Conscious Simple Living Benefits
The Difference Between Simplicity and Poverty
How voluntarily living more simply can help reduce poverty by consuming less and contributing more.
Living in a more frugal way helps simplify your life while assisting others quality of life. When we’re not overconsuming material luxuries, we help contribute to a better environment, decrease poverty, increase our self reliance and develop personal skills for survival if needed.
Other Benefits of Simple Living:
- You’re more likely to have the opportunity to slow down and take more time for your family and community when you’re not focused on how to consume and get more material possessions.
- By boycotting goods that are sold unethically, you help make a stand on the unfair treatment of people, animals and the environment. If everyone stopped purchasing from companies that allowed such things as child labor and testing on animals they would eventually be put out of business.
- Communities blossom when they become more involved in simple community living activities such as do it yourself projects, crafts and community gardens. By sharing new skills, people help each other become more self sufficient. Because they are consuming less material things, they can also acknowledge that they’re conscious of the effects that their consumptions have on others.
- By eliminating things such as processed food from your family’s diet, you can send a message to food industries that you support healthy living and don’t want to pay for unhealthy food. Another way to ensure you have healthy organic food is to grow your own fruit and vegetables. Participating in a community garden also helps others by contributing socially, environmentally and educationally.
- By reusing and recycling you can also help contribute to a healthier environment and reduce pollution and poverty.
Some ways you can recycle and reuse are:
- Purchase clothing in thrift stores.
- Create a compost in your yard.
- Use a rain water barrel to water your plants.
- Repair furniture and appliances instead of purchasing new ones.
- Repair things yourself such as refinishing furniture.
- Purchase used items in flea markets and create something new.
- Recycle your cans, glass and paper so that they can be used again.
- Purchase used books.
- Donate used clothing or cut them into rags to use for cleaning or sewing a new creation.
For more information on simple living here are some resources:
The Simple Living Network provides resources, tools, contacts and examples for conscious, simple, healthy and restorative living including a free, on-line Newsletter, Discussion Forums, OnLine Study Groups, SimpleRadio programs and much more.
Frugal Living - Encouragement and tips for families seeking simple lifestyles. Frugal living helps eliminate debt and teaches families to live within or below their means.
Reference: Voluntary Simplicity (Duane Elgin, 1993)
