the day. According to the National Center on Substance Abuse at Columbia University teens who have infrequent family dinners are three and a half times more likely to have tried illegal drugs other than marijuana, to have used tobacco products and probably have used alcohol as much or more.

To get back to this good part of life, spend time on Saturday or Sunday listing out the meals of the week on a day-by-day schedule. This will relieve us of last minute decisions about dinner and help to prevent buying fast unhealthy food as an option. Then prepare a list of ingredients and double it so we have leftovers that can be frozen for another time.

Use Mass Transportation

Save the planet use mass transportation. If the buses in your city use natural gas you use clean fuel to boot.

All kidding aside mass transportation takes the traffic issue entirely off our plate. Allowing us time to listen to music, read or just meditate. Maybe it can be a time to plan your day, week, month or year.

It's easy to make friends while riding mass transit. Try it and see if you don't enjoy the commute better then driving.

Home Cleaning Service

Ask yourself next weekend why you should spend an entire day or weekend doing house cleaning. Today it is very affordable to hire some house cleaning done once or twice a month.

If you can't afford it why not get your neighbors together and try and get a discount for three or four people on a block to use the same house-cleaners on the same day or block of days? This helps bring down the price and most housecleaners will love it.

Pay Small Debts First

This is a motivator because nothing feels as good as paying off a debt. So start with the small ones first. This helps to get the number of debts to a minimum and helps to lesson the pain.

Also try not to create small debts this will eliminate the need to over spend and make you question unnecessary purchases.

Instead of accumulating material possessions why not start experiencing life instead. After all at the end of our life it will be people we are close to and experiences we have had that will be most precious to us.

Share Shopping Trips with a Neighbor

How many times a week do you go to the grocery, drug store or bank? Probably a lot if you are like everyone. It's only normal. Why not share these trips with neighbors? Maybe on Monday you go to the grocery and on Thursday your neighbor goes. Or you just call each other to see if you both need groceries.

The time and money savings would be enormous. Before long you will be sharing recipes or inviting each other over for dinner. It could be the start of something good in the neighborhood.

Hire a Local Student

That's right hire a neighbor's kid to do some things around your habitat. Maybe walk the dog or blow off your driveway. Most kids have good memories of mowing lawns for spending money and remember the neighbors that hired them

Kids are bored today and hiring them helps to boost their self-esteem. It also teaches them that work and pay go hand-in-hand.

It also has the benefit of giving you more free time to do what you would like which lowers stress and improves the quality of your life. A win-win situation for everyone.

De-clutter Your Habitat

Make sure you a have a place for everything and everything is in its place. How many times have you lost your keys or eyeglasses and lost your cool?

It also helps you to build pride in knowing where everything is and that you can find something quickly when it's needed.

When you simplify your life and reduce stress you live longer and enjoy a better life. There is nothing quite like having a life you look forward to. How about you? Is your life simple and on track?

Source: The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University www.casacolumbia.org