Drive the Superfluous Items From Your Life

It has been said that affluence, not poverty, is the greatest problem facing the world today. There is truth to this statement. Those of us who live in affluent countries use the most resources and are the greatest polluters in the world.

It is not just the global community that is negatively affected by affluence, though. Those of us who are affluent, who live with plenty, are also negatively affected. We are most prone to job stress. We eat poorly and have fewer opportunities to rest, busy working to pay for superfluous stuff that we feel we need to get by. We acquire consumer goods, not for survival or even pleasure, but for status and distraction. The very things we work so hard to acquire keep us from living happy and meaningful lives.

Think about your own life, your own stuff. Do you work long hours to pay for your new vehicle, your big house, credit card bills or cable television? Do you have a home filled with knickknacks and consumer goods, a closet filled with clothes you don't even wear, a medicine cabinet filled with beauty products and pharmaceuticals or a kitchen or garage filled with time-saving devices? If you do, perhaps you need to prioritize.

Consider what is important to you, and what makes you happy. For most people, regardless of whether they realize it, the most important thing is time. Time to spend with family and friends. Time to rest. Time to play. Time to pursue personal interests. Unfortunately, time is something few of us allow ourselves.

Now consider what keeps you from enjoying free or quality time. It is work, right? And why do we work so much? To pay for our stuff. And all this work, all this stuff, is killing us.

Work, the labor of our hands and minds, is a good thing. Not only do we need it to pay for the basic requirements of food, clothing and shelter, it also fulfills the emotional need to learn and grow, to be useful to ourselves and to others. But like any good thing, too much work is dangerous.

When we work too much we rely heavily on restaurants and processed prepared foods that are expensive and unhealthy. After water, food is our most basic requirement. A healthy diet of fresh produce and healthy meals takes time, but can greatly improve your quality of life. Not only will you save on ingredients, your health will benefit as well. You can scratch expensive pharmaceuticals, sick days and doctors visits from your list of extraneous costs, and you will have much more energy and mental focus to pursue your interests. Remember, too, that health equals beauty. You can also scratch diet pills, anti-aging creams, makeup and other expensive beauty products from your list of extraneous costs.

When we work too much we come home tired and stressed out. All we want to do is rent a movie or watch television, and we drive even short distances because we are too tired to move. The thing is, without the cost of videos, cable and audiovisual equipment such as televisions and DVD players, without the cost of a vehicle, vehicle maintenance and gasoline, we do not need to work so much. These superfluous items keep us inactive and unmotivated, and owning them means we have to spend more hours at work. Break this cycle.

Most purchases the average person makes are unnecessary, expensive and contribute to mental and physical clutter. One good-quality knife set can take the place of a dozen garlic presses, food processors, cheese graters, vegetable peelers, food mills and mandolins. A library card will get you out of the house and into the community, and eliminate the need to buy books, videos, CDs, magazines, newspapers and even an Internet connection. Investing in a well-made pair of shoes or other clothing item is smarter, more comfortable and, in the end, more economic than spending the same amount of money on a number of cheaply made, momentary fashions. Choose quality over quantity, and buy only what you need. There is beauty in simplicity, and an opportunity to give your senses a break. The mind needs time to process between input, and despite the

It seems counterintuitive, in our material culture, that to live with less is to improve our lives. We are collectively obsessed with growth and acquisition. Remember, though, excess growth in the body leads to obesity, on a cellular level it means cancer, and on a global scale, as stated before, it means pollution and critical resource depletion. Owning and surrounding yourself with just enough, controlling your consumption and driving superfluous items from your life is a sure way to optimal mental, spiritual, physical and environmental health.

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