Simplicity is Sustainables Best Friend

Society has somehow decided that simple is bad in many situations. There is a fight to give simplicity back its good name. Simplicity is a very sustainable and freeing existence for people to undertake.

Engaging simplicity can mean the little things become bigger and more relevant in your life. Smelling that rose, having an extra hour downtime just to sit and play with your children are the pay-offs of the simple life. The secret is re-training your brain away from the ’should do’ and ’should have’ mentality.

The Should Do and Should Have Mentality

Why should you be doing X? Why do you need to have Y? In part it’s your survival instinct. It’s also guilt and reward. Whenever you fall for the ’shoulds’ it is usually reward related. A satiated feeling, desires fulfilled and the like. Your past experiences are also feeding your thinking. These often relate to survival instincts. Survival in this new world though, not the life threatening kind. All of those thoughts are about the past, not the present, not right now.

‘Should have’ and ’should do’ have costs. Apart from complexity in life, they bring more to deal with, to move, clean and lose. Then there is the big one, the cost to the environment and to your quality of life when you fill it with stuff. Stuff can give you satiated feelings. The getting of stuff feels good, but it wanes. New stuff feels old very quickly and that satiated feeling goes only to be replaced with things like guilt. Why did I buy that polo neck jumper? What was I thinking, what a waste of money. I can’t just throw it out, maybe I should give it to my friend. It can then become a burden such as storage, cleaning, lack of use, boredom. Think carefully before buying things. Having less stuff means you have less burdens down the track.

Simplicity has a bad name

Why has simplicity been given a bad name? Words like simpleton and descriptive phrases like ‘he’s a bit simple’ haven’t helped. There is a tendency to tie simplicity to stupidity. This has been born out of a form of intellectual and material elitism that society has somehow snuck into our characters in varying degrees (me included). Don’t be mistaken, complexity is good and so is simplicity. They each have their pros and cons for different situations.

Sea and Tree Changers

The sea/tree change revolution of recent years is a yearning for a simplicity in life. They are almost a manifestation of the human desire for simplicity that is within many people. They are fighting back, fighting for simplicities good name to return. The renouncing of the more complex lifestyle we wanted and created in earlier years of our lives.

Even simplicity has its negatives. The tree change can cost you proximity to family. Not having any stuff can cost you experiences. If I didn’t have my digital camera or my iPod I definitely wouldn’t be as happy about my life.

Stuff, Lots and Lots of Stuff

The trend towards a complex life in the last century is having its costs. The want for stuff to create experience and entertainment. Just buy what you need and the odd thing you want. Re-use, re-cycle and delay buying things when you can. I think this is about balance, about discerning purchases and decisions about the stuff in your life. If anything sings simplicity loudest to me its the phrase ‘quality not quantity’.

Thrift is a tool you can use to create a sustainable life and it also conveniently leads to less stuff and a simpler existence. Even if you have (or make) a lot of money in your career or business it doesn’t mean you should spend it. Give it away, enjoy the experience of helping others who need the money more or better still invest in philanthropic projects that recycles the money for use again and again.

Food Simplicity

I think one of my personal favourite experiences of simplicity is making pasta from scratch. I do this quite often with the kids. One egg and 100 grams of flour makes a pasta dough. The kids roll it through an old style pasta machine (you can buy them from most kitchenware shops very cheaply). This flattens the dough into sheets a bit like lasagna sheets and then a second run through a separate roller on the machine cuts the sheet into ribbons. Let them use blunt knives to cut the dough, roll it. Who needs all that play dough?

When you experience the simplicity of making food from the basics you are also being sustainable because you aren’t creating consumer pull for products like packaged pasta (and play dough machines). If you’re really keen you could even have some chickens in the backyard and cut the egg manufacturers out of the cycle.

This approach can be extended to your normal daily life. Changing you food style to a first principals approach is very rewarding. Experience what you eat, the taste, texture, smells – the whole food experience. A symptom of this approach is that you will buy less packaged foods and buy more fruit, veg and meat produce. When you cook from first principles you’ll notice you consume less packaging, the food tastes better, your fat intake may drop, the flavour of foods can become earthy and rustic. Food becomes an appreciation not a chore, it’s no longer about heating but about creating. Sustainability through simple, healthy, low carbon footprint ingredients.

Learning about simplicity from nature

Nature often demonstrates ways of existence the human species ignores. Nature is a contradiction. It is so extremely simple in many respects while at the same time being very complex. Simple strategies are enabled through complex bodily functions and in the context of a complex ecosystem. The lesson here is that just because society, the economy and life appears so complex you can create a simple life. After all animals remind us that life is really about making sure you eat, sleep and keep warm at its simplest survival level. Everything else is a bonus.

I don’t know where to start?

Don’t make it a project or a change, it’s unlikely to happen. The second you do that you will also find reasons not to make the change to a simpler life. Why not just keep living how you are and make better choices as you go. That’s all, just make better choices. Choose not to buy that extra pair of shoes. Choose to give someone a living plant as a gift instead of flowers which will be dead in a week. Choose to work a normal day and earn a little less.

The choice is yours all through your life and in my opinion it’s a simple one.