Subtracting is the New Addition

What can we add to our lives by subtracting? When I think about getting after it, setting goals, training or pursuing a dream, it’s common to see strategies that require addition. Whether developing a new skill or acquiring another tool, the language insinuates that the work requires more. I argue that this point is valid but partial in that the work of adding to our lives often requires more of less.

What happens if we just sit there for a while, staring at a wall? What happens if we have no to-do list today? What happens if we intentionally aim for more of less? Does that sound a bit daunting on a Monday morning?

In the act of subtraction, of removing, of shedding, we can begin to connect with our resilient core of being, tending to it more regularly. We can discover what the most intimate experience of being alive is. We can actually touch this soft, tender yet magnificently strong center of existence that can withstand anything that comes its way. Because the work isn’t in trying on new outfits until you find one that fits. The work is in stripping away all layers and feeling your most whole. The more we work in that direction, the more easily it will feel to build a fulfilling life. So yes, I’m encouraging you to stand outside without a phone, take a walk without music, open your eyes first thing in the morning and just lie there, and touch the quiet more often in order to tune into the frequency of harmony that lives beneath all the noisy layers. How does THAT add to your life?

When we subtract more, we can connect more easily. We connect to ourselves with less effort and we get closer to what surrounds us more seamlessly. Like Mark Nepo describes so astutely, “our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world but to unglove ourselves” so that we may have a more direct encounter with the experience in front of us. Shed so you can feel more. See more, hear more, sense more, taste more and subtract more to get there.