{"id":2182,"date":"2011-10-05T12:26:03","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T16:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/?p=2182"},"modified":"2011-10-05T12:26:03","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T16:26:03","slug":"can-less-mean-more-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/10\/can-less-mean-more-happiness.html","title":{"rendered":"Can Less Mean More Happiness?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You know I&#8217;m a fan of <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2011\/03\/the-importance-of-being-creative.html\">TED Talks<\/a>. These mini lectures can be very interesting and inspiring. This one caught my eye.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2011\/10\/moving.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"can less mean more happiness?\" width=\"220\" height=\"165\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2183\" \/><\/a>Have you considered having less stuff? I mean, really downsize your life? I agree with this speaker that our lives have become quite overgrown. We have so much stuff and then we need big homes to keep all this stuff. Yet, somehow, we&#8217;re not happier.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve touched on this <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2011\/05\/the-spiritual-side-of-cleaning-your-room.html\">once before<\/a> after reading Gretchen Rubin&#8217;s life-changing book <em>The Happiness Project<\/em>. A good <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2011\/05\/the-spiritual-side-of-cleaning-your-room.html\">housecleaning<\/a> can clear the space both physically and spiritually. <\/p>\n<p>Any way, take a look at this video.<\/p>\n<p><center><!--copy and paste--><object width=\"526\" height=\"374\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\"\/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><param name=\"bgColor\" value=\"#ffffff\"><\/param><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talk\/stream\/2011U\/Blank\/GrahamHill_2011U-320k.mp4&#038;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/GrahamHill_2011U-embed.jpg&#038;vw=512&#038;vh=288&#038;ap=0&#038;ti=1238&#038;lang=eng&#038;introDuration=15330&#038;adDuration=4000&#038;postAdDuration=830&#038;adKeys=talk=graham_hill_less_stuff_more_happiness;year=2011;theme=new_on_ted_com;theme=a_taste_of_ted2011;theme=what_makes_us_happy;event=TED2011;tag=Culture;tag=Design;tag=happiness;tag=media;tag=shopping;&#038;preAdTag=tconf.ted\/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/video.ted.com\/assets\/player\/swf\/EmbedPlayer.swf\" pluginspace=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" bgColor=\"#ffffff\" width=\"526\" height=\"374\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" allowScriptAccess=\"always\" flashvars=\"vu=http:\/\/video.ted.com\/talk\/stream\/2011U\/Blank\/GrahamHill_2011U-320k.mp4&#038;su=http:\/\/images.ted.com\/images\/ted\/tedindex\/embed-posters\/GrahamHill_2011U-embed.jpg&#038;vw=512&#038;vh=288&#038;ap=0&#038;ti=1238&#038;lang=eng&#038;introDuration=15330&#038;adDuration=4000&#038;postAdDuration=830&#038;adKeys=talk=graham_hill_less_stuff_more_happiness;year=2011;theme=new_on_ted_com;theme=a_taste_of_ted2011;theme=what_makes_us_happy;event=TED2011;tag=Culture;tag=Design;tag=happiness;tag=media;tag=shopping;&#038;preAdTag=tconf.ted\/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;\"><\/embed><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n<p>What do you think? I love the idea of &#8220;edit ruthlessly&#8221;. We hold on to too much stuff, acquire even more and expand our spaces to accommodate so much that we don&#8217;t need. Let&#8217;s try this &#8220;less is more&#8221; approach and see how much happiness we can let in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You know I&#8217;m a fan of TED Talks. These mini lectures can be very interesting and inspiring. This one caught my eye. Have you considered having less stuff? I mean, really downsize your life? I agree with this speaker that our lives have become quite overgrown. We have so much stuff and then we need&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4,197,20,6,26],"tags":[419,237,194,418,37],"class_list":["post-2182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happier-you","category-inspiring-messages","category-inspiring-video","category-something-to-think-about","category-thought-to-ponder","category-well-being","tag-graham-hill","tag-gretchen-rubin","tag-happiness","tag-ted-talks","tag-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can Less Mean More Happiness?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/10\/can-less-mean-more-happiness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can Less Mean More Happiness?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You know I&#8217;m a fan of TED Talks. These mini lectures can be very interesting and inspiring. This one caught my eye. Have you considered having less stuff? I mean, really downsize your life? I agree with this speaker that our lives have become quite overgrown. We have so much stuff and then we need&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/10\/can-less-mean-more-happiness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-05T16:26:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/files\/2011\/10\/moving.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jennifer E. Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can Less Mean More Happiness?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2011\/10\/can-less-mean-more-happiness.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Can Less Mean More Happiness?","og_description":"You know I&#8217;m a fan of TED Talks. These mini lectures can be very interesting and inspiring. This one caught my eye. Have you considered having less stuff? I mean, really downsize your life? I agree with this speaker that our lives have become quite overgrown. 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Jones","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/538\/5388855270a03493105edfa3ec01cb16x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/538\/5388855270a03493105edfa3ec01cb16x96.jpg","caption":"Jennifer E. Jones"},"description":"Jennifer E. Jones is a writer, editor and Web producer. She has written for entertainment, trade and inspirational organizations for nearly 15 years. She has a Master of Education and a Master of Journalism degree from Regent University. 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