live a simple life

Life is not about what you have but what you do with what you have. I don’t need gadgets or nick knacks but would just like to the essentials with some comforts.

I found the book The Simple Living Guide, and through reading it I learned much about simplifying “decluttering” and more.
Though published in 1997 (at least my edition) so much of it simply speaks to me with logical, straightforward ideas on creating a simpler, fulfilling more prosperous life. It is considered simpler since there is less worry about “keeping up with the Jones’” asking us to ask to ask ourselves? why keep up with the Joneses? are they actually living better? or do they just have nicer things?

“The game of life is not so much in holding a good hand as playing a poor hand well.”
- H.T. Leslie

I need to simplify my emotions/feelings/what-have-you.

These things complicate life much more than any material nonsense, it seems.

I suppose you could say we are living a simple life by default. This semester I went back to school and I chose not to work. Its experimental I suppose. Although I am looking for a very part time job, like less than 15 hrs a week, part time. We just making it on one check, but there is no extra for emergencies.
But this has all caused us to simplify things. I have been finding new ways to use up things we have in the pantry already to limit what we spend on groceries. Crock pots are great for that. I’ve also been baking bread and cookies from scratch instead of buying them. I feel more accomplished when I bake. I’ve also been making up randon things for dinners and lunch too. Ie, whatever is around. We ate frozen burritos and frozen egg rolls from Trader Joe’s the other day for dinner. Who says you cant mix tex-mex and chinese?
This has also made us much more aware of extra driving and extra things we really dont need to be buying. We are really just limiting to things we need only. And now also weening out things around the house that we don’t need to keep or use and donating them to charity.

i dont want to be too materislistic and popular,i want to be content with what have from the friends to the grades i get. i could want my life to be a cosmopolitan way for example have a coffe with a friend talking about the new music or what projects we will be doing, being in love,sitting in the park,doing the gardening,dancing in the rain its nothing too complicated,stressfull or fraustrating just been me living with the simpple stuff and not giving a stuff or care about what the rest of the world has to say about that.

one of my goals was to simplify my life. this one sounds the same but to me is somewhat different. to “simplify my life” means getting rid of things i’ve accumulated, not only materialistically (sp?) but also emotionally, etc. to “live a simple life” is to maintain that once it’s done.

I’ve been weighed down by stuff, and my materialism. I’m fed up with it. It’s a ball and chain.
What living simply would look like for me is, right now, minimizing what I have so that I could “pick up and go” as needed. Basically I would keep my laptop, a few bags of “toys”, key books, clothes, and grooming supplies, and that would be that. I would like to have a “home” location to house stuff like a bed, bookshelf, TV, dresser, and whatnot, but keeping it very simple. I don’t need knickknacks (though I am having trouble separating from some).
What I DO want, however, is freedom. I’m getting there.

Wow, alot has happened in the last 3 months…fell in love, quit my job of 8 years, moved accross the state, and found another great job. BUT now…I am gonig to quit my new job, move back accross the state, and see how the love works out long distance…I guess I’m trying to say that I’m going back to a simple life of Me, Myself, and I. Not going to worrie about things and get simple again…

previously, i have been thinking that this goal is soley about your environment but i am slowly realizing that it also relates to your mental and emotional state, how you react to things.

in that case, i have been living a simpler life. the drama that i was caught up in two years ago just makes me laugh now. i don’t have to worry about how i look to people because i know that i have friends in other places who have my back. i am taking control of my life and where it needs to go (within the boundaries that my parents have set) without whining and asking others what i should do.
and that in itself is a great feeling.

peace.