From the Ririan Project (welcome to the blogroll), here are 10 simple commandments for having a simpler life. They really are very basic, easily implemented, and effective, and I encourage you to look for ways to work them into your life. Here I’ll list just the commandments themselves: go to their website for the full details.
“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”
– Henry David Thoreau
- You shall find work that is fun.
- You shall laugh on a daily basis.
- You shall sell the box sitting in your living room.
- You shall break your addiction to the news and go on a “news fast.”
- You shall get in the habit of taking daily “silence breaks.”
- You shall clean up your act.
- You shall turn off your technology.
- You shall be spontaneous.
- You shall set a bedtime and stick to it.
- You shall learn what is “enough.”
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raincoaster media 
Metro
May 11, 2007
Couple of quibbles:
“Find work that is fun”–if that’s an option for you.
“Break your addiction to news”?
Most people don’t watch or read enough news.
raincoaster
May 11, 2007
Metro, didn’t you GET a job that is fun for you? You could be trucking in the Tar Sands for twice what you’re earning at this very moment, but you turned it down to be an editor.
Metro
May 13, 2007
I guess feel that it might be important for people to develop a greater awareness of the outer world. For one thing, it tells us that there are out there people far worse off than we, many who could use just a little help even from the most powerless of us.
It also suggests how things can be different. For example, safe injection sites originated on another continent. I suspect that had the publc not seen such things as a general benefit in the European context, we could never have gotten one in Vancouver.
raincoaster
May 13, 2007
I, too, have a quibble with the word “commandments” but it was the author’s choice and I respected that. As with all posts, this is out there for the readers to take from it what speaks to them; it is not mandatory. If you find some of it irrelevant or unproductive, post an alternative, rather than just your dissatisfaction.
I do think the idea of the “news fast” can be a good one; taking a week off isn’t going to erode anyone’s IQ fatally, and may just give some clarity of thought that’s not available when one is continually chasing “THE Truth”, particularly in our current media environment, where Truthiness is more common than truth.
Note if you read the article that the author doesn’t suggest never getting the news, just taking a vacation from the self-inflicted obligation to know everything: Information Anxiety, which is all too common among a certain segment of the population. The fact is, we can now obtain information around the clock, and a number of people are driven by this; they feel responsible to know the definitive answers, and this has led to people taking refuge in inappropriate orthodoxies (which always have an answer for everything, how soothing) or to become depressed or chronically stressed.
Regular viewers of television news have significantly higher rates of depression than those who do not watch the news, according to several studies. Bad news can be a trigger for those dealing with acute depression, and they in particular will benefit from a news fast.
For news fans, how do you find your information? Do you have a favorite news channel (website, tv show, paper) that helps you get what you need in an efficient manner? Suggestions…Bueller? Bueller?
tt
May 13, 2007
These ten points resonate. I identify strongly with them and I know that these changes can help people to simply their lives and improve their state of mind too.
Who can find fault with aiming to enjoy the work we do and to exercise our sense of humor daily?
What’s wrong with declaring “private time” and spending that time without “technological connections”?
This blog is for people who are making pivotal life changes.
I like reading the various approaches to health, well being, fitness and leading a simple life that the editor of this blog is posting. I also want to be part of a blogging community with these focuses. And I know communities are built around blogs. Everyone who comments is a “contributer”. That’s why I’m hoping the tenor and tones of perennial commenters on this blog won’t turn into “the great debate” and turn those who could benefit from the blog away from it.
My two cents.