Live Simply: Marketing Device or Genuine Opportunity?
People talk about living simply but I wonder what they honestly mean. Are there actually ways to live simply these days or is it all a marketing ploy to sell minimalist furniture and subscriptions to magazines called Real Simple? Has life in the 21st century become one messy conundrum of personal and social expectations? Is it possible to extract oneself from the carnival of cultural mandates and private directives? I think it’s naive and simplistic to say absolutely yes, it is possible to truly live simply but I’d like to be proven wrong. Help me out here.
Maybe the dilemma is in the words. Is live simply a physical/material thing or is it a state of mind? I’m going to go with a state of mind that can be reflected in the physical/material environment. So, if that’s the case, then what factors into that state of mind? That’s where I get tripped up. It does seem to hinge on less: less internal chatter, less obligations, less swirling to-do lists, less physical stuff to care for, less outside input, less attention to appearances of all kinds, less meddling, less intrusions of busy-ness, less doing. But it might also hinge on more too: more solitude, more time outside, more breathing, more attention to the moment, more connection to self, more connection to mystery, more surrender to the unknown, more openness to surprise, more intrusions of beauty, more gratitude.
You don’t get those things by buying a magazine called Real Simple.
Do you live simply? What characterizes a simple life?
People look to the past and say that was less complicated. It did have its up's and down's and maybe depended on the weather if you were a farmer. Expectations are a conundrum. They are made of mutual dependency.
We are urbanized, so we are dependent, both on jobs and on supply chains, (often called "just-in-time"). Back to nature will only support very few, and you wouldn't know how to do it, (without a copy of Real Simple). Mankind has lost 1,000's of years of know-how, and claims ancients were ignorant. You can grow peas, or have chickens and get 3 eggs a day, but that won't feed a family.
What factors into the state of mind? The most important is to live within the means of your present income, and have some little surplus. Move very slowly with the increases. Every conundrum and complication is the result of one thing:
For the western man; your COMPARISON AND ENVY enslave you and finally kill you. If you didn't covet what "the Joneses" have, capitalism would crash, because you wouldn't buy that new iPhone. In fact all advertising doesn't seek to sell you a product, its goal is to make you envious. "Look at this model holding this mouthwash. So many people want to kiss her fragrant breath". She has it all. Envious, right?
All the rest is a side trip offered to ignore my ENVY: less internal chatter, less obligations, less swirling to-do lists, less physical stuff to care for, less outside input, less attention to appearances of all kinds, less meddling, less intrusions of busy-ness, less doing. Actually all that stuff is FUN! and each day only presents one, or just a few items.
When you are your incomparable self, you ARE surprised, you are openness, you are beauty. That is your true identity. You can't miss it.
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I always lived light - but that was mainly because I'm an actress/comedienne/writer. This work takes all of you. I got married at 50. Never wanted kids etc...I didn't want to even own a home....a born wanderer. People are disruptors - sometimes for good - for lessons - beware of the vampires.
simply is staying as unattached as possible.
The marketing ploy is truly a living organism, a growing invisible monster, lying and twisting its way around us and suffocating us. Careful with technology - that is a huge nose vacuuming up all energy....
nice subject Gracie!