There was a time in my life that I had no car, no phone, no tv, and no internet. It was my first foray into living simply.

I can’t say that it wasn’t truly difficult at first. If I wanted to see somebody, I had to go outside, start walking, and try to find them. If they lived several miles away, this was not an easy thing to accomplish! If I wanted to talk to somebody, I would look for a pay phone. I’d have to plan in advance exactly where and when I would see friends. (No last minute changes were possible in my situation) In order to read the news, I’d go to the library. If I wanted to travel a considerable distance, it would be an all day event. And so on.

But I learned to live in this situation. And I eventually began to appreciate it. Here are some of the things i learned:

• I learned to live without things that initially seemed to be essential.
• I was able to fully appreciate certain conveniences that I had always taken for granted.
• I realized how much unrecognized reliance we place on those conveniences.
• I gained a better understanding of our ability to choose what we really need in order to live our lives

I’m not advocating that we should shun modern society, and start living like cave men and women. But what I do think is important, is having the ability to recognize what it is that you truly rely on and why that reliance is there. This knowledge is essential if you wish to cultivate a greater sense of autonomy, and gain more insight into yourself, as well as the world around you.

(If you stick around for a little while and follow my posts, you’ll learn very quickly that I like to test the limits.)

I’m new to the internet/blogging thing. I know its been around for a while, but hey, I’m online right now thanks to a borrowed computer and a 56k modem. Way ahead of my time ) Its amazing how quickly and easily you can interact with people all over the place. I’ve been “unplugged” for quite a few years now, but am slowly coming up to speed with the rest of the world. (And yes, I’m in my twenties)

Photo by Peggy Greb

Anyways, in response to some commentary(this is so cool) at Escape Brooklyn, Grad Money [Matters], and Festival of Frugality, I thought of a money saving technique that my wife and I often use to deal with the expense of eating “out”.

When my wife and I get the urge to go out to eat, very rarely do we cave in (Friday nights after work are the hardest to deal with). Nevertheless, even when we think that we’re on our way to a restaurant, we often end up taking a last second detour to the grocery store. And the fancy grocery store at that. We end up buying items that we wouldn’t normally get on a usual shopping trip. It’s quite a big cheaper, and we’re still giving ourselves a treat. We’ll eat our food at the store, take it to the park, or or have a picnic outside.

I’ll outline the benefits:

• The urge to go out to eat is completely gone when you’re done (your tummy is full, and the last thing you care about is food!)
• You’ve gotten out of the house/apartment
• There are no dishes to wash
• The selection at the grocery store is practically limitless
• You’ve just saved a lot of money
• You have more control over how nutritious your meal ends up being

Why would anybody choose to sit and do nothing?
Meditation is an activity that doesn’t cost a cent, requires no equipment or special skills, and can be done just about anywhere. All you have to do is sit there and… exist, I guess. Amazingly, something that might seem boring and dull has the potential to be quite exhilarating.

What’s the Point?
I have found that setting aside just a few minutes a day to meditate has brought about meaningful changes in my life. It has allowed me to peel back a few layers, leaving a swifter, more agile version of myself. In addition, it has vastly improved my focus and clarity of thought, and improved my sense of interconnectedness with the world. The effects of meditation will vary based on what you are looking to get out of it, but you’ll most likely find them to be beneficial.

Why I started
In my case, I turned to meditation in order to slow things down and give my overactive brain a rest. Most of us would agree that we find it easy to get caught up in the complexity of the world, constantly having more on our minds than we would like. Our thoughts tend to meander and bounce along an intricate web of all the concrete and abstract ideas that we have ever had, and they rarely focus on anything for a significant period of time. I wanted more control: To be able to ride this roller coaster without putting the bar down.

Sounds interesting, where do I begin?
(Note that I consider myself a novice, and can only speak about what has worked for me. ) I set aside about 10 minutes a day, and here’s what I do. I turn off the lights, sit down, close my eyes, and breathe naturally. I usually just look at the dark movie screen created by the backs of my eyelids. It’s a simple way to focus my attention. When I notice that my thoughts are starting to wander, I calmly remind myself to go back to the dark screen, and continue breathing. At first, you’ll find it to be extremely difficult to keep your mind from wandering, but keep at it… it takes some practice! (I found it amusing that even when I finally did begin to maintain my focus for longer periods of time, I’d get distracted by the fact that I noticed that I was improving!)

Doing it your way
There are literally thousands of ways to meditate. We are all different, and you may find that some techniques work better than others. You can do things like watching trees blow in the wind, repeating a mantra, or just experience … being. The possibilities are pretty much endless, and you can get really creative here. Find out what works for you, and just be forewarned: Meditation just might turn out to be one of those things that you can’t stop doing, and wonder how you ever lived without.

Photo by Dey Alexander

I seem to have grown less carnivorous in the past couple years. It was never really a conscious decision, but more of a gradual progression that was based mostly on practical reasons. Once I realized what was going on, I began to think about more reasons to eat less meat, and the great overall benefits that it brings to ourselves and the planet. Here are a few:

• It is a more efficient use of our natural resources. If you really think about how much food, land, energy, and water it takes to raise animals for meat on a global scale, it’s quite staggering. Instead of inefficiently feeding grains to animals until they are of slaughtering age, you could just feed people directly.
• It is better for the environment. Raising animals for food has a significant impact on the environment, especially when you consider all of the waste that is produced. In fact, according to a recent report by the UN, “Livestock’s Long Shadow - Environmental Issues and Options”, the livestock sector is one of the more significant contributors to the environmental problems that our planet faces, and needs to be addressed in an urgent manner.
• Its cheaper: Some of the most satisfying discount items you’ll find at the grocery store are things like lentils, beans, chickpeas, split peas, and soybeans. (Although if you eat these, I can’t guarantee that you won’t create some emissions of your own ) . You can buy a carton of tofu for about 99 cents, and I’m sure that we’ve all heard the saying ‘to live on peanuts’. Whole grains like brown rice, oatmeal, barley, buckwheat, millet (those are the yellow spheres you find in birdseed), whole wheat, and quinoa all have protein in them and can really fill you up. Eggs and sardines are cheapies as well.
• Its healthier. If you eat less meat, you’ll probably be eating more fruits and vegetables to fill the gap. Numerous scientific studies show that eating more fruits and vegetables leads to better overall health.
• Lower amount of environmental toxins. Since animals are higher than plants on the food chain, it is likely that they will have accumulated more environmental toxins in their tissues. So, if you want to minimize your exposure to the “bad stuff” floating around, you’ll probably be better off eating foods as low on the food chain as possible.
• You don’t have to deal with raw meat. This means less scrubbing of cutting boards, cleaning knives, wiping of countertops, washing your hands, and general vigilance to avoid contaminating your kitchen with foodborne illnesses that might be present in raw meat.
• Ethical reasons. Most people that I know wouldn’t eat a cat or a dog, and yet, they’d have no problem eating a cow–big juicy hamburger or a pig–mouth watering slice of bacon. These are things to think about.
• Possibly more creative meal planning. Without the old chicken standby, I find that my meals offer more variety, and tend to be more creatively planned, simply because I don’t fall back to eating chicken.