Saturday, February 10, 2007
Voluntary Simplifiers - Making Do with Less
Voluntary Simplifiers - Making Do with Less
I read about a small movement called the Voluntary Simplifiers. In spite of an erudite sounding name, what they do is rather simple - leading their lives in a less ostentatious and less consumerist manner.
Voluntary simplicity refers to the choice out of free will rather than by being coerced by poverty, government austerity programs, or being imprisoned, to limit expenditures on consumer goods and services, and to cultivate non-materialistic sources of satisfaction and meaning. To put it another way, they try to lead life quite different from what an average American (and increasingly the average modern human being) leads.
This does not mean that a voluntary simplifier leads a puritanical life or the life led by the saints. Nope. In most cases, it just means that a voluntary simplifier does not consider money to be the most important thing in life, and possibly works fewer hours for money and spends more time with family and friends.
According to one research on the subject, voluntary simplicity can be in different levels of intensity - moderate levels (in which people downshift their consumptive rich lifestyle, but not necessarily into a low gear), to strong simplification (in which they significantly restructure their lives), to holistic simplification.
A 2005 study of voluntary simplifiers found that they were more happy than a sample group comprising the rest of the population in the same geography. Interesting comparison, because most times we compare ourselves with those who have more money, not less!
I read about a small movement called the Voluntary Simplifiers. In spite of an erudite sounding name, what they do is rather simple - leading their lives in a less ostentatious and less consumerist manner.
Voluntary simplicity refers to the choice out of free will rather than by being coerced by poverty, government austerity programs, or being imprisoned, to limit expenditures on consumer goods and services, and to cultivate non-materialistic sources of satisfaction and meaning. To put it another way, they try to lead life quite different from what an average American (and increasingly the average modern human being) leads.
This does not mean that a voluntary simplifier leads a puritanical life or the life led by the saints. Nope. In most cases, it just means that a voluntary simplifier does not consider money to be the most important thing in life, and possibly works fewer hours for money and spends more time with family and friends.
According to one research on the subject, voluntary simplicity can be in different levels of intensity - moderate levels (in which people downshift their consumptive rich lifestyle, but not necessarily into a low gear), to strong simplification (in which they significantly restructure their lives), to holistic simplification.
A 2005 study of voluntary simplifiers found that they were more happy than a sample group comprising the rest of the population in the same geography. Interesting comparison, because most times we compare ourselves with those who have more money, not less!
Labels: lifestyle
