RECIPE FOR SIMPLICITY

Living simply can make us happy. Happiness studies through the years show that what makes us happy isn't stuff.

RECIPE FOR SIMPLICITY

1. Don't bring any material thing into your home unless you absolutely love it.

2. Live in a home with a cozy environment.

3. Live a balanced life: daydream, relax, prepare a leisurely meal or take a walk.

4. Work no more than 30 minutes from home.

5. Limit your children's extracurricular activities so they don't grow up addicted to constant stimulation.

6. Travel. Living in a different culture fascinates us, excites us, and vitalizes us. It teaches us to live in the present.

7. Spend at least an hour a week in a natural setting. There is nothing more basic than the natural world.

8. Cultivate a practice of silence or solitude, even if it is just 15 to 30 minutes a day.

9. Practice saying "No" to things that don't bring you inner peace and fulfillment. Live consciously and deliberately.