When I first take on a coaching client, one of the questions I ask them is “What do you want to lose?” This might be material possessions, as in having a major de-cluttering and recycling session. A little less obvious, but often just as important, are the other items that they might have on their list of things that no longer serve them, such as:
- a relationship
- a belief that they have about themselves
- an unhelpful habit
- a job they no longer enjoy
- a commitment
- a concern
And there can be many others that surface with some further deep reflection.
In some ways this might sound like a miserable exercise as it can lead us to dwell on all those things that we don’t like about our lives. Turn that around and the positive face of letting go is what we’re left with as a result of clearing out the debris – some clear space! This might take the form of “spare time”, something many people only ever glimpse once in a blue moon! Or, it might be some cash, or feelings of renewed energy and joie de livre or tranquillity.
So, to motivate ourselves to let go, it can help to visualise first, to really feel, conjure up, imagine, what the positive, empowering results of our letting go will be. This is the inspiration we can use to fuel our efforts.
The other positive result of this exercise is that it often results in us being far better in touch with what matters most to us in life, aside from earning a living. This is a great point from which to begin to modify how we’re living our lives. Those priorities and values that we unearth become the guiding forces that keep us on track on our journey to a more sustainable way of life.
“To live more simply is to live more purposefully and with a minimum of needless distraction.” Duane Elgin
1. Reducing materialism. Voluntary simplicity is not the same as austerity. Rather, it is about living with less so as to free ourselves from the burdens of materialism.( i.e. Everything we own needs some maintenance, time and money to be spent on it.)
2. Being authentic. Voluntary Simplicity is about finding a way of life that is more in keeping with what we authentically value, rather than what we believe will win the approval of others, through ownership or status for example. This involves being in touch with our values and purpose and organising our lives around this, whilst minimising the intrusion of distractions.
3. Balanced, purposeful work. We can work simply and with purpose by being employed in work that’s meaningful for us, offers us some autonomy and that’s in balance with the rest of our lives. This is most likely to result in high self-esteem and self-respect.
4. Relationship and community. Voluntary simplicity stresses relationship and community, consideration for others and for the consequences of our actions.
5. Descriminating between scarcity and abundance. To live in voluntary simplicity we need to know the difference between what is scarce in life and what is abundant. For example, scarcity of external material resources – oil, top soil for growing food, woodland, metals and minerals are the result of living unsustainably. Yet there is an abundance of love, friendship, caring, joy and happiness potentially available to us as these come from within.
6. Interconnection. Simplicity is one of the conditions for an understanding of our interconnectedness with all things. Realising our interconnectedness can lead to contentment and meaning in life.
7. Healthy psyche. Voluntary simplicity leads to clearness of vision and a sense of freedom with less complexity and clutter. Making life less complicated leads to fewer decisions needing to be made and so less emotional stress. Touching the world ever more lightly by progressively releasing habitual patterns of thinking and behaving helps to make life feel light and spacious.
8. Cultivating new sources of motivation. Increase our exposure to inspirational material for living more simply or mix with others who are already doing it. Reduce our exposure to advertisements, materialistic values and bad news. This also has the advantage of decreasing mindless distractions such as low quality TV programmes which deflect our energy from more satisfying tasks.
9. Express simplicity in everyday activities. Eat simply, work simply, dress simply, slow down, unitask. Use discrimination in deciding how many and which gadgets to own. A few are genuine labour saving devices. Many are not and merely add to the burden of possessions. Decide which these are for you.
10. Be happy with having enough – Learning how to “touch and go”. To not hold on but to allow each moment to arise with newness and freshness. Live more simply so that others may simply live. For a minority, mostly in the Western world, we have been spared the “drudgery” of manual work that previous generations faced, but it has been at the cost of the wellbeing of ourselves and those in the third world. Our labour saving devices have also saved us from the physical exercise that our bodies need to stay healthy. Those who currently live in poverty would have more opportunities to enjoy the fruits of simple living, rather than endure the hardships of deprivation, if voluntary simplicity were practiced more by the privileged.
11. Influencing changes in society. To make it easier for more of us to live more simply, the structure of society would need to change too. We can use our influence wherever we can to help these changes come into effect. E.g. localisation of production and supply, sharing of resources such as transport, land, machinery and skills.
12. Quiet mind and open heart. Cultivate Consciousness – present moment awareness. Acting mindfully and with awareness of our intention. Finding time each day for quiet reflection or meditation.
Refs:
Voluntary Simplicity. Duane Elgin
The Simple Living Guide. Janet Luhrs
The Lilypad List. Marian Van Eyk MacCain.
Choosing Simplicity. Linda Breen Pierce.
The Value of Voluntary Simplicity. Richard Gregg.
Here are some pointers for where to start to build some resilience into your personal finances:
1. Draw up a written record of your income and all your outgoings.
2. Keep this up to date on a month by month basis.
3. If you have a bank account, reconcile your bank statements with your financial records each month.
4. If your outgoings are greater than your income, don’t just sigh and ignore the situation. You need to act! (Ten ways to quickly cut your living costs.)
5. If you want to invest or borrow money, consider the ethics and sustainablilty credentials of any bank or other organisation you approach.
6. Remember that the money that flows through your possession is a means to an end – a tool. The energy you give it depends on your attitude towards matters financial. Make sure that energy is in alignment with your values.
If you like the idea of using a credit union rather than a bank, you can find out more and locate a credit union near you (if you live in the UK that is) here:
Some clients approach me for coaching having been “forcibly downshifted” through redundancy, ill health, relationship breakdown or some other unforeseen circumstance. This list is a compilation of the most tried and tested methods for quickly cutting costs in those kinds of circumstances. Actions of this kind often leave us feeling less anxious about the future, more in control of our destiny and therefore more able to take a deep breath and start to focus on creating a new, more sustainable way of living.
1. Cut up all credit cards except one, which you’re allowed to keep for emergencies only.
2. Buy all food and household consumables using cash rather than a debit card, so that you’re aware of everything you’re spending on a day by day basis.
3. Cancel all non-essential direct debits and standing orders.
4. Minimise travelling by: replacing face to face meetings with phone calls wherever possible; arranging to meet in your own home or within walking or cycling distance of your home or office.
5. Cycle or walk any distances of 2 miles or less, rather than using a car or public transport. Or, only travel by car if you can arrange to share a lift.
6. If you drink or smoke regularly, commit to halving your consumption on a month by month basis until you reach a level that your health and your purse can handle.
7. Arrange a “pot luck” supper or a Big Lunch with friends rather than go out for a meal.
8. If you have a mobile phone contract, change to pay-as-you-go if you can.
9. Do less cleaning – your clothes, yourself, your home.
10. Be content with simple forms of entertainment and enjoyment – a walk in the park rather than watching a wildlife documentary, making music with others rather than going to a concert, playing football rather than watching it in the pub, chatting with friends rather than watching a debate on TV.
What else have you tried that works for you?
One of the most disturbing realities of living in 21st century society is the presence of terrorism. Our governments currently wrestle with legislation and national security measures in order to “combat terrorism”, using methods and language that appear to stem from terrorism itself. What is there that we can do as individuals to help reduce it in a humane, life sustaining way? How can living and working sustainably help us to find solutions to terrorism?
In the Industrial Growth Society, one of the assumptions we live by is that humans are primarily consumers. Our importance in society then rests on how good we are at acquiring material wealth and the big consumers are seen as more successful than the smaller ones. It is this attitude of competition rather than cooperation that has led to increasing unevenness in the distribution of the world’s wealth, not just between nations and geographical areas, but often within wealthy societies. In nations such as India, the United States and Brazil, you can see extreme wealth existing side by side with the most extreme poverty. Within such out-of-balance societies, you can expect to see high crime rates, family breakdown, civil unrest, a sense of despair and domestic violence, for example.
It is this extreme form of inequality that gives the impression that “globalization” means simply the colonization of the poor by the wealthy capitalist. This leads to humiliation and rage and fuels the hatred of terrorists who both envy and fear the wealthy in developed nations. Ignoring these inequalities and perpetuating our narrow, consumerism based view of wealth has led to the violent reaction we see against capitalism and to the hatred that fuels anti capitalist and anti-Western terrorism..
We need a concept of wealth that encompasses much more than just material capital or money. This is where sustainable living and sustainable business become essential. We need a concept of wealth that enriches rather than impoverishes the human spirit, that inspires people to give of their best in creating it, that springs from a responsible and compassionate inclusion of the less well off and from a committed resolve to meet basic human needs. In our business lives, we also need a notion of wealth that reflects meaningful and fulfilling personal and working lives.
Where does the anger and the hatred that fuel terrorism originate? What terrorists seem to have in common is their feelings of being overlooked or excluded by society. Their need for self-esteem is threatened or frustrated and they want to lash out with a claim that their existence (cause, values, beliefs) be recognised. Indeed, frustration or fear of one sort or another underlies most anger: love or loyalty that has not been requited, worth that has not been valued, a point of view that has not been heard, a self that has been rejected, denied or left out. As a business strategy, anger leads to finding some way to beat, destroy or damage the competition, even when cooperation might have led to a better result.
This idea is not new. Rewind thousands of years and you will find stories that can yield a message that we can relate to now and that makes perfect sense in the 21st Century. For this reason, I love to read parables from ancient spiritual texts and one of my favourites is “The Buddha and the Terrorist” by Satish Kumar.
The main character in this tale is Angulimala who is a serial killer. He terrorises his fellow villagers by ambushing and killing his victims, chopping off their fingers and stringing them around his neck in a gruesome and bloody necklace. His unusual encounter with the Buddha leads not to the death of the Buddha but incredibly to Angulimala’s reformation and enlightenment due to the kindness and compassion of the Buddha. Whilst the Buddha accepts Angulimala into spiritual service, the villagers seek revenge and want him punished for his awful deeds. However, when Angulimala is finally put on trial, they come to understand that putting Angulimala to death will not bring back their loved ones.
There are useful messages for us living in the 21st century, especially in our current political climate:
□ There is an alternative to punishment and revenge.
□ We need to address the social and environmental issues underlying terrorism.
On a personal level, by adopting attitudes of sustainable living (compassion, generosity, inclusion, cooperation, non-violence etc) we can do our bit to temper fear, anger and hatred in ourselves and those around us.
On the level of our community and society, the sustainable values of mutuality. consensus and equality are worth giving serious attention to as an antidote to terrorism.
The Buddha and the Terrorist – Satish Kumar
Satish Kumar is Editor of Resurgence (www.resurgence.org) magazine and Director of Programmes at Schumacher College (www.schumachercollege.org.uk) .
He is the author of two other books: “No Destination: An Autobiography” and “You Are, Therefore I am: A Declaration of Dependence.”
This site seeks to explore the heart and soul of downshifting to a more sustainable, ethical and holistic way of living and working, in keeping with the needs of the planet, humanity as a whole and ourselves as individuals. (read more)
