Simplify Your Life

 

More appointments, more gadgets, more information, more house, more choices, more stuff. In 21st-century America, “more” is the foundation of our economy—and of many people’s individual hopes and dreams. Does anybody know the word “enough?”

The answer, increasingly, is yes. Building on a long
tradition going back to the Amish, Quakers and Mennonites, and fueled by
a resetting of priorities after Sept. 11, many of us are seeking a simpler, more meaningful life.

It’s partly about paring down, says Tom Miller, director of Adult Transitions at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. “If you fill every minute with work or activities, feel out of touch without 10 news channels, or are constantly seduced into buying the latest fashion or computer upgrade, stop and ask yourself, ‘Is this how I really want to spend my life?’”

You’ll probably find yourself saying “no”—but that’s just the beginning. “Simplicity is not about resigning yourself to scar-city,” says Will Miller, M.D., who includes simplicity in his training of family practice residents at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. “It’s about finding abundance and contentment in what you have. Simplicity is a way of living life consciously.”

As Tom Miller puts it, “Saying no to the nonessentials lets you say yes to the things you really want to do.”

Kathy Barndt has taken that journey. It began a dozen years ago when she read the book Your Money or Your Life. A law student and crisis intervention worker at the time, Barndt began to rethink how she was spending her time, and money, in relation to her Quaker values.

By the time she earned her law degree, Barndt knew she didn’t want 12-hour workdays in a big city firm. She set up a solo practice focusing on the elderly. Her office is on the first floor of her childhood home in Sellersville, PA and she and her husband, Steve, moved into the second floor after selling the farm where they raised their two sons.

“We had a whole barnload of stuff,” she says. “Getting rid of it was a real cleansing process. In my experience, all these things we buy and eventually toss aren’t doing what they need to do for our souls.”

For Barndt and many others in the simplicity movement, there’s also the matter of social and environmental justice. “If everyone in the world consumed at the level of the typical North American, we’d use all the resources on earth four or five times over,” she says.

After the Barndts had adjusted happily to their new “downsized” life, Steve lost his job. “Ten years ago it would have been a financial and personal disaster,” Kathy Barndt says. “Now, it’s actually a boon. He has time for the things he loves to do.” And thanks to her three-day work week, she has time to share with him. “I love my job,” she says, “but it doesn’t consume my life.”

When you’ve reclaimed all those hours you used to spend commuting, mowing a big lawn or cruising the mall, what do you do with them? Part of the simplicity movement is figuring that out, Tom Miller says: “Most of us don’t think about what we want, versus what the media tell us. Simplification is about assessing who you really are.”

Some downsizers become community volunteers. Others translate “back to basics” into quality time with the family, regular exercise or finally writing that long-dreamed-of novel. “It’s about balancing your life, and subconsciously you already know how to do that,” Tom Miller says. “Get quiet and listen to yourself. You’re wiser than you think.”

Want to Know More about the simplicity movement? For a reading/resource list and a worksheet you can use to evaluate your priorities, call 610-402-CARE.