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Have you ever thought about what you used to do before you had the internet, email and cell phones? Do you remember what it was like before there were answering machines? Some of you are too young, but others of us remember needing to be at home to answer the phone!
In the “old days” (1980) we didn’t have a cordless phone. When we were talking to our friends or significant other, we hid in a bathroom or a closet, with the phone cord precariously stretched beyond its limits. We spoke in a hushed tone, hoping no one was listening to us outside the door, like a younger sibling!
When we stayed out too late, our parents had no way of finding us, beyond calling every friend we had and grilling them for information.
Now, with all of this new technology, we can chat with a friend while we cruise around Walmart. We can check email from almost anywhere, and we are never away from the “techno-clutter” called progress.
What if we fasted from technology one day a week? What if for one 24 hour period each week, you let the machine pick up the cell phone ring, and left your laptop off. What if we took it one step further, and didn’t watch TV for that 24 hour period either?
How would it feel to be totally technologically “blind”? I have had that opportunity a few times over the last 5 years. We own a small cabin in a valley that has no TV, cell phone or internet reception. When you are at the “shack” you are essentially limited to an adult contemporary radio station and old VHS movies. Life goes on outside the valley, while you blissfully sit there, unaware….
It is a challenge for the first day. I sense my emails piling up and I worry that something terrible may have happened to someone I know or love. I drive to the top of the hill periodically to see if I have any messages. Then a sense of calm starts to overcome me. I remember that there are two neighbors down the way with landlines. If something happened, family would call them to relay a message, or someone would come down and let me know what was happening.
By day 3, I am not even thinking about the thousand emails in my inbox, most of which are junk anyway. I am also blissfully unaware of the chaos of the modern world. I have been watching old movies, reading books and walking miles without noise or interruption.
When I get home, the first thing I do is to check the email! I do this even before taking a shower or peeing in the flush toilet (did I mention, we don’t have running water or indoor plumbing at the cabin either?).
Simplicity at its best is found at the cabin. No email, tv, cell phones or anything mechanical that can break….we love our technology, but taking periodic breaks can be like clearing your mind…
Can you give it a try? Take 24 hours and turn it all off….listen to the silence…
yogajen
A few months ago, I emailed my husband and said “We have more money than we have ever had in our lives, and I am more unhappy than I have ever been.” I needed to make a change in my life and I needed to do it then.
Money was not buying the happiness that society professes it will. We still weren’t making tons of money, but we, between us, were making a comfortable living, spending little time at home, and spending most of the time stressed out, tired and depressed. This change would cut our income in half. Although I would still be teaching yoga and working on marketing some products I feel strongly about, but for the short term, it would make a difference in our standard of living. I took the leap! You can read back at some old posts to see the progression!
This morning, I ran across an article that we should all read at Joyful Hope.
Our internal happiness and our external self are not related! You can be the most beautiful person in the world to others, but unless you feel that way about yourself, you don’t see it. You can have great wealth and be miserable, or you can have little financial wealth and be internally very happy. Now of course there is a minimal standard of material wealth that we need in order to survive in this country. We need to have a roof over our heads, food in our bellies and clothing to wear. Beyond that, it is all “luxury” to much of the rest of the world.
So what really buys us happiness? Working on our internal selves through self study, yoga, meditation, walking, reading…whatever helps you to find that peace within yourself to love yourself and to let yourself be loved by others. It is so important to remember how wonderful we each are! In our own way, we each offer so much to the universe…once you start to love yourself, you will be amazed at what will start to manifest in your life!
Have a great Friday!
yogajen
p.s. Thanks Freda for hooking me up with this article….
Simplicity….it is a philosophy I have toyed with over the years. Tonight we start our simplicity circle, to help to start to better define what simplicity truly means to each of our little group of 10.
Simplicity means different things to different people. To me, it means being able to work less, having more time to do the things I enjoy. The funny thing is, that many of the things I enjoy, technically ARE work, as I bring in an income by doing them. So, simplicity I guess then is doing the things you love, and living on the proceeds of those things.
After leaving my full-time employment on June 12th, our income will for a brief period be less than 1/2 what it was when I was working full-time. I intend to supplement that almost immediately with more yoga teaching, perhaps adding a class or two. I also intend to brush up on my violin playing and teaching skills, perhaps offering classes to little ones and maybe playing at a wedding or two.
I also intend to continue to help people find wellness through fitness, proper eating and supplementation. This will become my livelihood, my business and my income. It will be smaller than I was making, but much more fulfilling to me.
Living on less means giving up some of the luxuries in life, like $3 coffee and dinner out. It also means having the time to sip a leisurely cup of coffee while reading the morning paper, or putting a roast in the crockpot at noon to be savored later in the day.
Living on less means buying clothes at a thrift shop rather than at the store. It also means having hours to scour the racks at the local Goodwill if needed to find that perfect pair of jeans.
Living on less means that vacations have become more local events, like hanging out at the cabin on a random Wednesday, just because the sun was shining, or walking around the lake with a good friend, and stopping to watch the baby ducks cross the path with their mom. Gone are the flights to Mexico for 2 days, while you worry about how much work will have piled up while you were gone…hmmm….I think the walk and the cabin sound better, what do you think??
So, yes, there are trade-offs, but in my opinion, the trade offs are worth it. Not everyone will think so, and that is fine. If you want $400 suits and trips to Cancun, have fun! I will be here, sipping coffee, reading the paper and wearing my garage sale jeans….
have a great day!
jennifer
oh, and if you want to workout at home, take a look at Beachbody or if you need a really good multivitamin check out Natures Sunshine Do you need a little more individual guidance to get a plan together? Visit me at http://www.yogafitnesswellness.com and find a class or individual training session!
Ok, once you take the big leap, things need to change a bit on the finance front. No longer can you just stop at the local coffee shop for a fill up whenever you get the coffee bug, nor can you just wander through the grocery store putting every little thing your heart desires into your cart.
During our lean years, when the kids were young, I had become the master grocery shopper, spending minimal amounts of money, while still feeding the family well. The basics, I would stock up on when they were on sale, things like pasta sauce, noodles, canned tuna, beans, rice and such. Then, I shop the sales to put together awesome meals.
I will be cooking more at home obviously as well, so the basics will change a bit, adding back in potatoes, onions, peppers and those things used to put together basic meals. Anyway, today I started back to the old shopping ways, going to the store with my basic recipes in my head, and no list. This is the key! A list, unless it was created from the sales flyers, and leaves room for deals, will kill you at the grocery store. You will easily spend double what you will spend with my method if you take a list and stick to it.
So here we go! Today, I spent $29.01 including $2.40 worth of coupons, one for chicken, a free container of yogurt and $1.00 off the same batch of yogurt. I purchased the following items for $29.01:
4 lbs of chicken breasts
2 bags of lettuce
10 containers of yogurt
onion and peppers
cantelope and bananas
2 boxes of organic frozen waffles
1 lb of cheese
lg jar of baby dill pickles
garbanzo beans
2 pkgs of soft baked chocolate chip cookies
2 bottles of ranch dressing
gallon of soy milk
18 eggs
baking cocoa
I am currently cooking up the 4 lbs of chicken with the onions and pepper, which will be used to make chicken salad, and mexican chicken for tacos, as well as being used for salad topping. I already had a package of taco shells from a coupon last week, so I can use those up.
Daily breakfasts will be either 2 frozen waffles, with syrup and cantelope or oatmeal with raisins(basics that I always have). I will also do some protein shakes either for breakfast or lunch with the soymilk and bananas.
Snacks can be fruit or yogurt and I will be making a pan of chocolate muffins with the cocoa and some of my other basics, using some applesauce I found in the fridge to keep them low fat and healthy for me!
Lunch is always a salad with either chicken, boiled egg, tuna or garbanzo beans and some cheese. I make my own salad dressing or can use some salsa or a bit of the ranch dressing I bought.
Dinner is generally simple around here, since I teach yoga at 6, but being home, I can now put on some potatoes and a venison roast, and they can round it out with a frozen veggie or a salad. I can have a 1/2 of a chicken salad sandwich with some fruit or some pasta with sauce. I am not a big meat eater, so the chicken will keep me in meat for the entire week, plus feed the boys at least once!
So, for a small amount of money per week, you can eat well and healthy. I will probably need to pick up a couple of things during the week like milk, bread and possibly some snack items, but I am going to go back to the $50-$70 per week plan for groceries.
I am excited to start the challenge to see how little I can spend and we still eat well!
yogajen
