Reddit is a social news website where users submit content in links or "self" posts of text. This bulletin board-like site hosts about 5500 pages (new pages are added constantly) covering a huge range of topics. Simple living is one of them, and the page currently has 30,000 subscribed readers.
I help out at r/simpleliving and spend time on the site managing things for the community of readers. The links and self posts that have accumulated in this corner of the Internet represent a wealth of information for those interested in simplifying life.
A recent post on r/simpleliving caught my attention. It asks, "What is the one simple change that made your life better?", and in only one day it elicited 144 comments from readers.
Reality100, the Redditor that posted the question, compiled some of the results which follow:
"What is the one simple change that made your life better?"
- Meditation
- Stop watching the news
- Cut down on TV in general
- Put a hook beside your front door and never lose your keys again
- Stop spending time around negative people
- Quit smoking
- Ride your bike to work
- Only drink plain water with meals
- Stop worrying about what other people think
- Take yourself seriously, pursue your goals despite what anyone else thinks
- Make your bed every morning
- Delete or reduce your time on facebook
- Yoga
- Quit drinking caffeine
- Nap outside
- Learn to program
- Get a motorcycle instead of a car.
- Be mindful
- Take the stairs
- Be 100% yourself
- Amazon Prime
- Leave 10 minutes early
- Read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- Stop having a data plan on your smartphone
- Turn your phone onto silent mode, permanently.
- Work evenings/nights
- Fix the problems you can fix. Stop feeling bad about the things you can't fix.
- Don't work a 40-60 hour week
- Intermittent fasting
- Cut down on spending
- Consume as little advertising as possible
- Unfollow most friends on facebook and follow interesting groups.
- Drink lots of water
- Cook your own food and eliminate fast food
- Keep your surroundings clean
- Old friends are not necessarily good friends
- Be altruistic
- Don't try and change people
- Don't hate, love instead.
- Get up early
- Pay for things in cash
- Move out of your parents home
- Have a chore chart
- Start journaling
- No TV or Internet at home except on your phone
- Do as much as possible on your ipad
- Raw vegan diet
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| Simplify life by slowing down. |
How about you? What is one simple change that you have made that has improved your life?
Spending more time in nature
ReplyDeleteSavvy Sister, Ahh, Nature - my personal favourite conduit to simplicity. Thank you for adding this glaring omission to the list above.
DeleteBeing in nature IS listed as one of our priorities on the Simplicity page under the NBA banner.
Currently we are awaiting the arrival of this year's salmon run, which we can watch from our front yard. Soon the harbour will be filled with leaping, celebrating fish. It is an amazing spectacle, and we are grateful and relieved when they return each year. And not because we eat them!
We just love them.
Wow! The Discovery channel in your own yard! Very cool!
DeleteLimit choices. Example: I have one pair of jeans, therefore no decision needs to be made as to which to wear. I've tried to limit my need to make decisions about things that just don't matter. This works in every aspect of my life.
ReplyDeleteMiss Marla, Your "limit choices" guideline is an excellent one. Fewer choices is freedom, although we are lead to believe the opposite in the consumer marketplace with its 150 different models of toothbrushes.
DeleteA variety of researchers, including Barry Schwartz ("The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less") suggest that an excess of choices leads to anxiety, depression, and feelings of loneliness.
In a dangerous cycle, many people shop to rid themselves of exactly those feelings.
Thanks for sharing.
Get a dog Give away your cat!
ReplyDelete