The monthly newsletter for aspiring downshifters,
and sustainable living enthusiasts.

September 2007
In this issue...

1. Motivation For Downshifters - Part One.
2. Sustainable Stay-At-Home Mum. By Tracey Stokes.
3. Your exploration this month.
4. Quotes of the month
5. Want to comment or contribute?
6. Teleclasses and personal coaching

1. Motivation for Downshifters - Part One.

Are you committed to downshifting or de-stressing your life but can’t find the motivation you need to take the first step? Are there some external factors in your life, such as hefty mortgage repayments or an unsupportive partner that you feel are preventing you from realising your dream? Some conventional methods for moving ourselves forward in situations such as these often fall short on staying power and realism, so I’ve come up with an alternative, easier approach.

The Problem

Entrenched Habits. I believe the biggest single factor that keeps us in a high stress, high paced lifestyle when we know it is not doing us any good is our habits. For most of us who have been raised in the West, this is so deeply entrenched that we rarely stop to even question whether there is another way. Habits such as spending hours each day commuting, racing against the clock, writing “to do” lists that do not include time to rest or eating on the run have become a way of life that can seem like a serious challenge to break.

Comfort Zone. You may well have already heard of the term “comfort zone”. Our personal collection of habits, favourable or not, are what makes up our individual comfort zones. That’s the irony of this situation and we remain in our comfort zones, acting mostly out of our habits, because it feels comfortable and familiar, not because it’s necessarily the best thing for us, our friends and loved ones or the planet.

Waking up. The first sign that we are starting to wake up to our dilemma is when we start to become aware of our behaviour and its detrimental effects and question the reasoning behind it. For some people a moment of intense stress triggers this realisation, for others it is a more gradual and evolving sense of a new perspective.

Conventional Wisdom on Changing Habits

Will power. Will power is when we force ourselves to act despite what our values may be telling us. When we are engaging our will power, we are likely to force extra tasks into the time available expending even more energy on projects and activities that are not helpful to us. This just leads to more stress. First we need to free up some space and time in which to address how we want our life to change.

Metamorphosis - a new view. Apparently, when a caterpillar changes into a butterfly, rather than the butterfly growing out of the caterpillar, the caterpillar disintegrates into a kind of chemical soup inside the chrysalis and it is out of this soup that the butterfly emerges. In a similar way, for us to change our lifestyle in a way that is sustainable (i.e. robust, self-contained and long-lived) we need to completely break down our old decision-making process and come up with some totally different approaches to motivating ourselves.

The Four Stages

There are other, much easier and more pleasant ways of motivating ourselves to change our lives for the better and I’ve devised a 4 stage process to help you.

1) Responsibility

Taking responsibility for changing our lives is all about deciding to respond rather than react to situations we find ourselves in. Ultimately, the individual choices we make at all the little crossroads we encounter through our days and weeks, determine which route our life will take. When we react to situations, we act out of habit without questioning why we make the choices we make. On the other hand, when we respond to situations, we question our habits and engage more consciously with making new choices. We can then make choices that are more appropriate for the person we are now.

So, this is about deciding to take control of our life as it is now rather than reacting in accordance with our conditioning from the past.
Since it is our thoughts that determine our actions, we can choose to stop being the victims of our unconscious actions and instead be the master of our conscious choices.

2)Re-view

Who are we now and who do we want to become?

What we do in the present will determine who we become in the future. If you don’t believe me then carry out a personal audit of just one major aspect of your life e.g. your physical health, and notice to what extent the state of your health now has been determined by the decisions you’ve made in the past about what to eat, how to exercise and when and how to relax. If your physical health is currently not at it's best and you find the audit a bit depressing, you might like to focus instead on the opportunities you have to accept how you are now and to make improvements from this point on. Make a written note of your thoughts and keep them ready for stages 3 and 4.

Part two of this article will appear in next month’s newsletter.

---

2. Sustainable Stay-At-Home Mum. By Tracey Stokes.

In 2004 while expecting our second child, we made the move from London to Surrey and I became a stay-at-home mum. The loss of one income has meant that we had to tighten our belts a little, and so we started growing our own fruit and vegetables, and found ways to save energy and water to cut our bills.

Pete and I were already pretty eco-aware. I had been running EcoStreet part-time for two years, and Pete had been working for a green architects practice for a little over three years by then. Once we’d made the move, I had more time at home, so I started cooking from scratch rather than using ready-made foods, drying our laundry on the line outside, and making packed lunches for my son and husband to take to school and work.

Being a stay-at-home-parent has given me more time to think about the impact that our home and lifestyle has on the planet. These days we make decisions based on their environmental impact, particularly when choosing an appliance for the home or deciding where to go on holiday. We’ve discovered many little ways that we can make a difference too, like having green roadside rescue, green electricity and green insurance.

All changes that we have made to our home have been with sustainability in mind. We are by no means living in an eco-house, but we harvest rainwater, run A-rated appliances, are well insulated and observe some simple practices to conserve energy. We grow some of our own food, and shop locally for the rest where possible.

This way of living feels more “real” than the life we had before, certainly for me and the children it’s slower paced, and we have more time for each other. Pete still has the commute to London and has his fill of city-life, but our weekends are far more peaceful out here in the sticks, and because I’m at home during the week I can get lots of things done that we would previously have had to do on the weekend.

Would we do things differently if we had the chance to go back? Definitely not.

© Tracey Stokes.

Tracey runs www.ecostreet.com, a directory, blog and forum on all things green.

3. Your exploration this month.

Inspired by Michael Neill and his book “You Can Have What You Want”:

Think of a goal that is part of your downshifting plan e.g. finding a less stressful job.
On a scale of 1-10, where are you with reaching your goal? E.g.3/10
Write down how you got from 0/10 to 3/10.
Now Write down each of the steps you need to take to move you from 3/10 to 10/10.

e.g.

4 – sign up with and employment agency.
5 – re-write my curriculum vitae/resume.
6 – find a suitable outfit to wear to interviews.
Etc.

Now you have a plan you can implement.

---

4. Quotes of the month.

“Do not conquer the world with force, for force only causes resistance.”
Tao Te Ching

“Confidence is preparation in action.”
Ron Howard

---

5. Want to comment or contribute?

If you would like to comment on any aspect of this newsletter or submit an article for inclusion in it, please contact me by email.

6. Teleclasses and personal coaching.

How to Step off the Treadmill

A series of six teleclasses, each 45 minutes long, exploring the elements of downshifting, the reality of living a sustainable lifestyle in a consumer driven society and how to motivate ourselves to make the switch.

A teleclass is a straightforward, low cost and sustainable way of taking part in a group learning session. It's like a conference telephone call.Each participant is supplied with a phone number to call at the appointed time. When you call, you will be welcomed to a virtual classroom where you can listen to the class leader present the teleclass material and you can participate by asking or answering questions if you wish. So it's just like being in a real classroom or workshop setting except that you can take part in the comfort of your own home without having to travel anywhere!

To view the current teleclass schedule, click here.

Personal Coaching

One-to-one coaching can help you:

• let go of your old,stressful way of life, find a new path of vitality and an improved way of living.
• deal with fears surrounding financial responsibilities, your relationships with others and other consequences of making a major life change.
• improve your health, wellbeing and spiritual life.
• further your personal growth.
• achieve balance, clarity and peace.
  
  You can view further details on personal coaching here.

7. Privacy policy

If this email has been forwarded to you and you would like to subscribe, you can do so easily on my website, here: www.sallylever.co.uk.

I will never sell, share or otherwise divulge your contact details, including your email address, to any third party.

Subscriptions to this newsletter grow by your recommendation. If you have enjoyed reading it, please do forward it to your friends, relations and colleagues. Please feel free to use any material from this newsletter. All I ask is that you acknowledge me as the source and include my web address.

---

Have a fruitful month!

Sally

Sally Lever
Sustainable Living Coach

+44 (0)1749 674842
sally@sallylever.co.uk
http://www.sallylever.co.uk/

7 Welsford Avenue, Wells, Somerset. BA5 2HX. UK.