More Than Enough: A Practical Guide to Living with Less with Miranda Anderson
This episode is about what it really means to be healthy and living a life of wellness by creating space for the things that matter to you.
More Than Enough: A Practical Guide to Living with Less
Whether you live in that place of more than enough on a daily basis, or it’s something you want more of in your life, this episode is for you.
This conversation with Miranda Anderson, author of More Than Enough, is about how to find that place when you know you have more than enough.
This episode is about what it really means to be healthy and live a well life by creating space for the things that matter to you.
Check out these other episodes on mindset and decluttering:
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Kate Northrup on doing less and having more
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Gretchen Rubin on simplifying and decluttering in real life
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Allie Casazza on achieving a calm mind and organized home with a family
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Elise Cripe on modifying your mindset to set better goals
I’ve also been working on putting together a library of free printables for simplifying made easy.
Check out the collection for a grocery list, prep list, and mix and match method.
It’s all about making this action-taking easier with mindset, habits, routines and creating a system for health and happiness that’s actually doable.
On what led Miranda to write More Than Enough:
Miranda’s book, More Than Enough, has been out for a while now and has had a chance to take on its own life.
This book came from the feedback Miranda got as her family experimented with minimalism.
For one year, they completed a challenge of not buying anything that wasn’t consumable.
Miranda had an ah-ha moment when she realized that they had more than enough stuff for a year, maybe longer. So they decided to just stop.
They went into it like an experiment.
After a few months, the questions Miranda was getting from her blog audience were about the logistics of how to make it work and how to recognize abundance in your own daily life.
Midway through the challenge, Miranda realized that this was a really good, interesting story that could go beyond her blog audience.
When she finally sat down to write the book, it was a few years later, so she was able to write about not only what that year-long challenge was like, but what happened after and how their lives had been fundamentally changed because of the experience they took on.
On feedback from readers:
Reading the book has helped people understand that they are in charge of their own lives.
In the book, Miranda talks about the process of choosing what mattered most to her family and then implementing it in a practical way that worked for them.
Every single one of us is different, and the things that light us up and matter most to us are different, so rather than trying to shape our lives to look like someone else’s, or even like what we think our’s should look like, we get to choose.
The book has helped people shake off the idea of what they think they should be doing and recognize that they get to choose.
Miranda discusses practical principles and ways to implement these ideas in a real, family-oriented life.
On mindset shifts to live a more intentional life:
It’s about accumulating less, but it’s really a mindset shift.
There are two major principles for Miranda:
1 | Abundance.
2 | Living in gratitude.
These both apply to anyone, anywhere, in any circumstance.
Abundance: this is the idea that enough is a decision.
There isn’t a certain amount of money in the bank that turns you from poor to rich.
There isn’t a particular square-footage of home that means you are successful.
There isn’t a particular brand of shoes or clothes that means you’ve made it.
We understand cognitively that these are all very subjective ideas, yet we continue to strive for more than what we have, rather than deciding that where we are is enough for today.
It keeps us in a continual state of discontent, as we are seeking more and more, feeling like what we have isn’t enough.
Miranda decided to pause that thought process, and immediately, as she and her family decided that they were not going to get any more random things for that year, her mind compensated by recognizing the things that she had as sufficient.
Nothing about the circumstance changed; the only thing that changed was her mind.
Rather than feeling this subtle discontent, she was filled with this idea of abundance.
They had to learn to practice and exercise it so that it became their default mindset.
“Our ability to have enough is only in our head.”
As they recognized their abundance, the automatic reaction was to feel grateful.
“The more that we feel grateful in our lives, the more joy we’re able to feel and the more fulfilled we’re able to feel.”
Negative bias: our brains are built to recognize when something is wrong and to put a lot of emphasis on it.
It was adaptive for the primitive brain, but we no longer need it in the strength that it is.
Gratitude and abundance training is about overcoming the idea that when one thing is wrong everything is wrong, by supporting all the things that are right.
Contentment vs. complacency:
It all comes back to attention.
For someone with a subtle discontent or feels like they aren’t successful, the reason that they pursue growth and progress is because of scarcity and a place of fear.
Contentment flip: you recognize your abundance and your enoughness, which creates a platform for joy and content and then you want to progress out of love.
Ultimately, it’s that you’re okay with the way you are right now, and you want to progress out of joy, love, and enthusiasm, enjoying the process.
On keeping what you value:
Unless you move often, your things just become part of your life without having them come out into the light very often.
What do you want your life to look like? What is your life filled with? What does it look like? How does it feel? Who is participating in it with you?
When you have a clearer idea of what you hope for as the highest version of your life, it’s a lot easier to handle something material and decide whether it fits into that life or not.
Miranda’s flow chart for deciding what fits:
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Do I love this?
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Would I buy this again today?
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Does it serve a purpose in my everyday life?
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Does it fit?
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Does it make me happy?
Because there is so much emotion tied up in belongings, Miranda recommends starting somewhere small, like a sock drawer or a junk drawer, where you aren’t confronting cherished childhood memories.
“As you create space by getting rid of things that don’t serve you right now in your life, you’re allowing the possibility, and in fact, inviting possibility, opportunity, and things that you do love.”
You can love something while also understanding that it doesn’t add value to your life right now.
At the same time, you can think something is beautiful and be really inspired by it, and not have to own it.
Tips and tactics for finding value:
The most important thing that you can learn is what you love and what feels right in your life.
Creating a capsule wardrobe
When she approached the idea of a capsule wardrobe, Miranda realized that she was already doing it, but she wasn’t getting rid of the extra.
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Pay attention: paying attention to what it is that we’re already using over and over again in our lives informs us as to the types of things we want to include in a capsule wardrobe.
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Let your life inform you: when it comes to getting new clothes, let your life inform you as to what she needs rather than letting the stores inform you as to what you need.
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Start with an assessment: it can be helpful to start with an assessment, without making changes, just to get a baseline of what you’re already doing on a regular basis.
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Check out Miranda’s podcast episode on the ins and outs of a capsule wardrobe and her free capsule wardrobe planner download
Routines and habits:
Right now, Miranda has consistency in what her days look like because all three of her kids are at the same school.
To take advantage of this year, she spent a lot of time planning a morning routine to get her day started.
The idea is to make choices ahead of time and set yourself up for success by layering automatic habits with new ones that you want to have.
The specific habits Miranda has in her morning routine:
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Miranda counts backward from when she knows she needs to be up so she knows what time she needs to be asleep by in order to get a full night of rest.
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She starts her morning with a Headspace meditation. Miranda capitalized on her habit of grabbing her phone first thing in the morning, but now instead of social media, she goes straight to the headspace app.
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She puts on running clothes and writes in her journal for about 10-minutes, and then she wakes her kids up at 7.
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Because she’s already in running clothes, after she walks her kids to school she is ready to go on a run or do a home workout.
She decides what she wants to happen ahead of time, and designs a system that enables it to happen.
“I am in the driver’s seat of my life.”
What’s lighting her up now:
Miranda has had a lot of opportunities to speak about her book and the principles in it.
She’s also holding a writing retreat in November.
Miranda is also working on a course to help people implement the principles discussed in her book into their lives
The tension between home and work life: it’s about evaluating the opportunities and the timing.
Miranda also makes sure to add extra family time before and after having to speak anywhere away from home.
She also involves her family in the preparation process for her presentations by practicing with them and getting their feedback.
“I want my kids to know that they don’t have to choose between being good parents and living their dreams, that they can do both.”
On what it really means to be healthy:
“I equate health with a feeling of wholeness, that means that I’m not only caring for myself physically but that I’m caring for myself mentally, that I’m taking care of my thoughts and doing my mind-work and setting myself up for success and seeing success in my present and my future. Health is just adding a level of intention to every area of my life… I love the idea of healthiness as wholeness and embodying every part of who we are and knowing that that’s all good and it’s all okay.”
Guest Bio
Miranda is an author, speaker, podcast host, and creative entrepreneur. Her popular self-development podcast Live Free Creative reaches thousands of women with practical tips and inspiration for a creative, adventurous, and intentional lifestyle. Miranda’s recently released book, More Than Enough, shares her experiences creating a lifestyle of abundance through a personal minimalism challenge. She lives with her husband, three kids, dog, and four chickens in Richmond, Virginia.
Resources
Want To Do Less & Have More? Here’s How with Kate Northrup
Inner Order, Outer Calm, & Decluttering with Gretchen Rubin
How to Declutter Everything with Allie Casazza
A Different Kind of Goal Setting for Big Dreams & Daily Joy with Elise Cripe
Feel Good Effect Free Printable Library
The Ins and Outs of a Capsule Wardrobe, from the Live Free Creative Podcast with Miranda Anderson
Capsule Wardrobe Planner free download
Connect with Miranda on Instagram @livefreemiranda
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