UNITED STATES—It is said that “Most of the things we are stressed about, are the things we choose to do.” For many of us, life is a struggle. For others, they seem to breeze by without a care in the world. Sometimes we think of those living a charmed life must be “lucky” or have all their ‘ish’ together. The simple truth is that many of us create problems for ourselves that don’t really need to happen because we are too busy trying to keep up with the Jones’ or we strive to do too much at one time.

Many of our issues are self-created. This doesn’t mean that problems do not exist in the world, such as war, famine, disease, etc. Instead, many of us are stressed out about our own problems, such as jobs, our kids, how to pay the mortgage, whether or not we will have a five-star dining experience for guests on Christmas, whether that person likes us or not. These things are not intrinsically the problem, the issue is making them bigger issues than they actually are because when it comes down to it, if you’re not happy on the inside, nothing will fill up that void.

The mind is the most powerful tool in the universe and whatever you think about yourself or others, will come to pass. If you think you’ll never land your dream job, you probably won’t. If you think that you’re too ugly to get married, you likely won’t. It’s easy to give up in defeat, but once we set the tone to be the best we can be, great things can happen.

Not worrying about tomorrow, living in the here and now and being mindful of what you have is what living simply is about. Cultivating joy in a world full of chaos is what makes life worth living. We hear bad news everyday, but there is just as much positive news out there as well. We are all powerful creatures, capable of greatness and when we learn to live it, we will see great changes in our lives.

Being everything to everyone, pretending you’re something you’re not to save face and going above and beyond when your cup is full, is what makes life less enjoyable. Living simply should be something we all strive to do, even in a modern world beset with technology and “me-ness.”

Living simply means removing the junk from our lives and getting to what makes life truly delicious.