WELCOME TO MY 6-WEEK SERIES ON REST! Today’s post gives you 7 simple ways to add breathing room to your busy life.

Here are the first post and the second post in the series in case you missed them.

Is this your life? Laundry overflows. Bills pile. You’re out of milk. Out of time. And going out of your mind?

Then your life is on OVERLOAD. The good news, you can add room to breathe into your life. How? It’s called margin. Everyone needs it. I do. In fact I did something kind of crazy to get me moving in the right direction. I’ll tell you about it in a sec.

So How Do You Breathe Again?

There are many simple ways to add back margin and live a life of rest, resulting in physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial peace. Here are seven ideas.

1. Speak slower. Walk slower. Drive slower. In every way imaginable, SLOW DOWN.

2. Plan FREE TIME in your daily schedule. On purpose have nothing to do for a half-hour here and a half-hour there. Spend it in anyway that feeds your soul: watching birds, taking a nap, playing tic-tac-toe with your child or a friend.

3. Enjoy anticipation. STOP CALENDAR CONGESTION, and space out events like weekend trips months in advance. This way you and your family can enjoy looking forward to your get-away.

4. Decrease spending. Ideas: Make NO IMPULSE PURCHASES. Put a moratorium on eating out for a month. Buy grocery items that are on sale or use a coupon. Do not pay retail, ever.

5. BORROW a tool from a neighbor, and let your neighbor borrow your tools, including scrap-booking gadgets.

6. TURN OFF THE TV for a week or a month. (The average American watches 30 hours of TV a week. Imagine the free time, friend.) Is an entire week without TV too wild to handle? Then pick one day a week to fast from TV. OR, you could unplug for a day or a weekend: no Facebook, no Twitter, no email, no cell phone.

7. Envision A BETTER FUTURE. We all need a purpose bigger than ourselves to live for. You need a heavenly perspective, especially as the world tries to convince you that you’re a loser if you don’t drive this type of car or send your children to that fancy preschool or own this latest technological gadget. Your choice: to live for temporal things or to adopt a godly vision–for your family, for your community, and for the Kingdom.

A Reason You ARE Overloaded

. . .and margin-less.

Adjusting for inflation, real income in America has stayed flat for 40 years while real expenses — especially medical costs — have increased steadily. The good news, you can go retro. You know, tap into your inner rebel. . .and have rest.

You can make a crazy decision like mine: to buy NO clothes or shoes or purses during 2012. We’re five months in, and I haven’t bought a thing, except socks. I am “fasting” from new clothes for a reason other than saving money: to save time.

When I said “No” to new clothes-shoes-purses, I gained the time I would have wasted looking for deals or for a new cute something to wear. And I like my new time. I feel refreshed. Not always, but more than before.

What about you? Have you tried any of the 7 ideas at the top? Did you feel less stressed?

If you’re serious about regaining margin, read the book by Richard A. Swenson, M.D., first published twenty years ago. He has since revised it. You can see it here.

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 With Joy Overflowing!