by W. Bradford Swift

"It's not a cookie cutter lifestyle," says Vicki Robin of the New Road Map Foundation and co-author of the book, Your Money or Your Life, referring to the varied approaches people have taken to simplifying their lives.

Vicki and her partner, Joe Dominguez, have lived for over twenty years on about $6,000 of annual investment income each, even though their book has been a top seller since being published in 1992.

The proceeds of the book go to organizations that promote a sustainable future for our country and the world, such as the Northwest Earth Institute which offers classes on voluntary simplicity.

Along with Joe and Vicki many other DOMOs are simplifying their life by becoming debt-free. According to John Cummuta, president and founder of Financial Independence Network Limited, Inc. (F.I.N.L.), the Yuppie model of the eighties has turned up empty for many people living it, and the next generation that would be expected to step into that lifestyle is rejecting it, saying, "No, these people aren't happy."

Up until a few years ago, Cummuta led such a lifestyle, working in a top paying position for a company that was doing very well. "I thought, 'this is it, we've achieved the American Dream.'"

At the time Cummuta drove a leased Corvette, his wife a leased Oldsmobile Regency Brougham, and they were making payments on an airplane they kept at the airport not far from their large home. "We did it all on credit," admits Cummuta, "but we could make all the payments. We were not being irresponsible in terms of our culture's norms."

Then the company Cummuta worked for suddenly went out of business, and he found himself without any income. "It was the worst two years of my life, and also the best two years of my life because it burned into me an understanding that I was not a success. I didn't own anything. I was renting a lifestyle and when I could no longer afford the rent payment, I was evicted from the lifestyle."

Out of that experience, Cummuta developed a system that allows people to get completely out of debt, including their mortgage, in about five to seven years and F.I.N.L. was born. Even though Cummuta's company has experienced rapid growth and was listed as one of INC. Magazine's 500 hundred fastest-growing companies in 1994, he continues to run the company with no debt.

Cummuta's approach to debt elimination is simple. Start by cutting up your credit cards. When I heard this, it made sense. If you have a patient who is bleeding to death, first stop the bleeding. But I found doing it not so easy. "What if an emergency arises? I'll need that credit," was just one of several excuses.

When I listened to myself justify keeping my cards intact, I realized how hooked I was on them. Instead of going "cold turkey," I weaned myself off of them, keeping one card safely tucked away in a safe deposit box to avoid impulse spending.

Once you've stopped the bleeding, Cummuta's Financial Freedom Strategy has three major stages: Pay off ALL debt first, operate strictly on a cash basis, and then focus all available cash on wealth-building. A fourth stage that Cummuta claims more and more Americans are choosing is to move to a cheaper, safer, and more enjoyable location.

This was the case for Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska, who acknowledge they were 'fast trackers' living in Los Angeles. Frank was a successful, though harried, screenwriter and freelance journalist, and Wanda a newspaper reporter for the Examiner. But after seven years of LA living, they realized they were miserable.

"It reached a point that the marriage wasn't going to make it without more time for each other and other pursuits," says Levering.

When Frank's father, who owned an orchard in Virginia, suffered a serious heart attack and none of the other six kids expressed an interest in taking over the orchard, Frank and Wanda decided to move back east. While they were fortunate to have such a place to move to, the orchard also came with a debt of over a $100,OOO and was going down hill.

"Those two factors forced us to simplify," admits Levering, and with such a large debt, all their spare cash went to paying it off. "We were looking for ways to cut costs and save money. In a number of areas we started cutting costs and found out that we liked it."

After moving into an old farmhouse, they decided, rather then go deeper in debt to furnish it, to live with what they had and economize wherever they could. "We discovered that we liked the whole process and we were feeling better about ourselves, despite the hard work," in part because they often worked together which gave them back time for their relationship which had been missing in L. A.

Since they were both writers, they eventually decided to write about their experiences, and co-authored Simple Living: One Couple's Search for a Better Life.

URBAN SIMPLICITY

Although many people have found moving to the country approach works well for them, it's not a necessity. Jeff Beal, his wife and child, live in the Los Angeles area because that is what works for their careers.

As a song writer and singer, respectively, the Beals prefer the city setting, although they do feel that moving to a more country setting may be in their future. "Because I'm an artist, some of the things that mean the most to me as a composer don't generate the most amount of money.

I'm concerned with having a lifestyle that isn't so extravagant that I have to sale my artistic soul to support my lifestyle." The Beals have managed to live simply despite their urban setting by becoming more conscious of what they spend their money on. Rather than trading in their cars every couple of years for new models, they've chosen to keep their older ones.

Around the house, they're much more likely to try to fix a broken appliance than rushing out and buying a new one, as well as making their own home repairs rather than hiring someone. Eating out is another place where they've been able to save substantially. "People in L. A. tend to eat out a lot," observes Beal. "We've found that when we do it less, it's more enjoyable when we do go out."

Penny Yunuba is another example of someone living the simple life in the city. She quit her job in 1988 to live her life the way she wanted. She rented one of her bedrooms to someone and sold her car because public transportation and friends made it possible to live without one.

She volunteers her time to an organization that in turn pays her health insurance. In this way she has designed a life far different from the get-ahead treadmill of her previous career in microcomputer sales.

Yunuba says one of the side benefits of living a simple lifestyle is the depth and closeness of her friendships. Although it was not something she expected, it is one of the greatest joys in her life.

Simple living "gives people a fresh set of eyes to look at old habitual patterns to discover for themselves empowered new ways of doing things," observes Vicki Robin. "It's the joy that comes from that awakening that leads to tremendous savings and feelings of freedom and control."

One of Vicki's favorite stories comes from a family who followed the steps outlined in their book to simplify their lives. After following the program for awhile, they suddenly noticed they were not using their dining room, preferring to eat their meals in the family room.

So, they sold the dining room furniture. They, then, converted the room into a spare bedroom and had a couple move in trading room and board for yard work, house work, and child care.

The room became known as their "$6,000 room" because they calculated they had been spending that much for those services. Such creative ideas become the norm when people begin to take back their lives and have time for what's truly important to them.

THE INNER ROADS TO SIMPLICITY

As Mark Burch points out in his book, Simplicity: Notes, Stories and Exercises for Developing Unimaginable Wealth, simplicity starts with a fundamental shift in consciousness, otherwise you will continue to be uptight, worried and stressed, whether you have a lot of possessions or you have none at all.

For Burch, simple living "does not begin with discarding personal possessions and then searching for alternative, simpler ways of meeting the same needs. Rather, the technology begins with the cultivation of mindfulness. As we grow in our capacity for and enjoyment of mindfulness, then the outer aspects of our lives eventually and progressively come into alignment with this changed consciousness."

As Ann and I continued along our path of simple living, we found this process occurring naturally and with little effort. Even though we enjoyed living in Greensboro NC, a midsize city in the central part of the state, we found we shared a hidden fantasy of one day living in the mountains, so we began taking weekend trips exploring likely locations.

In the process, we found the mountains soothing to our inner nature. It gave us both a feeling like we had come home, even though neither of us had ever lived in the mountains. One area in particular beckoned to us, but we heard from everyone we talked to that it was a resort and retirement community and far too expensive an area to settle in.

Still, we couldn't get it out of our minds. We each sat with it, meditating and praying. A few months later, upon returning from a spiritual retreat in Alabama, I swung out of my way to drive through the area once more. Within less then 30-minutes of returning to our "favorite spot" I discovered the perfect house for sale.

On further investigation we found that since the home had a lower level apartment which could be rented at seasonal rates, we could live exactly where we wanted to in a larger home for significantly less money. It even had not one but two decks. Such synchronicity seems to run hand-in-hand with the mindfulness that Burch speaks about. The inner knowing becomes clearer as one becomes more focused in life.

Another aspect of the inner journey of simplicity is the willingness to simplify mentally, emotionally and spiritually -- to let go of old ways of thinking that no longer serve you, old emotional wounds of regret, jealousy, and resentments.

As Birch points out it also means for many of us, letting go of what we think we know about God. "I had to let go of huge hunks of stuff that I was taught in the name of religion," says Birch who was raised as a Roman Catholic.

Over the years I have come to realize as I simplify my outer world, that my inner world deserves equal time. A simpler life provides this time to focus, to stop, breath, and reflect on what needs to be released as well as examine what is really important.

Whether this is done in a quiet mountain setting, at the local coffee house, or privately in one's home, the opportunity to reflect upon one's life is an important one. When one takes the time to do this, one of the things they realize is that there is a close relationship between simplicity and spiritual growth. Often, it is also a part that terrifies many people.

"What happens if I turn off the TV and there's silence, then what?" asks Burch. "That idea is so anxiety provoking that usually we keep the TV on, or go to the beach, or get a new car, or stay busy and in motion? But if I turn off the TV and it's quiet then what do I do? Where will I point my mind and what will I do with my will? The spiritual writers tell us that if you will stay with that, stay in that quiet, in fact, enter it more deeply, and you move beyond the feeling anxious and be in the silence and emptiness of that moment, then grace and God be willing, you will know God a little more."

Ernest Callenbach, author of Living Cheaply with Style and the classic, Ecotopia, says it more bluntly. "I don't think it's possible to live a rich spiritual life if you are very concerned with buying and selling as the main thing about your life. Leading a reflective life requires you to detach from a lot of petty, passing human concerns, and consumerism is about the most petty and passing human concern that we're exposed to.

"To my knowledge, all known religions, including Christianity, recommends, not austerity, but simplicity as a spiritual discipline," continues Callenbach. As it says in the Bible, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

"I think we can translate that pretty directly into modern terms. If you are caught up in the consumer economy to the extent that it impoverishes the rest of your spiritual being, you certainly aren't going to obtain any kind of enlightenment."

If however one uses the practice of simplicity to free up some time, then uses that time to deepen spiritually and emotionally, it tends to motivate the person to simplify further which leads to more free time.

For some, this newly found "free time" may lead to a renewed level of creativity; for others the time may be spent more introspectively in meditation or other spiritual practices; still others may find their time spent in service of their fellow human beings. "You'll find what your time is for once you start to have it," observes Vicki Robins.

SIMPLE LIVING AND GAIA

Many of the people who choose to live a simpler lifestyle, do so, at least in part, because it allows them to walk gentler upon the face of Mother Earth.

According to the Yearning for Balance study, environmental sustainability is an important question for many Americans, with 86% of the survey respondents saying they are concerned with the quality of the environment, and 93% of them admitting that an underlying cause of environmental problems is that "the way we live produces too much waste."

"The level of consumption that we identify with success is utterly unsustainable," says John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America and the forthcoming Reclaiming Our Health: Exploding the Medical Myth and Embracing the Source of True Healing (H.J. Kramer). "We're gobbling up the world."

Many Americans are still coming to grip with the fact that the world's resource base is limited. More and more, living simply is not only a good idea, it is becoming paramount to our survival.

"Prosperity based on pollution is not prosperity," continues Robbins. "It's short term profit, long term disaster." Robbins, the heir-apparent to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream fortune until he walked away from it at the age of twenty-one, has an interesting prospective on the affluent lifestyle so long held as the American Dream.

"I had the privilege of growing up in a very wealthy family. Among my parents' friends were some of the wealthiest people in the world, and, I must tell you in all honesty, they were also some of the most neurotic people in the world. So I've had the opportunity to learn first hand that acquiring things can be a total distraction. What we've done in our society is to make greed into a lifestyle; we've almost made it into a religion."

In his book, Living Cheaply with Style, Callenbach points out that, as with other aspects of simple living, leading an ecologically responsible life doesn't mean self-sacrifice or austerity. It does, in fact, result in a richer, fuller, longer and healthier life.

One way to understand this is to consider what Callenbach calls the Green Triangle. The three points of the triangle are environment, health and saving money, with the basic connecting principle being, "Anytime you do something beneficial for one of them, you will almost inevitably also do something beneficial for the other two whether you're aiming to or not."

Callenbach claims this principle holds true 96-98 percent of the time. He cites as an example, people's diet. The American culture is obsessed right now with eating less fat in their diet. Interestingly enough, "eating a lower fat diet also saves you, sometimes astonishing amounts of money," says Callenbach, "and of course, it's also good for the Earth since raising cattle is ecologically destructive."

Dick and Jeanne Roy are two people who have not only promised to tread lightly on the earth but are also teaching thousands of others how to do the same through their nonprofit organization, the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) in Portland Oregon.

For over 20 years, the Roys have held true to their promise, despite their six-figure income from Dick's job as managing partner of one the largest law firms in the Northwest, a position he retired from in 1993 to work full time as a volunteer at the Institute.

NWEI offers three discussion courses in workplaces, churches and schools; Deep Ecology and Related Topics, Voluntary Simplicity, and The Bioregional Perspective - Discovering Your Natural Community. Says Roy about the Voluntary Simplicity course, "Once you've gone through the course, it's hard to live in denial.

Fundamentally, people find that simplicity is taking control and through simplicity you enrich your life. It's hard not to come to that conclusion." Unfortunately, according to the Yearning for Balance study, although Americans realize something must be done, many are "waiting for somebody else to act first: their neighbors, big corporations, or the government."

Others feel that technology will be our environmental savior. As one participant of the study said, "technology will make your life easier and cheaper and environmentally http://...safer...as it develops. I don't think simplifying your life is going to do one bit."

If such thinking persists in our culture, we may be in for a rude awakening within the not-too-distant future. "Probably in the 2020's we, as a planet, are going to hit an ecological wall," predicts Duane Elgin, author of The Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness, and his 1983 book, Voluntary Simplicity, which is considered a classic by many people pursuing a simpler life.

Elgin has chosen to take an "earn as you go" approach to simple living, rather than build up a nest egg and living off the interest.

"I don't think there is going to be some magical transformation within the year 2000. There might be a TV special, but that's about it. If we have not prepared for this, in terms of evolving our culture and consciousness, and in terms of creating tools of mass communication so we can talk our way through it, we're going to descend into resource wars, massive civil unrest, and a huge die-off of people on the planet. The combination of the ecological adversity and the psychological and political problems could send us into an evolutionary detour."

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W. Bradford Swift is the Founder and Director of the Life On Purpose Institute, with a mission of advancing “A world where all people live purposeful, passionate and playful lives of service; lives of mindful abundance balanced with simplicity; and spiritual serenity.

His books include Life on Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life
 [Paperback]  [MP3 Audio Download]

Visit Life On Purpose for a wide range of programs and resources.

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