Simpler Living
(Page 3 of 4)
October/November 2008
By Wanda Urbanska
Frugality factor: Building community boosts your health by providing vital human connections that research shows are central to our well-being. Good health saves money. What’s more, human connections may pay off in unexpected ways. For instance, by engaging in community life, you may bump into a realtor who passes along a tip about a desirable property.
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Build local economies. One of the most crucial things you can do to build community bonds while strengthening your local infrastructure is to vote with your dollars by buying local, even though sometimes you may pay more. “The most important set of things we can do right now is to re-localize our economies in profound ways,” says author and climate change activist Bill McKibben. Shopping locally also fosters relationships with merchants, which will benefit you in the long-run.
Frugality factor: Short-term, the payoff of local trade may be hard to see. But you’ll help keep companies in business, keeping your economy — and thus your community — on its feet.
Keep a journal. Active reflection is what the soul needs to stay in shape. Journal writing is a way of keeping in touch with yourself. It provides an active forum for contemplation and a written record for future recollection of where your soul has been. Reading past entries helps you trace your journey, recall your former self, and reflect on the future.
Frugality factor: It’s the cheapest form of therapy. The only cost is your time and the price of a notebook and pen.
Reconnect to nature. In our busy, wired lives, it can be all too easy to lose touch with nature — the grandeur of the outdoors that can uplift and soothe us, and helps promote physical and emotional health. Nature provides refuge and offers us a feeling of freedom, fantasy and sanctuary. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, makes the case that not just children need an active connection to nature, a sense of play and physicality in the outdoors, in order to be attuned to their humanity. “Even as we grow more separate from nature,” Louv writes, “we continue to separate from one another physically.” A business leader I know in Greensboro, N.C., makes Friday his outdoor day by walking to work and even holding his business meetings while walking with colleagues.
Frugality factor: The good news about the outdoors is that it’s still legal, and free, to exercise, garden, picnic and bird-watch outdoors. Don’t consider this wasted time; it may be the most valuable thing you do in a day.
De-clutter. Today we live with an unprecedented number of possessions — so many things that they’re overwhelming our drawers and closets and migrating into storage spaces. But experts warn that there’s a strong connection between physical clutter and mental clutter. “For most people, the more clutter you have, the more depressed you’re likely to feel,” says Cindy Glovinsky, certified psychotherapist and author of Making Peace with the Things in Your Life (2002, St. Martin’s). But de-cluttering is easier said than done. To prevent getting overwhelmed, try to de-clutter a small space every day, even just a countertop.
