simple living

     

Simple living (or voluntary simplicity) is a lifestyle inividuals choose to minimize the 'more-is-better' pursuit of wealth and consumption. Adherents choose simple living for a variety of reasons, such as spirituality, health, increase in 'quality time' for family and friends, stress reduction, conservation, social justice or anti-consumerism. Others choose it for personal taste, personal economy or as participating in sustainable development. According to Duane Elgin, "we can describe voluntary simplicity as a manner of living that is outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich, a way of being in which our most authentic and alive self is brought into direct and conscious contact with living."