The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living - Softcover

Luhrs, Janet

 
9780553067965: The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0553067966 ISBN 13: 9780553067965
Verlag: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1997

Inhaltsangabe

In The Simple Living Guide Janet Luhrs demonstrates how to live a deliberate, simpler life--and savor it.

As Janet Luhrs says, "Simple living is about living deliberately.  Simple living is not about austerity, or frugality, or income level. It's about being fully aware of why you are living your particular life, and knowing that life is one you have chosen thoughtfully.  Simple living is about designing our lives to coincide with our ideals."

Whether you are looking at small solutions for cutting down the stress in your life or taking the big leap toward the simpler life, this book can be your guide. Janet Luhrs, the nationally recognized founder and editor of the Simple Living Journal, brings together strategies, inspiration, resources, and real-life profiles of people who have slowed down, overcome obstacles, and created richer lives.

Discover Simple Living approaches to: money, work, holidays, cooking and nutrition, health and exercise, clutter, gardening, travel, and more!

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Janet Luhrs gave up a law career to practice voluntary simplicity, and she is now a journalist and the editor and publisher of Simple Living: The Journal of Voluntary Simplicity.  Her quarterly newsletter, which has been called "the nation's premier newsletter on voluntary simplicity" (Boston Globe), as well as her own personal simplifying journey have been featured in U.S. News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and on Donahue.  A regular guest on NPR, she lives with her two children in Seattle, Washington.

Janet Luhrs gave up a law career to practice voluntary simplicity, and she is now a journalist and the editor and publisher of Simple Living: The Journal of Voluntary Simplicity.  Her quarterly newsletter, which has been called "the nation's premier newsletter on voluntary simplicity" (Boston Globe), as well as her own personal simplifying journey have been featured in U.S. News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and on Donahue.  A regular guest on NPR, she lives with her two children in Seattle, Washington.

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are looking at small solutions for cutting down the stress in your life or taking the big leap toward the simpler life, this book can be your guide.  Janet Luhrs, the nationally recognized founder and editor of the Simple Living Journal, brings together strategies, inspiration, resources, and real-life profiles of people who have slowed down, overcome obstacles, and created richer lives.

As Janet Luhrs says, "Simple living is about living deliberately.  Simple living is not about austerity, or frugality, or income level.  It's about being fully aware of why you are living your particular life, and knowing that life is one you have chosen thoughtfully.  Simple living is about designing our lives to coincide with our ideals." In The Simple Living Guide Janet Luhrs demonstrates how to live a deliberate, simpler life--and savor it.

Discover Simple Living approaches to:
Time Money Inner Simplicity Wo

Aus dem Klappentext

are looking at small solutions for cutting down the stress in your life or taking the big leap toward the simpler life, this book can be your guide. Janet Luhrs, the nationally recognized founder and editor of the Simple Living Journal, brings together strategies, inspiration, resources, and real-life profiles of people who have slowed down, overcome obstacles, and created richer lives.

As Janet Luhrs says, "Simple living is about living deliberately. Simple living is not about austerity, or frugality, or income level. It's about being fully aware of why you are living your particular life, and knowing that life is one you have chosen thoughtfully. Simple living is about designing our lives to coincide with our ideals." In The Simple Living Guide Janet Luhrs demonstrates how to live a deliberate, simpler life--and savor it.

Discover Simple Living approaches to:
Time Money Inner Simplicity Wo

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.  I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow of life...
--Henry David Thoreau


When I first got involved with voluntary simplicity, I heard this quote from Thoreau over and over.  It was supposed to symbolize the movement, somehow.  I listened and thought it sounded right, but I didn't really and truly get it.  First I thought it meant that anyone who wanted to honestly simplify had to go live in the woods.  After all, how could anyone live simply in the midst of the hustle and bustle of a city?  I was so enamored of simplicity and so excited to get right to it that I signed up for a class on how to build log houses.  My little dream was that my family would go off and live in a log cabin in the woods, simply ever after.  Everything would take care of itself from there on.

Six years later I'm still living in the same house in the same city.  I still look pretty much the same.  But inside I've changed.  And lots of little details have changed.  I've edited and published a journal titled Simple Living since 1992.  I have interviewed countless people who have simplified their lives in every way imaginable.  I talked to dozens and dozens more for this book.  I read everything I could get my hands on about the subject.  And I spent a lot of time thinking about what it all meant.  Now, finally, I really, deeply understand the quote.  The key word is not woods, it is deliberately.  What the heck does that really mean?  This one word, in my opinion, is the hallmark of a simple life.

People and reporters often ask me what I think simple living is all about.  They want to know how low an income they can live on.  They want to know if they should keep their condo in the city.  Does simple living mean giving up their car?  Does it mean never traveling?  Does it mean living in poverty?  Do you have to go meditate on top of a mountain in Tibet to be really simple?  Do you have to live in an austere house?  Must you live an austere existence?  Can you never go to restaurants or movies?

Simple living is about living deliberately.  That's all.  You choose your existence rather than sailing through life on automatic pilot.  Your existence can be in the woods, in the city, as a carpet cleaner, a doctor, an office manager, a retired person, a single person, a parent of six, a person in his 20s, a person in her 80s.  You could have any level of income, but you hang on to a good chunk of your income, whatever it is.  Simple living is about having money in the bank and a zero balance on your credit card statement.  If you want to travel, you are conscious enough about your choice that you are willing to give up something else.  I've chosen to have kid's science projects, newspapers, and my sister's slippers cluttering the living room rather than living an austere existence.  Someone else might like austerity because it brings a sense of peace and order.  Either way, we've chosen these things consciously...they didn't just "happen."  Simple living is about making deliberate, thoughtful choices.  The difference is that you are fully aware of why you are living your particular life, and that life is one you have chosen thoughtfully.

As I got deeper into writing this book, the deliberate theme became so loud and clear that I even thought about changing the title from The Simple Living Guide to Yes You Can!  This was because literally every single person I interviewed had consciously and with clear purpose designed their lives to coincide with their ideals.  They live deliberately.  They know full well what they want out of life, and they take creativity and determination to impressive heights in order to accomplish their dreams.  Not one of them waited around for someone else to make things better, and not one of them blamed other people or other systems for keeping them from what they deemed important.  Nor did any of them absentmindedly wake up one day wondering how their life came to be.  They live consciously...deliberately...and thoughtfully.  This is what Thoreau meant when he said "I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life..."


Holidays

By scaling down your activities, you will have more time and peace of mind to enjoy the ones that remain.
--Unplug the Christmas Machine

The holiday season is one of my favorite times of the year, and it is also a time most filled with paradoxes and mixed feelings.  On one hand, it is magical: the tiny flickering lights, tissue-paper fairies hanging from golden threads, those long, dark nights illuminated by candle flame, excited children, gathering with people I care about, and a time to rekindle my spirituality.  On the other hand, it's a time when we say we want to spend more time with our children and other loved ones, yet we're busier than ever, shopping, decorating, and attending parties.  It's a time when many of us feel that our lives and our families aren't as "perfect" as others'.  We think things should be more "perfect" at this time of year.  We can experience stress and disappointment in the midst of all the festivities.

And holiday season is a time when the excesses of the privileged (me included) collide loudly with the scarcity of the unprivileged.  This past season I left a department store after buying pajamas for my children.  As I drove out of the parking lot, I saw a woman sitting on the curb, holding a sign asking for money.  What really tugged at my heart was that there was a small child huddled up next to her.  It was raining and cold and the little girl was covered in a worn, thin jacket with a hood.  I was about ready to go off to the next store to pick up one more gift when I turned my car around.  I offered to help.

How can we keep the magic of the holidays alive for ourselves and our families and also reach out to others who have no magic?  How can we experience joy and revel in our gift exchanges while also being mindful that thousands of children are going hungry at this time of year?  How can we get our shopping, decorating, and entertaining done and also have relaxed, flowing hours with our families and children?  How can those who feel the void of not "measuring up" create an experience that is meaningful?  We can do this by simplifying our holidays.  A simplified holiday can be magical, joyful, and rewarding, and it frees a little more of our time, money, and energy to be available to our families, friends, and children, and also lets us reach out to help others.  A simplified holiday also helps us to lower our out-of-proportion expectations and replace them with more realistic ones.

The holiday season, like anything else, is what we make it.  It can be friend or foe, depending on how we host it.  We can allow it to take us on wild spending sprees and keep us exhausted from overcommitted schedules, or we can look upon it as a friend, gently reminding us to think about what is important in our lives.  If you sit awhile and listen, your holiday...

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Verlag
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
1997
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0553067966
ISBN 13 
9780553067965
Einband
Taschenbuch
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
444
Kontakt zum Hersteller
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Verantwortliche Person
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