Dec 21, 2023 - Surrendering the non-essential
Self-help advice from 1899, simplicity, sacrifice, and stretching your upper back
Welcome to Climb Today’s Mountain!
In this series, I compile wisdom from other writers and historical figures on how to improve your mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and relational fitness. I provide a key takeaway and actionable steps that you can take today, this week, and this month to improve your life, starting now!
Last week’s topic: Spiritual adaptability in the midst of hardship
Adventure novelist, Jack London
Neck and back mobility exercise for better posture
This week’s topic: Surrendering the non-essential
American editor and pioneering self-help writer, William George Jordan
“Wall Downdog” stretch to loosen upper back muscles
Surrendering the non-essential
Simplicity is the elimination of the non-essential in all things. It reduces life to its minimum of real needs; raises it to its maximum of powers. Simplicity means the survival,—not of the fittest, but of the best. In morals it kills the weeds of vice and weakness so that the flowers of virtue and strength may have room to grow. Simplicity cuts off waste and intensifies concentration. It converts flickering torches into searchlights.
No character can be simple unless it is based on truth—unless it is lived in harmony with one’s own conscience and ideals. Simplicity is the pure white light of a life lived from within. It is destroyed by any attempt to live in harmony with public opinion. Public opinion is a conscience owned by a syndicate,—where the individual is merely a stockholder. But the individual has a conscience of which he is sole proprietor. Adjusting his life to his own ideals is the royal road to simplicity. Affectation is the confession of inferiority; it is an unnecessary proclamation that one is not living the life he pretends to live.
Let us seek to cultivate this simplicity in all things in our life. The first step toward simplicity is “simplifying.” The beginning of mental or moral progress or reform is always renunciation or sacrifice. It is rejection, surrender or destruction of separate phases of habit or life that have kept us from higher things. Reform your diet and you simplify it; make your speech truer and higher and you simplify it; reform your morals and you begin to cut off your immorals. The secret of all true greatness is simplicity. Make simplicity the keynote of your life and you will be great, no matter though your life be humble and your influence seem but little. Simple habits, simple manners, simple needs, simple words, simple faiths,—all are the pure manifestations of a mind and heart of simplicity.
Simplicity is never to be associated with weakness and ignorance. It means reducing tons of ore to nuggets of gold. It means the light of fullest knowledge; it means that the individual has seen the folly and the nothingness of those things that make up the sum of the life of others. He has lived down what others are blindly seeking to live up to. Simplicity is the sun of a self-centred and pure life,—the secret of any specific greatness in the life of the individual.
excerpt from Self Control, Its Kingship and Majesty, by William George Jordan
Takeaway
“Simplicity is the elimination of the non-essential in all things.”
I recently went an entire month without any form of social media (except Substack). Like many people, I have a smartphone addiction. It’s easy to waste an entire hour switching between apps on my phone, watching silly videos and catching up with the people I follow on Instagram. If I do this every day for a few weeks, picking up my phone as soon as I am bored feels like second nature. Taking a month off felt a little scary, but I knew I needed a clean break. I wanted more simplicity in my life.
I’ve argued to myself for a long time that there’s nothing wrong with taking a few minutes break to be entertained on social media. After all, a YouTube video is shorter than watching an entire movie, and I learn a lot about my hobbies on Instagram. Why shouldn’t I be able to use these platforms in a positive way?
Social media is designed to be addictive, and unless we actively search out specific content, we are passively receiving what the algorithm feeds us. It shows us a cute cat video, and we laugh. Scroll down a bit more and we feel anger when we see a horrific news story or disliked politician. In one thirty-minute session on our phones, we may have cycled through every emotion—anger, amusement, rage, happiness, resentment, fear—but we cannot take any action on these emotions, except to scroll deeper. If the actions of your spouse, child, or friend made you rebound between anger and happiness in the span of seconds, would you still respond so passively?
I felt instant relief from the emotional yoyoing as soon as I stopped using social media. Within a few days I picked up books that I was “too busy to read” before, and I started writing for Modern Woman in Recovery every morning before work. Removing the non-essential from my life gave me freedom to pursue the goals that I’ve had for many years. It seemed almost too easy, but I needed a clean break from the object of my addiction to see that the potential for creativity and self-actualization lay completely within my control.
I’m willing to bet that most people reading this have some kind of technology-related addiction that may be holding you back from reaching your potential self. From one smartphone addict to another, I’ll give some ideas on how you can eliminate the non-essential from your life and pursue simplicity.
Application
In this moment: What non-essential thing are you addicted to? Don’t give in to feelings of shame; just be honest with yourself. Write down in your journal the name of the thing you are addicted to, and then write down the feelings that arose when you named that thing.
In this week: Schedule a block of time in which you will not use the thing you are addicted to. It should be long enough that you have time for self reflection and to see the benefits of its absence. A full week should be the minimum time you spend without it, but set a definite end date.
Tell everyone that you are cutting that thing out of your life. Encourage others to hold you accountable.
Counter your feelings of anxiety by reminding yourself that withdrawal from the object of addiction is bound to occur, and that you will live through it.
Don’t be surprised when you feel like you don’t know what to do with your hands as soon as you remove that addicting technology from your daily routine. Embrace the opportunity to catch up on tasks you’ve had waiting on the back burner.
In this month: Pay close attention to your actions and feelings once you’ve become accustomed to the addicting activity or technology being gone. What moved in to replace it? Do you find yourself more or less present in the moment as you’re going about your day? Have you been able to spend more time working on meaningful tasks or hobbies? How has this impacted your relationships with your family or friends?
If you find that removing that addicting activity or technology from your life has helped you be more focused and productive, consider scheduling more weeks or months without it. Maybe you can even get rid of it permanently!
Share your progress!
Stiff upper back? Try this stretch
Wall Downdog
Difficulty level: easy
There are a lot of variations to this stretch, but this one is my favorite. It stretches stiff muscles in the shoulders, traps, and chest, and it helps relieve a lot of tightness after a long day.
Stand facing a wall and place your palms flat against it. Bend forward at the waist and move your feet backwards a few steps, while dragging your hands slowly down the wall. Stop when you feel a good stretch. Breathe deeply and focus on lowering your chest towards the floor while keeping your hands in position. Hold for 30 seconds.
Watch this video to see the stretch performed.
Let us know how you put this week’s ideas into practice. Have a great weekend!