The easiest way to reclaim our lives is to go back to the tried and true ways of simplicity.
"Simplify, simplify, simplify," is even more relevant today than when Henry David Thoreau recommended it in the 1800s.
However, as Thoreau discovered it will be hard. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Hard work pays off.
Choosing the easy way has not worked for us - just look at the state of our world today.
Obviously we need to do things differently.
Why not try simplicity? It worked before, and will work again.
This list will sound old timey, and it is.
Perhaps progress, this late in the game, means going back to what worked, instead of choosing the failing alternatives that brought us to this momentous time in our brief history.
How to Reclaim Our Lives in Simplicity
1. Go offline. When you go online, use the computers in the library. Or, buy an old computer and run Linux on it.
2. Use cash. Get rid of debt, then don't accumulate more.
3. Get around by walking, biking, or public transportation. Carshare. Rent. Taxi. Rideshare. If you have to own a car, choose something basic, and keep it for as long as you can.
4. Grow a garden. Raise as much of your own food as possible, and what you can't raise yourself, buy from farmer's markets.
5. Support local. Try to source as much of what you buy locally.
6. Leave your phone behind. When at home, leave your phone turned off, and check a couple of times a day. Or not.
7. Spend time in nature. Much of our current predicament is due to an artificial separation from our environment. Our liberation will require fewer digital experiences, and more analog ones.
8. Cook your own food. Cooking food with your own hands and wholesome ingredients is the way to extreme numminess and optimum health. Enjoying food you've raised and cooked yourself harkens back to a time when we were more free and self-sufficient.
9. Stick close to home. It is enjoyable and beneficial to know your own area, and the people in it. Good things happen when one is committed to a place and getting to know it intimately.
10. Only buy what you need. Why buy things you don't need? Advertising, propaganda, cultural brainwashing. In simplicity, we ignore them all knowing that chasing happiness via stuff is a losing game, no matter what they say.
Avoid the rush, and simplify, simplify, simplify today.
We have freedom, peace of mind, health and happiness to gain, and nothing to lose.
