Slow living or simple living is a relatively new term, although the way of living feels like it has been around forever. The lifestyle goes against the now traditional lifestyle of living stressfully.
I often ask myself who is the smartest. Us or the animals. Many would immediately say the human and maybe even be pissed at me that I even dare to compare. But then hear what I have to say on the matter. The animals have learned to live with what they have. They need nothing but themselves and for some animals their herd. They live without a home full of things, they live without having to earn money which then has to be spent anyway, usually immediately. They find their food in nature and have an instinct that tells them what they can and cannot eat. We humans have become addicted to material things. We have become dependent on technology. Children born in the 20st century do not know what it is like to live without technology and find it difficult to live a life without being connected. I see it in my son, the stress and restlessness when the iPad or phone is taken away from him.
Children spend almost all of their time indoors these days and we adults are even worse. Indoors, most of the time, is spent looking at our screens. We ourselves have created the stress that comes with living in today's society. Humanity has created an unnecessary stress. The animals also stress, of course, but then for their survival. People stress over really unnecessary things. Have you yourself felt stress when, for example, you are late for a sale and feel that you might have missed a good deal? Or that you were stressed in the morning because you lay and crawled in bed because you were tired after yesterday when you had trouble sleeping because you were sitting in front of the phone or the TV? I thought you've felt stress over unnecessary things at some point. Because be completely honest with yourself now, how much did you buy this year that was unnecessary in the sense that you didn't need them to survive? Think about it and I think we can all say yes it did.
So how do we stop this. Yes, first of all you need to ask yourself if you really want to live materially with stress or freely with only positive stress (stress becomes negative when we don't get time to recover in between). If you choose to live a life without a focus on material things, then slow living or simple living is an excellent alternative to the stressed world we see today. Slow living focuses on you and your loved ones. On having time for what really matters. It's not really about living with few things, it's about surrounding yourself with things you love, use and need in your life to feel good. The focus is on you and your family. You have to feel good to make others feel good. Find a hobby that makes you feel good. Find the joy in the little things. Enjoy life. See the stars on a starry night and just stand there and breathe in nature. Enjoy what you have, your family and what you can achieve in life. I know you can have life just the way you want it. You just have to figure out what it is and then strive to get there. Good luck. I believe in you. Now you just have to believe in yourself.
