Bushido Code-The Warrior's Way of Life

Get Organized and Create More Quality Time

 Do you find yourself feeling tense and anxious for no apparent reason? I made a commitment to myself several years ago to try and determine what was causing me stress, and I finally realized that I was feeling chaos from my external environment. Imagine-my external world was causing my internal world to be confusing and chaotic. There’s an interesting connection between having a clean, uncluttered living space and having more clarity and focus mentally. There is a profound psychological thread that binds all areas of your existence into one distinctive unit. A messy house trashed with useless clutter is an abstract representation of many lives – also muddled with unnecessary debris that needs to be regrouped, set aside, hidden out of sight or, better yet, disposed of completely. Wasted thoughts, wasted energy and wasted time all add up to wasted money.

Create Harmony in Your Living Space

 Part of the Zen philosophy includes letting go of materialism and not being attached to things, and to focus on self-reliance. The Book of the Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi talks about “The Way of Walking Alone”, and lists several steps to maintain this perspective including “not carrying antiques handed down from generation to generation”. Though I love history and do enjoy hanging on to memorabilia, additional clutter was taking up to much of my space and time.

When it comes to getting organized, we’re our own worst enemies. We keep things because we persuade ourselves we’ll need them—even if we haven’t used them in five years and don’t quite know where we’ve put them. There seems to be a security factor in just knowing they’re around… somewhere.

What a great metaphor this is for mental hoarding. We hang on to habits we learn from our parents and grandparents, and much of our negative self-talk is learned from internalizing the comments of other people in our life. Certainly, it’s important to honor your parents and feel a sense of pride in your roots but self-reliance means we must become independent and confident with ourselves and what we represent. Security is not found in a dusty wooden chest tucked away in the corner of the attic, harmony is found when the chest is emptied of it’s contents and the air can flow freely through the inside of the box. By cleaning our external world of junk, we are able to cleanse our internal world (meaning our cluttered minds) and let go of the mental junk.  In any event, the day I decided to get rid of my “stuff” was an experience that I’ll never forget.

Japanese Clean

I’ve always been drawn toward Japanese culture because if it’s simplicity. The Japanese home is spacious and simple with objects and furniture that have a purpose rather than cluttering space. There’s a focus on balancing Yin and Yang, which is something we should pay careful attention to in all aspects of our lives. To learn more about Japanese living and interior design, check out Wade Robbins Ezine article. Japanese style home décor seems to incorporate a few artistic accents and is much more spacious than American style homes. Americans seem to havean attachment to memorabilia and collectibles to a point that we save way too much. It’s important to understand systems for maintaining cleanliness like the 5S system. The 5s philosophy focuses on effective workplace organization and standardized work procedures. It is based on five Japanese words that begin with S.There’s no reason why this workspace system can’t be applied to our living space at home. The Japanese words and there English versions include, Seiri (Sort), Seiton (Set in Order), Seiso (Shine), Seiketsu (Standardize), and Shitsuki (Sustain).

The 5S system helped me to maintain an organized clutter free home and consequently develop a freer more focused mind.

 

A spacious and clean home is not only visually aesthetic but also translates to a harmonious mind and spirit.

Begin to Simplify Your Life

Exercise: Clean your Home to a Level of  Japanese Clean

Start with one room and in one section at a time, so you don’t become overwhelmed. For instance, the top of a bureau or a closet are a great starting point. Take a large trash bag and fill the bag with anything that you have not used in more than six months. Survey the surface areas for memorabilia that’s taking up too much space. Is the closet filled with boxes that you haven’t opened for over a year? Do you know what’s in the boxes? Have you missed anything or did you forget you owned these items? Do you have a pile of old shoes you’ll never were again sitting in the dark corner of the closet?

Pick-up one item or piece of clothing from your closet and ask yourself if you really need this object to make you feel good. Does it have a purpose? I made a conscious effort to try and keep things that only have a purpose.  When our space is open and free of material objects that have no purpose or true meaning, we have fewer distractions and find a renewed energy.

Eveyone Pays the Toll on The Road of Life

Life is a toll road and everyone pays the toll in one way or another.  What this means is, in life, everything you do has its price.  Every action or choice you make throughout your existence has consequences or results that have a direct impact on who you are and the outcome of your life. The choices you make determine how you pay the toll on the road of life.

 Let me give you a few examples.

 Two Types of Lifestyle Choices and How Each Pays the Toll

 The “Couch Potato”

 Take the stereotypical “couch potato.” This person has a sedentary job, comes home with fast food, and watches the television until it’s time to go to bed. They’re overweight, get no exercise and they have no motivation, drive or ambition.

 This type of person pays their toll in several ways:

1. They squander their time. The time we’re allotted to spend on this earth is finite. We cannot buy, barter or steal any more time. Once it is used, we can’t get it back. The best we can do is to make the most of every moment. The couch potato wastes all of their time, never realizing its true value.
2. In addition, the person that lives this type of lifestyle pays the toll through poor heath. As I mentioned in my previous post, The Warrior’s Way of Life, one in three Americans are obese. Another study by the National Institute of Health shows that 65% of adults in this country are obese. The list of associated health risks with obesity is long and many of them are life threatening. According to the CDC, an estimated 300,000 premature deaths a year can be attributed to obesity. Some of the risks of obesity are listed below. Click on this link to Anne Collins’ website for more details on these health risks:
   •     Heart Disease
   •     Stroke
   •     Type 2 Diabetes
   •     Cancer
   •     Fatty Liver Disease
   •     Chronic Venous Insufficiency
   •     Deep Vein Thrombosis
   •     Arthritis
   •     Increased Health Risks for Expectant Mother and Baby
   •     Gallbladder Diseas
   •     Premature Death
3. Low self esteem and depression are another way that this type of person can pay the toll. American society places a high emphasis on physical appearance. Many obese people feel isolated and have a more difficult time advancing in their careers. Scientists have also found that excessive weight causes a chemical and hormonal imbalance that can lead to depression.

 The “Go-Getter”

 Now let’s look at the individual at the other end of the spectrum. The Stereotypical “go-getter”. This person typically is physically fit, has a high paying job or owns a successful business, drives a nice car and owns a big house. Most people believe that this type of person is “living the life” and typically has everything handed to them on a silver platter. They don’t believe that this person has ever paid a toll in their life.

 Let me show you how they do:

1. Just like the couch potato, the go-getter also pays the toll with their time. However, they use their time very differently than the couch potato. The go-getter invests their time into education and personal development. This person is generally the “A” student in school, they went to an Ivy League or tier one college, and continue to read, improve and educate themselves after college. Many work 12-15 hours per day! They are usually out of bed by 5:00 a.m. to workout because it’s the only time that fits their busy schedule.
2. Another way the go-getter pays the toll is through hard work and self discipline. They are continually setting goals and taking action to achieve them. They generally have the endurance to persevere where most would give up and quit. As their name suggests, the go-getter realizes that success is never given away, it is earned. Instead of waiting for good things in life to come to them, they go out and get them.

 You Can Choose How to Pay the Toll

 Both of the individuals in these examples have paid the toll in very different ways. The couch potato may have benefited from relaxation early on but was forced to pay the toll after with the price of poor health, low self esteem and an uneventful life. The second paid the toll up front through hard work and discipline and enjoyed success, health and prosperity later. Nevertheless, both paid the toll.

 “Life is a toll road and everyone pays the toll. However, you can choose how to you would like to pay!”

 Personal Action Exercises

• Take a look everyday at the choices you make in life. Decide if this is how you want to pays your toll. If it isn’t, resolve to make the necessary changes to pay the toll on your terms.
• From this day forward, decide exactly what it is you want from your life. Write down your goals and dreams and then decide how much they’re worth to you to achieve them. Then decide how you’ll pay the toll to get them.

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