Downshifting is term more commonly used in the UK and Australia. It entails the concept of living in voluntary simplicity (usually with sustainability in mind -although not always the primary focus or motivator). People who follow this route are also called "post-materialists."
The first thing that comes to mind for me is Christopher McCandless, or more commonly known as "Alexander Supertramp", the subject of Jon Krakauer's book Into the Wild. I also noticed about a month ago, one of my Facebook friends had decided to give away most of his possessions to live a simpler life -what an enlightened soul!
What do you think about when you hear "downshift" or "post-materialism"? Now, I don't mean that you should go as far as giving away all your possession or go live in an abandoned bus in Alaska. I suppose what I am thinking here is that I should only have what I use and need, and everything else could benefit somebody else.
There are a lot of reasons that people "downshift" and one such reason is a sort of "back to basics" approach to living a more balanced life with reduced stress - this idea kind of ties in with my post from Day 36 and Day 4. We (or at least I!) have so much stuff these days that it seems to make life super stressful and complicated, and then we try to remedy this stress by getting more stuff to make us happy!
I must say that my pledge from Day 36 is not going as well as I had hoped. While I am a bit more organized than before, I still keep losing things everywhere! This morning, for instance, I had a panic attack because I couldn't find my wallet and I had to sift through mounds of junk to find it!
So, I think organization is not the only thing I need to think about, I think I need to downsize and actively think about what I really need and what is just clutter that somebody else could use. For example, I took an online Physics High School course a few years ago and still have the textbook! The book is way too basic for what I am doing now in Engineering, so I think it is time to return it and get my $100 deposit back! There are many other things that I still hang on to for one reason or another that I am sure somebody else could benefit from.
I wonder what is the carbon footprint of that textbook gathering dust on my bookshelf?
This one article I read had some really neat points about what we consider "tradition" in North America which are really just commercially-driven events. The article cites Father's Day (do we really need to have a special day to remind us to cherish and honour our fathers?) and diamond wedding rings as examples. The author of the article writes that the tradition of having diamond wedding rings is only about 100 years old, and was in fact instigated by a diamond trading company called De Beers.
Anyways, my challenge for myself (and for you!) is to downsize and donate/return (or whatever) items that I no longer use that they can be used by others who need them!
What do you think? What will you do?
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