In 2002, Bernadette Ferrer realized her life needed to change. Too much of her energy was being spent on things that did not matter to her. There was too much clutter, too much consumerism, too much of everything. She donated her television to charity, but decided she needed to do more to weed out the clutter and get back to what is important to her. She decided to live simply.

Ferrer is one of many people deciding to limit their material possessions. Simple living is a lifestyle focused around the premise of "less is more," where practitioners try to only hold onto the possessions they feel they need in their lives. While the reason people choose to live simply may differ from person to person, the goal is the same: to remove clutter and focus on the important things, whatever they may be. "Material goods, or material wealth, didn't leave me feeling nourished or happy," says Ferrer, a fifty-one-year-old business owner. "I had to stop and rethink my value system and nourish my health."

Those who choose to simply live do so for numerous reasons. Some want to combat capitalism, while others may want to focus more on their families. "A speeded-up life not only robs us of time to connect with others, but it is also impatient and angry," says Janet Luhrs, author of The Simple Living Guide. "When we slow down and make space in our lives, we notice the little things."

Elaine St. James and her husband Tony Gibbs decided to simplify their lives in 1990. "We had a good life. We just didn't have the time or energy to enjoy it," she writes in Living the Simple Life. "Our challenge was to create a simpler life right where we were, in a town we love, with the people we care about." St. James got rid of the possessions that she felt were just taking up space in their house. She and her husband also reduced their daily routines, doing less cooking or housecleaning and instead watching a sunset and spending more time with friends and family. They changed their buying patterns too, not only to reduce how much they purchased, but also limit the amount of items they would have to maintain.

"It was about learning to say no to many of the social and civic activities we'd often felt obligated to do," St. James says, "so we'd have to time to enjoy the silence, or start one of our creative projects, or learn to do nothing for a change."

Ferrer agrees that her simple lifestyle allowed her to free her mind of the pressure of meeting the standards of society. "We are a consumer society," she says. "We are bombarded with the media and the opinions of others, and we are asked to accept it without question. After realizing this, I decided to look at myself from within and seek my own truth."

"We need awareness," says Luhrs, who also ran Simpleliving.com, a website that connected people, products, and ideas that deal with living simply. "Why are we accepting one more appointment, taking on one more class, buying one more item that will cause us to work more hours to pay for it and so on? Get to the deep motivation for each little item on your agenda. Think hard about this stuff. Some will make logical sense, some will not."

Those who choose to live simply eventually find that with more time in their lives, they can start to focus on other interests they may not have had time to engage in before. In her book, Luhrs states that the reason we as society stay busy is because of the fear to discover who we are. We make our lives so complex so we can avoid having to experience what is actually happening around us. "When we live simply, we slow down, and see, and feel," Luhrs writes. "When we rarely take the time to nurture ourselves, we can be pretty empty inside."

When Ferrer decided to slow down her life, she was able to make time for what was important to her: herself. She rediscovered her appreciation for music of all genres, and more importantly, she regained self-awareness and self-respect. "I feel very happy," she declares. "I own my own company. I don't seek parties or friends, or even a boyfriend. I feel peaceful with myself. I feel that I am on solid ground. I have a more acute sense of what's going on around me and I have the strength to simply walk away." She feels that simple living would be especially beneficial to today's youth. "I would tell them to identify who you are and what you want to become," Ferrer advises. "We all have to find the peace within ourselves and when you do find it, that is simple living." [X]