I’ve been suffering from some lower back pain which I attribute to a bit of weight gain, stress, and just in general not taking very good care of myself.  Thankfully, I have been practicing slowing down, resting, finding balance-practicing is the key word there.  I’m accepting the lower back pain as a reminder-a reminder that I can’t just eat whatever I want-because other people can.  A reminder that I’m approaching 40.  A reminder that a holistic approach to life was divinely created so that we can choose the highest quality life if we are willing to let go of the things that do not serve us well.

So that’s what I’m doing-and it’s going to be hard.  Here are a few of the ways that I am going to let go and choose to accept what’s best for myself.  There’s a reason why we are so drawn to the idea of minimalism, .  It’s because it is so darn hard!

CLOTHING
I’m not exactly sure what happened, but i’m going to attribute it to our move which revealed items of clothing that we never knew existed.  Never the less we are covered up with clothing and it’s been a huge stressed for me.  Compile that on top of a dryer that recently caught on fire and the reality is that something has to be done about it-quickly.

I was really motivated by THIS ARTICLE that was floating around on social media.  And by motivated I mean that I cringed, gawked, and ignored it for as long as possible-before I realized it was for me.  When I look at my personal wardrobe I realize that I wear three things:  athletic clothing, skirts/t-shirts, and dress clothes.  I’m going to do my best to minimize my closet to those three things while decreasing the number of items I own.

FOOD
Ugg.  I do not even want to go here, but I must.  Motivated by the illness of Nathan’s mom and our daughter Lilah-how in the world can I ignore that the way we eat matters in a huge way.  In fact, I think when we look at the statistics that show us experiencing shorter life expectancy and a higher increase in food related illness-we should all just eat as if we are sick-because in so many ways we are.

So here is what I’m going to do.  I just ordered a 3 day juice fast from my friends at Zest-Juice for Life.  In addition, I’m going to get reconnected to the CERES Community Project which is what first introduced me to good food (in a way that made sense for me).  It’s a good start for me because it’s where I first began my journey with healthy food-juices (smoothies) and nutritious food.

TIME
I’m going to be greatly decreasing my internet and social media time.  This is a given considering the fact that the spring/summer season is upon us.  Reality is that there are farm chores to be done from sun up to sun down.  That said, a good decrease in the amount of social media and online commitment is always good for me.  It helps to ground me in what is true, real and most important.  I’m very much looking forward to it.

Here are a few good tools for either limiting your online time or at least becoming more aware of it.

www.rescuetime.com
www.minutesplease.com

Here are a few photos of what’s happening around the farm right now.