Voluntary SIMPLICITY & the SLOW Movement
We came across a website and a blog about Voluntary Simplicity. It was a new concept for us, but one in which we recognise our own life choices perfectly.
We came across a website and a blog about Voluntary Simplicity. It was a new concept for us, but one in which we recognise our own life choices perfectly.
We'd like to share with you what it means!
"Simple living, or voluntary simplicity, is a lifestyle in which individuals consciously choose to minimise their concern with 'the more the better' in terms of wealth and consumption. Its followers choose a simple life for different reasons, which may be linked to spirituality, health, quality of life and of the time spent with family and friends, reducing stress, protecting the environment, social justice or anti-consumerism, while others choose to live more simply out of personal preference or for economic reasons - although simple living is essentially a choice and has nothing to do with 'enforced poverty'.
… Simplicity means making a conscious effort to discover what really matters and letting go of what is superfluous, thereby discovering that a life that is outwardly more frugal can be much richer and more abundant inwardly.
… People who practise voluntary simplicity act consciously to reduce their need to buy goods and services and, by extension, also to reduce the need to sell their time for money. Some will use the extra hours to help their families or society, others prefer voluntary work, some will devote themselves to a fulfilling hobby or creative, cultural, artistic, intellectual, manual, physical or social activity, others may divide their time harmoniously across several areas, and they may also devote themselves to their professional work in a more balanced way. The time is always used to improve their own quality of life, through activities of self-development or for the benefit of others."
In http://www.slowmovementportugal.com/
"The path of voluntary simplicity opens up along a personal road of introspection: it is about each of us discovering who we are and identifying the answers to our true needs, and when I speak of needs I am thinking beyond basic physical needs, of social, emotional and spiritual needs. What will fulfil me completely in all my dimensions and abilities? In our world of abundance, this means we have to choose; no longer following the current of fashion, advertising or the gaze of others, but rather our authentic needs."