Slowing down, living mindfully, regaining balance and finding contentment doesn't happen overnight. It creeps up on you when you are least expecting it and starts invading your conscience. You begin to notice feelings of discontent - a 'what's it all for' feeling.
It's something like a 'lightbulb moment' - the moment you realise that needless buying of 'stuff' doesn't make you happy, having 'more' doesn't bring contentment and 'keeping up with the Jones' is only getting you further into debt.
I'm on a long journey getting back on my feet after a particularly bitter divorce, dealing with depression and debt and facing up to life with the chronic illness that is Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Taking baby steps towards a more simple life, de-cluttering and cutting out the dead wood is an ongoing process which I am finding so liberating.
I've now been chipping away at my debts for four years and little by little I am seeing them reduce. I am a whizz at budgeting now although sometimes it goes wrong and I have more month left than money! Thanks to careful stocking of the larder/freezers, the veg growing in the garden and eggs from my girlies I have always been able to put a meal on the table. It might not be a gourmet dinner but it fills a gap!
Retirement has helped enormously with the depression and the RA.
The biggest change in my life, however, has been getting in touch with the Seasons. I am very lucky to have a garden which backs onto farmland and forest and I have been able to watch the fields being ploughed, drilled and planted in the Autumn. Spring brings the tiny green shoots and early Summer sees the crop almost head-height and ripening in the sun. August sees the huge combines harvesting the crop and when 'all is safely gathered in' the whole process starts again. All the time, the sun and the moon watch over the Earth, sending warmth and light to nurture us ....
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