The other day I was talking with an old friend of mine about “purpose” and what the word means to him in reference to life. His idea of purpose entails a successful career of choice, being financially free, and enjoying material wealth with an adoring family. In my opinion, his viewpoints were egocentric and absurd because if the basis of man’s existence is to work and enjoy material possessions then what shallow beings we are! Religions throughout the world may differ in their rituals, practices, and the name chosen to represent their deity, but what we can observe is that mostly all religions have a belief that there is something more to life than possession of objects. There is a supernatural power or powers that we must answer to and our role is to glorify it or them by living rightly.

There are many people living modest lives, relying merely on the basic necessities of life, which includes food, water, shelter, clothing and a support system that usually involves family or friends. If we were to ask them would they trade any of their necessities for something more, perhaps a million dollar yacht to sail the ocean or the latest Ferrari sports car, 9 out of 10, their answer would be “no”. The reason for this is because material wealth is not a necessity to live, to survive; therefore, it should not be our “purpose” for living.

Our purpose is to love God and each other as ourselves. Our love for God is expressed through actions, and when we engage in immoral acts, most of all, idolatry, the worship of someone or something other than God, we sabotage our relationship with God and tend to take on negative feelings of hopelessness and despair, as though the world is crumbling down on us. Think about the positive feelings that overwhelm us when we help someone in need, have a few laughs with a friend or relative or observe the beautiful landscapes of nature; joy, glee and peace of mind is what God intended for us to experience, they are expressions of love.

I want to share some links I came across while browsing for sites pertaining to religion and the meaning of life:

http://www.wcg.org/lit/spiritual/relationship.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life#cite_note-98

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him forever. God requires one to obey the revealed moral law saying: love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.”

After 10 years of procrastination, I am clearing my apartment of all accumulated clutter; this includes credit and bank statements, books in need of tape to mend worn pages, shoes once part of a crazed fad, and oversize clothes that I hope to never wear again. Similar to our internal organs and what we ingest, once we focus on eliminating things in our environment that hinder the full functioning capacity of our mind, only then can we have the assurance of good health and fortune.

Reduce Your Stress By Removing Clutter From Your life
By Abbas Abedi

You can gain time and energy in your life. This can be done by spending a few minutes each day making your life simpler. “Downsizing” your life a little at a time will lower stress and bring you a sense of satisfaction.

You may be wondering what do I mean by “Downsizing”? There are times in life when you need to get rid of things. Things that clutter your life. Things that no longer have value to you and your family.

We all have a tendency to collect more than we really need. Some of us are collectors to the extent that we have a totally cluttered life. Others have a neat life, but still have more than they need stored away in the depths of their closets.

Once a year we need to go through our closets, garages, dresser drawers and boxes stashed in the attic and find out what we can get rid of.

There is a saying, “Get rid of what you do not want to make room for what you do want”. If you were to follow this advice, you would find your life less cluttered than it ever has been, or at least less cluttered than it has been in a long time.

Collecting too many things begin to weigh our lives down with so much stuff that we cannot get out from under it. If you have to make isles in your garage or storage shed to get to things or worse yet, you have to make isles inside your home to get to things, you need to make a decision to start sorting through your belongings and get rid of things you KNOW you will never use again.

Do you save clothes in hope of returning to the size you were when you stored them? This clothing can add up to boxes and boxes of things that will be out of style by the time you actually can wear them again.

You local charities can use donations of clothing. They can use good clothes to sell in their thrift shop and to help clothe the needy. They can even use holey and moth eaten clothing which they bale and send off as rags.

Maybe you have boxes or cabinets with mismatched dishes. How about old silverware and utensils you no longer use. Put them all in the donation box.

Have you been saving books and magazines that you plan to read or re-read some time in the future. If you have not read them in the last three years, do you really think you will read then in the next three? It is unlikely. I know you are saving many of them as references. With the Internet, you have all the reference material you will ever need right at your fingertips. Get rid of books and magazines. Put them in the donation box.

If you really cannot stand to give things away because it all has value, have a garage sale. Make it a challenge to have tons of stuff at your sale. When it is over, take whatever does not sell and donate it to a charity. Promise yourself you will get rid of the leftovers.

To sum up clutter, it robs valuable time from your life. It takes away some of your life energy and makes you wonder how you will ever organize it all. Do not organize it all; get rid of a lot of it.

You can often save money by spending $3 at the store rather than spending three hours looking for something you know you have, but cannot find. You end up buying the lost item anyway.

Get rid of what you do not want to make room for what you do want! Your stress will decrease automatically.

Abbas Abedi CHt

If you are interested in natural techniques to reduce stress and anxiety in your life today, then sign up for my free eCourse titled, “4 Days to Break Free from a Stressful Lifestyle” at Instant Stress Management

Article Source: EzineArticles