Simplify

Ashtanga yoga is a lot about purifying. Purifying your body. Purifying your mind. This leads to health and happiness. When purifying the mind, it leads to a quieter mind, a free mind.

As you all know, the economy is going down. This means many people will have less money to spend. Some people will loose their jobs, and others will be cautious with their economy in case they loose their job. In any case, we have to think twice about how we spend our money. Although it might be bad for our economical system that we spend less, I think it is a good thing on many other levels.

So, is it possible to have a good life, and spend less money? I think so. It's possible if you simplify your life. And simplifying is a form of purification. The less you have to keep your mind busy, the quieter it will become. I have already simplified my life a lot the past few years, and I'm feeling great. I'm doing fewer things, but the things I am doing I do with more awareness and presence. So, I feel that my life now is richer than it was before. There seems to be a hype in our society to be busy. Busy=intersting. According to my own experiences, busy= unawareness. When you are always busy, there is no time to really BE in the present moment.

Last year I was saving money to be able to go to Mysore. It made me aware of all the little unnecessary things I spent money on. Things I bought without thinking twice. It's not about not consuming, but about making better and more concious choices. Maybe you want a new, bigger flat tv. Everyone at work is talking about their new flatscreens, and you want to have that too! Your tv is perfectly fine, but it would be nice with a bigger tv with sharper images. But you also want that new computer, and a new camera since you are going to travel soon. Suddenly you realize that you have to put in a few more hours every week a work to be able to save up the money. Since you work more, you're feeling stressed and you start sleeping less. You worry that you won't make it. You have a lot of thoughts spinning in your mind. By simplifying your life you make a choice to keep things simple. That could meen that you're ok with your old tv, it's more important to be able to sleep and work less to have more spare time, perhaps just to do nothing! Time to be present in life.