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.
Doing most of these, just installed the new Ubuntu LTS this morning on by old second hand business laptop, Linux was not designed but was created collaboratively without a profit motive it's development is such a useful template to what we could do in many other areas of life and Linux is beautiful. I don't use cash as it seems a waste of resources and energy moving it around since it's an illusion anyway. Have a car due to being a community health worker and these days I don't go anywhere else really apart from work as I'm lucky to have beautiful valley to walk in close by and that's all I need, I look forward to seeing seasons and welcoming nature. Have an old feature phone that I rarely turn on. You know what this list brings so much peace and if adopted would bring us all peace.
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Alex
It is nice to be able to say, "that is all I need". Most people don't have limits, and that is the problem. That infinite desire is just infinite suffering.
Delete- Gregg
Great list. Am also doing the majority of these. I love a simple life. I keep telling our children to avoid all drama wherever possible. To stand up for themselves and for others, and to set appropriate boundaries, but beyond that....avoid drama. Totally not worth the time or oxygen. Also, I am a big cash user but know for a fact that banks and I assume governments, are trying very hard to get rid of it. Only having digital 'money' makes me nervous. I've seen first hand what happens if there are technical glitches and you then can't access said money. We don't have much, but prefer to have not too much in any account, and to have anything we have spread out across different banks. Even better, have it invested in tangible things such as a good garden, chickens, generators, and a paid for house in a community where we belong. Not fancy but feels like peace to me!
ReplyDeletePeople get addicted to drama. No thank you.
DeleteCBDC (digital cash) sounds like a power grab to me. "Sorry, your account has been frozen."
You have invested in the right things and are prepared for the future. Priceless.
- Gregg
While I don't use cash 100% of the time, I do as much as possible. I love when a business has a sign asking its patrons to use cash when possible. I avoid those establishments that don't take cash (and I openly grumble about it to the employees). As you say, Gregg -- digital currency = control. Peace, Erin
ReplyDeleteDon't take cash? A sign of what's to come. I have never personally experienced this, but would be doing some grumbling of my own if I did. Everything in our lives is becoming dangerously virtual and unreal..
DeleteCue the pods!
- Gregg