From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Simple Living by Georgene Lockwood, 2000.

Chapter 2: Simplicity and the Spirit

“Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.”– Julia Cameron

The Least You have to Know

1. Simple living can be a spiritual journey that’s totally unique to you.
2. Thinking more about your freedom of choice and exercising it more completely is an important part of the simple living path.
3. Seeking silence, nature, and gratitude will help you create a more lasting move towards simplicity in your life.
4. By simplifying your life, you’ll learn to rely more on your own creativity and will have more fun.

Some Ideas to Get You Started

1. Try going through the day without anything in the background. Try not speaking unless spoken to. Keep to yourself and close the door. Do you find you’re uncomfortable with silence? Don’t be alarmed. You’re having a natural reaction to a significant change in your environment. If you practice being quiet more often, it will bother you less. You may even look forward to it!
2. One way you can enjoy nature is to start gardening. Spending time outside planning, planting, weeding and harvesting your own home-grown vegetables provides the perfect excuse to spend time communing with the natural world. For many people, gardening is the perfect form of meditation, too!
3. To help you get started with your nature journal, you might enjoy reading “Nature Journaling: Learning to Observe and Connect with the World Around You” by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth. Another good read is “A Trail through Leaves; The Journal as a Path to Place” by Hannah Hinchman.
4. Start a gratitude journal. Everyday, mentally or in writing, list 3 things you’re grateful for today. At night before you go to bed, list 3 things you noticed or that happened during the day that you are grateful for. It may sound a little hokey, but after a week of doing it daily, see if you haven’t had a shift in your perspective, a change in your attitude? I’ll be shocked if you don’t.
5. Re the gratitude exercise listed above: No fair listing the same things every day, even if it’s true! Stretch yourself when you think about your blessings. Tune yourself in to the changing face of your abundance.

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