Chrystal's Crew: SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE

I read a book just recently while I was traveling called

"Simplify Your Life

100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Thing That Really Matter"

Here are a few of the ideas that I enjoyed. Now, keep in mind, these are quotes from the book and some of them are out of context. These are not my ideas, just ones that I think are good. I learned a lot from this book and recommend it to anyone. I can't quite commit myself to all 100 ideas, but I already live my life according to over 50 of them.

We want to free ourselves from the commitments, the people, and the obligations that kept us from having time to do the things we really want to do. It has greatly reduced the stress that comes from doing things we don't want to do.

Wise men and women in every major culture throughout history have found that the secret to happiness is not in getting more but in wanting less.

The idea is not to deny yourself the things you want, but to free yourself from the things you don't want.

People are tired of being driven by entertainment market forces. They're coming to realize the best thing in life are free, and that doing less can mean having more - more serenity, more happiness, more peace of mind.

Speed Cleaning, by Jeff Campbell and the Clean Team available from Dell Publishing

Unplugging the Plug-in Drug, by Marie Winn.

This book explains TV addiction, and offers an easy, step-by-step program both you and your children can use to reduce or eliminate the use of television.

Stop The Mail (literally, junk mail), P.O. Box 9008, Famringdale, NY 11735-9008

One of their (media) primary purposes is to get us to buy the products they advertise. Month after month, year after year, they create expectations about our lives we're often not even aware of.

It's not surprising that, through the lure of page after page of enticing four-color ads, advertisers set our fashion and cooking and eating trends, and regulate and promote our social lives. They encourage us to smoke, drink, and drive fast cars, and to buy expensive clothes, jewelry, furniture, and hundreds of other products that, for the most part, we don't really want, often can't afford, and which seldom live up the their advertising claims.

Mathoms

(I love this, and have a shelf of many suitable mathoms)

A mathom was an object of any value for which a use could not be found, but which the owner was not prepared to discard completely.

Rather than spending untold hours shopping for and agonizing over gifts that are never quite right, you can go straight to your mathom box and find something that's absolutely not right!

I've also let my friends know that they are free to pass on (or possibly fob off) these "treasures" to someone else whenever appropriate.

Living simply is not a matter of living cheaply or of feeling deprived. On the contrary, it's an opportunity to get in touch with what is really important in your life, and to reach a level of moderation that will create not only a feeling of contentment and security, but also a sense of being in control.

Teach your kids to save half of what they earn from their allowance or part-time jobs. Kids can learn, just as we are learning, that we don't have to have everything we see or everything the Joneses have.

Kids can learn, as we are learning, how advertisers appeal to our emotions rather than our needs. Kids can learn that if they don't have the money, they can't afford it, and that buying on credit can often lead to serious financial difficulties.

There are dozens of medications we could do without if we just changed the way we live, so that the problems go away and eliminate the symptoms.

Take time right now to think about a few special rituals you could create either on your own or with your family that would make each day memorable.

People do what they want to do. Understanding this has made it possible for me to see the fine line between being supportive and getting in the way. When it comes right down to it, we can't change other people. They change when they are good and ready. We all have to get out of our own predicaments.

Most often what people really want is a supportive ear.

Now I just listen. Boy, has that simplified my life.

When I Say No, I Feel Guilty, by Manuel J. Smith

This classic bestseller from the 1970's will give you the verbal tools you need to reduce your commitments and make your time your own again.

Just because she may like someone, she doesn't have to give up her free time to be with them,

unless she wants to.

Constantly reliving past events only complicates your life. Reinterpretting them as positive steps forward, and then moving on, will keep things simple.

Our culture is not structured to readily accommodate those who choose to simplify.

(It's me again, now I'm expressing my own thoughts)

While I was out of town reading this book I rode (my bike) to a quaint, SIMPLE, little town,

Bumble Bee, AZ.

Here are some SIMPLE pictures below.

I am ALL for living SIMPLE, but I am not quite ready for this!

This house is on one side of the road below the school house.

This school house is a private residence

These houses are across the street from the school

That's the whole town!

Then there is a really nice "DUDE" Ranch up the road a 1/4 mile before the town.

This is a very beautiful area if you like the desert. It is located about 1 hour north of Phoenix, oustide of Black Canyon City. I ride my bike in this area. I thought I was out in the middle of nowhere and then all of a sudden, there is this little community.

Life is DEFINITELY SIMPLE here!