Resolving to Do Less

Most people who know me well know I’m a pretty avid knitter. I’ve been obsessed ever since I learned. If I’m sitting, I want to be knitting. So it really made me think when one of my favorite knitting podcasters, Laura from Penrose Knits, mentioned one of her knitting goals for 2023 was to knit less. (What? Why?!) Laura explained that she’d realized she needed to make more space and time in her life to focus on her mental and physical health in other ways like therapy and exercise. Even though she loved knitting, it was necessary to be intentional about knitting less in order to take the pressure off herself and leave more space in her life for health.

I’ve been thinking a lot about her example, which also stood out because her career is in knitwear design—an industry driven by pressure to put out new designs as fast as possible. Her candor on the toll our tendency to try to do too much can have on our physical and mental health gave me a fresh perspective on the kind of goals we tend to set for ourselves. I’ve more or less given up on things like New Year’s Resolutions, but I think a large part of why I typically don’t set many long-term goals anymore is that my resolutions have always been about doing more, having more, being more. And that always ended up feeling a bit overwhelming (and disappointing when I failed) no matter how “reasonable” I tried to make my goals. I’m not sure it ever occurred to me to have resolutions about what I might need to do less of in the coming year. What things I might need to give less space in my life to make room for less anxiety and more health.

It has me thinking about how much of spiritual growth could be summed up simply by—doing less.

Less self-reliance.

Less worrying about what we can’t control.

Less bitterness.

Less harsh self-criticism.

Less impatience.

Less of these things also opens our hearts and minds for more of other things—more trust, more patience, more peace. But I suspect for most of us doing less of the things that we realize aren’t healthy for ourselves or others is a less intimidating place to start. We can’t “will” ourselves into the place we want to be—but we can do a bit less of what’s harming us, freeing ourselves to be receptive to a life of grace.

Focusing on less also connects us to the truth at the heart of the gospel—that salvation and our experience of God is never something we achieve by our efforts. We grow closer to God through surrender and trust. Less of us, more of God flowing through us. Paradoxically, as we surrender we also find our truest selves, the people we want to be. People who reflect Christ in our own unique way. As C. S. Lewis has said, “The more we get what we call ourselves out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of ‘little Christs,’ all different, will still be too few to express Him fully.” ¹ As we learn to do less and leave room for God to do more, we experience more of his unconditional, limitless love.

–Written by Monica La Rose. Used by permission from the author.

¹ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. (New York: Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster, 1996), p. 190.