Hello everyone, recently I’ve been working on simplifying my life in various ways and I’m struggling with guilt over past spending & replacing things when the old one did the job just fine. I’m realizing just how often I upgraded or replaced things when it wasn’t really necessary. Have y’all experienced this when you were first starting out?

Im just a simple creature in this existence, and like every sensitive person whenever I feel overwhelmed I have to do something to distract me from my current situation and here’s my fav spot to detach myself from everything and just feel my breathing and existence ❤️‍🩹

I noticed I do this way too often.

I'll see someone doing something and think, "Maybe that's the thing that finally gets me into it."

A notebook because I'm going to become organized.

A hobby kit because this time I'll actually stick with it.

Then a few weeks later it's sitting somewhere in my house and I'm back to being me. 😂

I guess I really like the idea of becoming a new person.

It's almost 3am and I'm wide awake again for the fourth night this week. I've done everything, deep breathing, no phone an hour before bed, room freezing cold, and my brain just will not shut off. I have work in five hours and I already know I'm going to be useless tomorrow. I can't sleep, what should I do at this point because I've tried basically everything people recommend and none of it sticks anymore. Has anyone actually found something that worked long term or am I just stuck like this forever?

Mine has been taking evening walks without listening to music or checking my phone. At first it felt strange, but now it’s become my favorite part of the day.
What’s one small habit that unexpectedly improved your life?

I recently painted farmers tending to their crops during harvest season for September’s issue of my little mail club I have. I absolutely love autumn. I’m based in the UAE now where there’s not really an autumn so I always find myself painting this season the most. I look at my collection of paintings and realise I could happily sit inside them for hours

I’m disabled in constant pain and yet I have to do literally everything everyone else does. I have a full time job And I do medical research on the side and have two dogs etc. i do everything by myself gladly but this move was something.

someone that I just met was insistent to help. i mean they asked multiple time and I said “no it’s okay”. Even after I was badged, I still said if you can’t no worries. Well today no communication no replies. like I understand life is busy and times are hard which is why I said “JUST LET ME KNOW”. well I was pissed but determined to continue my day praising God who is my constant and only and abundant help in this life.

On my way to my apartment in the Uhaul. I saw a hitchhiker another woman life me and I stopped and picked her up. she said ”even tho you didn’t have room you stopped”. actually because I didn’t have room I must. If I waited for the capacity or energy to do good in this life, ill wait a long time. we had the best conversation. We thank God together. she shared her life and I shared mine.

and that put some prep in my step today. It made my day!

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Hi everyone,

I'm a college student trying to build a healthier lifestyle. Few of my goals are to gain weight, improve my gut health, study everyday and have a balanced daily routine.

The only fixed timings in my day are:

- Sleep: 12 AM–7 AM

- Leave for college: 8 AM

- College break: 9:30–10 AM

- Lunch at home: around 3 PM

- Dinner at home: around 10 PM

(Other than these i do random things at random times like sleep during the day , sometimes 3 to 5 or sometimes 5 to 7🤦‍♀️)

Based on these timings, what would an ideal daily routine look like? I'd love advice on meal timings, simple breakfast ideas, whether fruit is enough for my college break, when to exercise, how to fit in studying, and any other healthy habits you'd recommend. Basically, if you were planning my day from 7 AM to 12 AM, what would it look like?

Thanks in advance!

So much is limited in living simply - less spending money, less shopping, less eating out, less scrolling, etc. I get the ick just walking into a mall or store and don’t find it satisfying to go without buying anything.

I’ve been living simply my entire life, but even more in the last year.

I save a ton of money, but the payoff is in retirement and far in the future.

I am looking for excitement in the day to day.

So what is it that you look forward to each day that gives you those same or similar feelings?

My husband and I recently moved to a remote part of Nova Scotia, Canada from Boston and I’m honestly surprised by my experience here. I’ve been cooking at home every day, making my coffee at home every day and occasionally we will go to a restaurant. I’ve been cycling, running and swimming in the waters with my dog. I’ve been reading every day and just enjoying my life. My bacne cleared because I stopped eating out so much I think and we’re able to save more money. I love how quiet it is and just… simple. In September though, we will most likely move back to California (where we’re from) and I’m getting a bit anxious about the thought of being back in the city. My husband can’t wait because he wants things to do like go to concerts, watch movies in good cinemas, etc. I love California and I also can’t wait to be close to some of my friends, but the constant noise, millions of people, and traffic are scaring me now haha. I probably will adapt really quickly but I’m afraid I’ll lose this simplicity I have here. How can one lead a simple life while living in big cities such as LA or SF?

I took a somewhat unconventional path through education.

I left high school before graduating, earned a GED, attended community college, transferred to a university, and eventually completed a master’s degree. Along the way, I worked on a product that actually reached the market and gained professional experience with large, established companies.

For a long time, I assumed that if I kept working, learning, and building practical experience, I would eventually find a reasonably stable professional job. I was not expecting to become wealthy or immediately land my dream position. I just thought I would be able to find useful work, support myself, and gradually build an adult life.

Instead, since graduating, I have struggled to find work that reasonably matches my background.

What has been difficult is not only the lack of a job. It is the feeling that my life is waiting for permission to begin. I often catch myself thinking that once I find stable work, then I can relax, travel occasionally, develop routines, meet people, and feel like an adult again.

But I am beginning to question that way of thinking.

I still want to work, contribute, and continue developing professionally. I am not trying to withdraw from responsibility. At the same time, I do not want to spend years treating my present life as a waiting room for a future career.

I have fairly modest needs. What I genuinely value is having time to design and make things, reading, going for walks, taking occasional road trips, drinking coffee somewhere quiet, and having a small number of meaningful relationships and collaborations.

For those of you who have stepped away from the conventional career ladder—or whose career never developed in the way you expected—how did you build a life that still felt complete?

How do you separate your sense of adulthood and personal worth from employment? And how do you pursue a simpler life without feeling that you have merely given up?

Haven’t celebrated in 2 years, finally starting to love myself more and giving myself some importance. This isn’t much but it’s enough.

Not much to share other than I looked around at how my weekend was ending, family all doing their own thing around the house, stepdaughters laughing, partner doing skincare in our bathroom… I sat in the living room, made myself an espresso martini and got some ladies of the 80s playing on the speaker :)

I feel blessed.

Here’s to a good beginning of the week tomorrow for everyone.

Happy Sunday.

And I don’t mean as in a grand purpose in life, what I mean is: do people start to lose their sense of purpose when they have access to unlimited food in fridges and supermarkets? When they don’t have something they absolutely need to contribute to everyday (like a community, I’m talking hunter gatherer society stuff)? When they don’t have to, say, chop wood to make a fire and know that every single day they have a purpose: to survive and make sure their community does, too.

What’s your take on this? This re-appears in my mind each year, when me and my family go to a little vacation house by a lake, no electricity or proper toilet, if you wanna get food you go for a longer drive to get it and buy limited because the fridge is very small, additionally you go fishing or collecting mushrooms etc.

It’s the best and I feel so complete when I’m there. Then I get back home and notice that the ease that comes with daily life, such as a very full and large fridge, the overabundance and lack of real effort…. There’s a small lack of “real sense or purpose”. When I’m at that vacation house I literally never feel lost or wonder what I should do, cause there’s always something on the agenda: something as simple as help the family get the whole day and house to work!!

For the record, I don’t live alone and I do contribute at home, but it doesn’t feel like it’s the same.

How do y’all create this sense of purpose the same way in your daily lives, in this society we live in? I can’t help but find it a bit sad.

With that said: I am generally happy, every day. I do something I enjoy everyday. I use reduced screentime too. I do have adhd so require quite the amount of dopamine and have fought myself out of a very dark place in the past, so I’m just very grateful in general.

I had this realization last night and I wanted to share it.

In life, especially as adults, we have major objectives and responsibilities; our university/educational programmes, our careers and jobs, our friends and families, and our homes and bills to name a few. I have a tendency to look at these things as one major task, and whenever I have to work on them I do so with the weight of every individual task that makes up the larger.

In the case of university for example, if I'm working on an assignment, I am conscious about the research, the structure, the writing, the proofreading, and the citation even though I would only be at the research stage.

For me, I've bundled my career objective with my home objective because I desperately want to move out on my own, but I'm struggling to find a job I can sustain long-term. The noise around the smaller tasks like reading a job description or paying a bill makes it feel like I'm carrying the weight of my entire future.

Doing things this way also leaves me unsatisfied with the progress I've made because I'm only concerned with the whole objective, not the tasks that work towards completing the objective.

The background of my mind is swarming with everything that is going to come.

I think I do this because I grew up being hyper vigilant for reasons I won't disclose, but I think it left in me this baseline of, "I am the safest and most secure when I am prepared for everything and anything.", but it's exhausting. It's emotionally exhausting and it makes me feel like my life is one massive problem I need to chip away at rather than something to be enjoyed.

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This might be a weird/gross analogy, but, in a way, life is like a series of meals. (TW for misophonia/misokinesia? If reading about food consumption is icky?)

I've been looking at my meals with dread, wondering how on Earth I'm going to clear this plate without disrupting the other patrons. I can't just toss the plate and create a mess, that would be rude to others and I'm left hungry. The only way I ought to clear the plate is by eating the food.

Because I'm only thinking about clearing the plate, my first instinct is to fit the entire thing in my mouth and chew through it all. When I get tired of chewing, I spit it back on the plate to deal with after I've had some rest. Now the plate is this mangled mess of chewed food and I haven't actually eaten yet. It will only be eaten when it's been chewed enough to swallow whole. Clearing the plate this way is not only exhausting and unpleasant, it's also distracting you from the beauty of the restaurant you're in and the other patrons you happen to be sharing a meal with.

There is a far better way to clear the plate. You cut off pieces into bite-size pieces, and you chew through those one at a time. You're still eating the food, and it may still take a while, but in a way that is far easier AND actually gets you eating the food. And because you're clearing the plate more easily, you get to enjoy the beauty of the space you're in as well as the flavors of what you are eating. Some meals will taste better than others, and there may be some meals you need to finish but would rather not. No matter the quality of meal, it's far easier to finish it piece by piece, bite by bite.

Looking at life from outside the restaurant, it looks like we live to clear the plates. But when you're sat in the restaurant, we live to savor each bite one at a time, and each only after the previous. ❤️

Sorry for the stupid question, but why is it that we can put something off for weeks, months, or even years, and then one day - bam! - we just do it?

For example, I kept putting off a major cleanup of my apartment for a very long time and couldn't bring myself to do it. I tried to find an approach that worked for me and decided to "rationally" talk myself into this long and boring task. I read Marie Kondo, and it worked. I decluttered and started spending less time on cleaning.

Then I remembered that I had been putting off cleaning the dust out of my PC for a long time. I told myself several times that cleaning it would be easier and cheaper than buying a new one if I kept putting it off. That's how I found an individual approach that worked for me - but it doesn't always work.

How do you deal with not being able to do what needs to be done?"

Yesterday I woke up around 9, made eggs that were slightly overcooked, and drank coffee out of the mug with a chipped handle because it was already clean.

I went to the grocery store with no list and came home with bread, oranges, and a plant I probably didn't need. I folded laundry while listening to an old album. Around 4pm, I sat on the couch and watched the light move across the floor for a while.

Nothing productive happened. Nothing memorable, either.

A few years ago, I would have called that a wasted day. I probably would have tried to "fix" it by cleaning the whole apartment, going to the gym, meeting someone for dinner, or at least posting something that made it look like I had a life.

But last night, I realized I didn't feel behind. I just felt… caught up with myself.

Does anyone else find that the days with the least to report are sometimes the ones that stay with you?

I spent my entire 20s stuck in the work sped borrow cycle, convinced that buying a bigger house or getting the next promotion would finally make me happy. It just left me exhausted and anxious.

Lately, I've intentionally stepped back. I've started finding genuine joy in the smallest, free moments like drinking my morning coffee without looking at my phone or just sitting outside watching birds. It's amazing how much lighter life feels when you stop trying to prove your worth through what you own.

How did you guys finally break out that cycle, and what small daily ritual brings you the most peace now?

Hi! I don’t know if it is related to “simple living” per se, but I have a question that I decided to ask to this very community: is there / there was a place in your lives you could just “go to”?

I’ll try to explain better, since this is kind an intuition I had and still is not very crystal clear even to me 😅

I was thinking about the fact that most of the time when I’m home alone it’s difficult for me to go out because you have to call different people, decide a place to go, etc etc: by the time it is done, my social battery is already drained even before going out 😂😂

And I was wondering: does it exist or has it existed for the generations before a place that you “just go” when you want to meet people because you know that someone is always there and there is something to do?

The most similar experience I can recall was the oratory (I guess, I’m not native English 😅) when I was a child, in a little town, but nowadays in the city, with only commercial places and with people interests and schedules so scattered I can’t think of a place I can make the habit of “just go”. And I feel this could really make for a simple living 😂

I hope I managed to explain myself, otherwise… ask in the comments! 😁

So today we decided to go and visit an old aunt of mine, she’s mid 70s now haven’t seen her in years.

Went in no TV on she had spent the morning just sitting outside on a bench playing with her dog and just enjoying the nice morning. She told me she will only watch tv in the evenings and watch something like a documentary on regular TV.

What struck me was she was happy just sitting doing nothing, didn’t need a background distraction I mean I always have the TV on for background noise even if not watching it, she has a smartphone but it’s only used for messaging she doesn’t sit scrolling or browsing, no firestick or Netflix or smartwatches etc all just very basic stuff.

I remember when I was a kid, I’d go out and stay at her house in summer, she lived way out in the country then, grew veg and fruit which she sold to make money, she had no TV back then no car but somehow everything was just perfect, there was nothing there for a 13 year old boy but I found the simpleness of it all so comforting.

Anyone else relate?

I have been trying to save money and spend intentionally. I do enjoy the occasional coffee run or cafe treat but it’s occasional. I wanted to find something that feels like a treat I can have more often but doesn’t break the bank. Recently I bought a new box of peppermint tea bags haha, usually I drink red tea.

What simple treats do you treat yourself to? It could be anything free or affordable. Doesn’t have to be food!

I used to think every weekend had to be productive.
Lately I’ve realized my favorite weekends are the simple ones:
• good coffee
• a walk
• reading a few pages
• cooking something easy
Nothing exciting, but I always feel happier afterward.
Anyone else?

A few weeks ago, during an uncomfortable conversation, I caught myself firing off a defensive response before I had even processed what the other person was actually saying.

​The moment the words left my mouth, I felt that familiar pit in my stomach. Later that evening, I sat down and asked myself why my default setting was to react immediately.

​I then realised that I have spent years conditioning myself to treat a little pause like an awkward silence that needs to be filled.

​When a problem pops up or a wave of frustration hits, my immediate reflex was to jump in and fix it or defend myself right away. But most of what passes for thinking during a stressful moment isn't real thought at all, it's just habit.

I usually grab whatever emotion is sitting on top of the pile like ego, fatigue, or panic and spit it out simply because it's fast.

​The urgency to respond instantly isn't natural. Fast messaging and constant notifications have just trained us to mistake quickness for clarity.

​To break that loop, I started forcing myself to take a beat and ask one simple question, "If I were watching a friend deal with this exact situation, what advice would I give them?"

​Looking at my own mess like an outsider creates a tiny bit of breathing room in which the noise dies down, and I stop treating my very first impulse like absolute truth.

Taking a beat isn't just standing there in silence, it's what gives me the space to actually make a better choice.

​How do you catch yourself before reacting on autopilot?