Living With Less: 8 Reasons to Embrace the Simple Life

Written by Carole Fogarty - 22 Comments
Categories: health and fitness

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Being able to acquire bigger and better things in life is not making us any happier. In fact, you may be surprised to hear that our happiness levels peaked in 1957. According to David Wann, co-author of Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic, the most affluent countries around the world are the same ones experiencing the most stress. Despite the fact we live in larger homes and have more gadgets than our parents ever dreamed of, depression and stress are very common problems.

Our addiction to consumption and getting the biggest, newest or trendiest thing is taking us further away from what really brings deep satisfaction to our lives. We have reached a place in our evolution where time is becoming a precious and valued commodity. Our souls are craving a simplicity with the underlying want of feeling less pressure and less stress in our lives.

If you are not yet convinced of the value in living a simple life, the following are 8 reasons why you should consider embracing a simpler life:

1. A satisfying lifestyle becomes your priority

Your family and lifestyle becomes the priority as opposed to being focused on earning more, buying more and looking after more stuff. You start thinking about what’s important to you and not what others or the media say is important to you. You create a thoughtful and meaningful lifestyle that offers satisfaction to the core of your being.

2. You now value the gift of time

Time is now considered a precious gift that is preferred to be spent in a more relaxed and meaningful way to the individual. You prefer a smaller home, saving you the time and energy demands that comes with a larger home such as maintenance, cleaning and repairing. You now only work the hours to suit your new thoughtful lifestyle and eliminate time wasters such as TV to get a deeper sense of value from your time.

3. Your stuff no longer demands your attention

All things filling your home demand your attention, constantly. You need time and energy to buy them in the first place. Once in your home they require to be used, not used, cleaned, stored, taken out, put away, re-arranged, thought about again, repaired, re-organized into better storage and insured. You then need to make a choice at some stage in the future if you still want to keep them, give them away or throw them out. This all adds up to a whole lot of thinking, worrying, time and energy being directed towards your stuff which, of course, takes you away from your new simpler lifestyle.

4. Achieve more with less

When living a simpler life you have less things to worry about, less distractions and less energy pulls and drains. Your pace of life is gentler and your thinking clearer. You now have the time to gain a deeper sense of self and therefore a greater connection to your true goals in life. You are able to focus more of your energies more intently towards a few key goals, which actually produces greater results.

5. The law of diminishing returns

The more you have of something or the more you experience a pleasure, the less you notice and enjoy it over time. The initial rush of enjoyment when buying something new gradually declines with frequent exposure. This is certainly true with children who are overwhelmed with excitement at first, only to find the novelty quickly wears off. Buying more stuff to make you feel better or as quick pick me up does not offer any lasting satisfaction.

6. Reduces money stress

Living in a smaller home just big enough for your needs saves you plenty of money which, in turn, reduces your money stress. You are now no longer worried about the fluctuation in mortgage interest rates. It is cheaper to heat and cool, you need less cleaning products and you can’t over spend on furniture, decorations and stuff as you only buy accordingly to your limited storage space. A smaller yet comfortable home also brings the family closer together physically and emotionally.

7. Your self worth is no longer connected to the stuff you have accumulated

You begin to realize that your true self-worth and what inspires you to jump out of bed in the morning has nothing to do with how much stuff you own. An addiction to consumption doesn’t satisfy the soul. You start to question your motives behind what has driven you to accumulate so much in the past.

8. Conscious Consumption

You release your attachment from addictive consumption and switch to conscious consumption. The simpler you live the more conscious you become about your spending choices. You value each purchase. You have a greater awareness as to the consumable items environmental impact and effect on sustainable living. You buy wisely with the bigger picture in mind.

Carole Fogarty is a writer, passionate blogger and facilitator of Womens Rejuvenation Retreats in Bali. Her blog The Health Living Lounge is all about holistic and inspirational living. Similar articles include: The Emotional Cost of Clutter, The Seven Deadly Sins of Work Life Balance and Clutter Busting Game: Act As If You Are About to Move Overseas.

Image by Annia316.

  • http://neimarbackpacker.blogspot.com Neimar

    I’d like to congratulate this post. I’m a huge fan of a simple life and some people don’t understand that, people nowadays just think about consuming and forget the simple things in life that can give you real pleasure.
    I’m Brazilian despite right now I’m living in Portugal and I’d like to say that I really like this blog a lot and reading all these posts give me good advices about having a more enjoyable lifestyle.
    Keep doing this great job!

  • http://thoughtsintime.co.za Albert (http://thoughtsintime.co.za/)

    To me this comes down to living with greater awareness of:
    - What makes you happy & unhappy: does television really make you happy? Compared to, say, taking your dogs for a walk?)
    - The consequences of your lifestyle choices for yourself: do you really want to put in the work time needed to buy that new car?
    - The consequences of your lifestyle choices for yourself: do you really want to wear garments made by children in sweatshops?
    - What you use and don’t use: the unread appliances and magazines lying around your house

    It is pretty hard NOT to make a change once you become aware of these things.

    Albert @ Headspace
    http://thoughtsintime.co.za

  • flovebunny

    It was a pretty good blog, but if you have time, go back and proofread it. Anything intelligent you had to say diminishes with the lack of commas or poor grammar.

  • http://financialphilosopher.typepad.com/thefinancialphilosopher/ The Financial Philosopher

    I believe you were leading to the difference between pleasure and well-being:

    Pleasure is short-term euphoria that uses itself up — It comes from external stimuli; Well-Being radiates from within — it creates its own energy…

  • http://www.brucisms.com Bruce from Brucisms.com

    We as a species have certainly come to face the reality of our voracious appetites! Time is certainly our most precious resource – not only is it of limited quantity, but we never know how much we actually have left! Ignoring this fact and staying on the gerbil’s wheel of materialism is the ultimate act of denial. I believe this is what Thoreau meant when he said that “most men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

    Funny how not much changes in 150 years…

    Bruce

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com Peter

    Thanks for the feedback flovebunny. You’re right – there were a few things I picked up on re-reading it that I have now changed.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/quantumknights Art Gonzalez

    I agree on selecting a few areas of your life where you want to have the greatest impact and purposefully start pruning the rest. However, I interpret that this doesn´t mean following an ascetic lifestyle. Is increasing the quality of the few things you want to focus on.

    Many blessings,

    Art Gonzalez
    Check my Squidoo Lens at: Quantum Knights

  • http://thehealthylivinglounge.com/2008/03/27/living-well-with-less/ The Healthy Living Lounge » Living Well With Less:

    [...] If you are in need of some inspiration to reduce your worries and responsibilities, and keen to bring a good dose of enjoyment back into your life, then zip over to my latest guest post at PicktheBrain. [...]

  • http://www.steven-mills.com Steve Mills

    Living simply and with less is one of the greatest things that you can learn. It is the experiences in life with likeminded people that you love that make the difference, not lusting after the next new thing continuosly through your life

  • http:///www.thehealthylivinglounge.com Carole

    I agree. Looking at the bigger picture with expanded awareness open us up to positive much needed change.

  • http:///www.thehealthylivinglounge.com Carole

    Preciously, a content internal feeling occurs irrespective of the external circumstances.

  • http:///www.thehealthylivinglounge.com Carole

    Hi Art,

    You got it. It’s about eliminating that which drains and burdens our mind, body and soul, then surrounding ourselves with that, which has absolute meaning.

  • http://www.varsityblah.com/about Eugene (Editor, Varsity Blah)

    Simple living is awesome. I recently decided to cut back on a great deal of media and instead spend time rediscovering timeless works of literature (I just started reading Alice in Wonderland). It’s all thanks to The 4-Hour Workweek:

    “What would you do if you just had a heart attack and could only work for two hours a day? What about two hours a week? After coming across this question in the book, I knew the answer was simple. It’s about eliminating everything you don’t need and filling your life with what you do. Since then, I’ve stopped watching TV (except for my favorite shows), stopped listening to annoying DJs on the radio, stopped watching the news bulletins several times a day, cut back my online subscriptions from nine to two, and cut back my print subscriptions from five to one.

    “It may be hard to let go of all the data, but do you honestly need to check your email and other messages several times a day? Besides, if anything that important happens, you’ll know. Why not spend some time discovering the likes of Tolstoy and Twain, something I recently decided to do? I’m up for the challenge and can’t wait to get started!”

    (Extract from Need for Speed)

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  • http://www.enjoysimpleliving.com Jennifer

    Very good points! Also, I noticed that as we move away from the lifestyle of consumerism and accumulation of stuff, the lack of balance in other peoples’ lives become more clear to us and all of the sudden you realize that they don’t understand you and what you’re trying to do in your life. It’s good to have support from like-minded people and read good posts like this one. Thanks!

  • http://spiritual-lives-of-women.com Patty

    Great resource and wonderful insights; so gently presented. I am linking this article to my blog so the moms who read me will also be able to benefit from your wisdom

  • http://moviesonlinewatch.com Amrish Singh

    Living life simple is good for helth and should embarace to a next day every day
    great post for living simple

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