The following constraints have given me more freedom with my time, money, and energy:

• Budgeting every dollar. All impulse purchasing has screeched to a halt. I can’t recommend it enough.
• Eating like a dog. Eat pretty much the same things everyday, cheap, quick, real, whole, and healthy but still delicious (think eggs on toast, soup…)
• Dressing for my body. Learning my shape and what looks good on it, sticking to that and forgetting everything else/trends.
• Removing the phone from my hand. Our phones are a portal to a world of human suffering and despair. I put it in greyscale and keep it in a very inconvenient place. Notifications off.
• Exercising several times a week. Best anti-depressant out there. The more I go the better I feel.
• Ruthlessly ridding my life of noise and pointless stuff. Clothes I don’t wear are gone. Products I don’t use regularly are gone. Browser tabs are closed. Apps are deleted. Ambitious projects like learning that language I always thought I’d learn are let go of. Reduce as much plastic as possible.
• Slowing down. Much easier said than done. Even though it seems like I don’t have any time, I actually know I have the time I need for everything important, I just can’t procrastinate or try to do too much (see previous bullet.) So I move slow and do nice things for myself.

Reality is shy—it only reveals itself to those who, like honest scientists, do not wish it to be something else.

Wanting to be understood by others, or not wanting to contradict ourselves and our established identity—these are major blockers to unfolding.

Relying on craft and routine is a lot less sexy than being an artistic genius. But it is an excellent strategy for not going insane.

“You know, there’s a philosopher who says, “As you live your life, it appears to be anarchy and chaos, and random events, non-related events, smashing into each other and causing this situation or that situation, and then, this happens, and it’s overwhelming, and it just looks like what in the world is going on ? And later, when you look back at it, it looks like a finely crafted novel. But at the time, it don’t.”
― Joe Walsh

Never let the facts get in the way of the truth.

And be brave enough to say no, I don’t want a situationship, I want to know someone; I want to be known. I won’t put up with a love that’s disloyal or unkind or half-hearted, because I believe in something more. I don’t want endless options, the world at my fingertips. I want the world to fall away except for one person.