What is downshifting? click here to find out.
Are you one of those people working 12 hours plus a day, spending much of that time commuting, having to work late or work at the weekends? Do you take all of your allocated holiday leave? Do you you feel that life is like a roller coaster that you cannot get off.
The working culture in the UK at the moment is a ‘long hours culture’ and we are out of synch with almost every other country in the world. We put pressure on people to put in long hours at work. We reward those that are in the office at 7am and are still there at 9pm irrespective of the fact that they cannot possibly be functioning efficiently after all that time. We hear people brag about the fact that they work 75 hours a week, as though it is something to be proud of!
Eventually, however much you are stimulated by and enjoy your job, it just becomes too much. Even the lure of a very large renumeration package begins to lose its appeal.
Life is too short to live to work when really we should be working to live – to earn sufficient money and allow us to have the time to do the things we enjoy.
The following is an excerpt from the Downshifter page I told you about in class. It is edited by RichardCannon (richard@thedownshifter.co.uk) and has useful information on how to escape from the wear and tear, dash and rush society we live in. All those who wish to change their lifestyle should visit it and take heed of the advice therein.
Hello and welcome to ‘The Downshifter’, a site created at the beginning of 2006.Through a few years of excessive media coverage on downshifting, the ‘escape’ has come to mean an easy route to health and happiness without too much attention being paid to the sacrifice and hard work it entails.
Planned correctly and with your family behind you, this can be achieved, but it brings about new stresses and strains, most of which have never been experienced before.
Taking the financial side out of the equation, it is the answer to a less stressful and happier existance, something we all fully deserve as, it would appear, we don’t get a second chance on this world !
But, mouths have to be fed, bills have to be paid and a lot of these are the unexpected type.
I have written these pages with 8 years of a personal downshifting experience which is still ongoing and changing weekly (see My Story),
I am still earning probably less than half the amount I was 6 years ago but, yes, I am a happier and healthier person, I see my family more than ever before and I have become more at one with nature and self. A kind of ‘life direction’ has been established. I would never, ever go back !
Some people can downshift with ample fiance to support them through the rest of their working life, some have to downshift because they’ve had no other option, through redundancy etc.
For most it is a sacrifice of many things we have simply got used to. So downshifting is a challenge – and I mean a big challenge. It will change your life and your outlook on it.
It’s a grand life, but ‘it ain’t always an easy one !’.
Helendipity 