Downshifting is about slowing down your pace, finding a better work/life balance, consequently embracing living with less and leading a simpler, greener and happier life!
Downshifting isn’t about moving to new counties or countries, in fact, if you are looking to start a ‘completely’ new life, you’ll arm yourself with the best chance of success by ‘dipping your toes’ into a few of our ideas and making changes within your own four walls, long before you reach for a map!
The suggestions from the InterNational Downshifting Week team are relatively easy to adopt, yet can have great bearing on your everyday life and the way you spend your time and money.
And if you are wondering why ‘slow down’ is so closely linked to ‘green up’, that’s simple.
‘Slowing down’ could mean anything from not doing that extra hour of overtime, because you want to get home and see the family. Or perhaps, more radically, making the decision to ditch the 3 hour commute to work and taking a local job or working from home, so you have more time to enjoy life.
Generally it refers to us tipping the favour of the work / life balance in favour of ‘life’. The consequence of this is that usually, you earn less money.
As a result, you become a little more thrifty and get clever with your money, making things last longer. You ditch lavish restaurant meals and cook a few from fresh using delicious seasonal, local ingredients instead. You buy ‘new’ only when necessary; second-hand is savvy and you can save a fortune by making a few shopping changes.
So whether you planned to or not, you’re ‘greening up’! You are becoming more resourceful, more inventive and usually more open-eyed to the ‘take-away, throw away, instant fix’ society we sometimes find ourselves in.
It’s quite common to find yourself being more eco-friendly by default! For example, a new sweater might cost you £30.00 in a high street store….in the charity shop, I doubt you’d spend more than £3.00. The charity benefit, your community benefits (a local charity perhaps), your pocket benefits and you have earned yourself a green star without even realising it!
There’s a very useful phrase to remember when you are setting out to find your ‘comfort level’ of downshift.
“The more money you spend, the more time you have to be out there earning it and the less time you get to spend with the ones you love.”
If you keep that in the back of your mind, it can be an incredible driving force!
So off you go to to our list of suggestions, find something that inspires you and make a start today!
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Definition
Noun: downshift
1. A change from a financially rewarding but stressful career to a less well paid but more fulfilling one
2. A change to a lower gear in a car or bicycle
Verb: downshift
1. Change to a lower gear
2. Move to a less stressful or satisfying job of lower status and/or pay
SOURCE – www.WordWebOnline.com
