Soulful Simplicity Book Review

Today I am sharing the Soulful Simplicity book review. Each month of the year I am picking a simple living themed book to read and review. For the month of February I read Soulful Simplicity by Courtney Carver. This book is extremely inspiring and up lifting. Soulful Simplicity teaches us that simple living is more than just decluttering you home.

Watch the Soulful Simplicity Book Review Here:

Soulful Simplicity

This book is about how “living with less can lead to living with so much more.” – Courtney Carver. This story is all about how Courtney became overwhelmed with debt, her job, and a disease she was diagnosed with. She says this was her “wake up call”. I can completely relate to her story because I also had a wake up call before I decided to start simplifying.

She talks about how you don’t need a major reason or serious wake up call, but there is probably a reason why you are wanting to simplify your life. I know my wake up call was when I became a stay at home mom. As my kids became older I became more and more overwhelmed with all the toys, clothes and everything else that comes with taking care of a family. Once I was completely fed up with the consistent mess is when I finally started to reevaluate how I was living. I started to think about how much stuff we really needed in our house.

Shopping

One of her chapters is called shopping away the pain. There are so many different reasons why people shop. Maybe you actually need something, but a lot of the time I think we shop to fill a void. Her book goes into why she was shopping and how she changed that habit. I can completely relate to this because when I became a stay at home mom I felt very bored. Going from a full time job to being at home with no adult interaction was very hard. In order to leave the house I would go shopping, even if it was just to browse the aisles of Target. Inevitably when you are in a store you will normally find something to buy even if it’s not needed.

It is the feeling that you want to go do something, but not knowing what to do. So you shop. Shopping isn’t necessarily the problem, but the stuff that comes home with you and the money spent is the problem. All that stuff eventually turns into clutter. Soulful Simplicity gives you some great inspiration to stop shopping and start living.

Habits

There is a whole section about morning routines and how to form new habits by habit stacking. When I first started decluttering I really wanted the benefits of simplicity. I wanted to spend less time cleaning and organizing and more time having fun. Without really knowing I was habit stacking, I started to change my habits. I would form a new habit with a routine I was already doing. For instance every morning when I wake up, I now make my bed immediately. I am already getting up so I might as well make the bed really quick before I leave the room.

By tidying the whole room before I leave I know I don’t have to come back to a mess and I can move on with my day.

Busy

The busy boycott! In one section of the book Courtney goes into how to avoid using the word busy. She suggests we should avoid the word busy as a response to a question and linger longer. After reading this section I started implementing some of her suggestions. Now when I am doing something with my kids I try not to rush them. I have also taken the tip of lingering longer to heart. When I wake up in the morning I get up slowly. After dinner I try to sit and relax rather than jump up and start doing the dishes.

I have realized there are so many ways we can slow our lives down and quit feeling like we are always in a rush.

JOMO

JOMO stands for the joy of missing out. Everyone always talks about FOMO (the fear of missing out), but what we need to embrace is JOMO. She says it is ok to want to miss out. This really resonated with me because I like to be alone, not all the time, but yes being alone is great. Sometimes it is nice to miss out on one thing to be able to relax and have some quiet time alone.

Simple Living

This book goes into how to declutter with very simple actionable tips. Her approach is very slow and calm, not ripping your home apart. I love this book because it gives you tips on how to slow life down and really enjoy every moment. This is a great book for someone who is just starting down the road of decluttering and minimalism and it can also help someone who has been on this journey for a while.

Have you read this book? Comment below with what you thought.

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