Coney
April 27th, 2005, 05:25 PM
This is a good website in general, but they have lots of interesting articles on there. Lots of Natural Healing, making your own soap...that kind of thing.
http://houseofstrauss.co.uk/
Living outside the monetary system
"One of the toughest questions people ask me is 'What do you and your partner do?' Invariably in modern 21st century, this ambiguous question means, 'what do you do to earn money and pay your way in life?' Richard and I do not 'work' we have a two year old daughter and have chosen to be with her in order to provide her with what we perceive to be, an advantage in life; an advantage that money cannot buy.
Our chosen lifestyle does not provide us with an income, but after careful, introspective thought we realised that the things which make us happy; truly, intrinsically happy were not things which were money or 'purchase power' related. To break away from the myth that unless we have newer, better, faster we cannot be truly happy takes a lot of soul-searching and self-analysis; not so much to reach that realisation, but to have the conviction and courage to live by that realisation.
Some of our life values include being true to ourselves, having the time and opportunities to explore and develop our own directions and inclinations in life, and being able to share time and common interests within our family unit. When we were both working full time, we simply could not live a life that was true to ourselves. We see our priority as parents to demonstrate a lifestyle which is rewarding - we want to show our daughter that it is good to be here, on planet earth. Being satisfied with our lives shows her that one can step outside of the 'norm' and lead an active, rewarding, enriching and meaningful life and that it is not what she does or earns that is necessary for our approval. When you start to follow your own volition, your own interests, your passions and you Self in depth, you come to realise there is a huge resource within that as yet has been untapped, undeveloped, unexplored and you begin to appreciate that 'doing' and 'earning' is not always that which brings satisfaction. There is never a day that goes by when we are bored or feel unfulfilled - compare that to the average working person. We have discovered too that when we follow a project or research which stems from our own passions and volitions we feel good about the end result ourselves; in the workplace where the majority of the time you do not share the same values, you need the approval of your boss or colleagues to feel you have achieved something or done a good days work - hence our feeling that we are providing good role models and positive energies in which to bring up our daughter.
It is estimated that on an average day, every person is subjected to at least 300 subliminal (and not so subliminal) marketing messages - even if you don't watch TV or read the newspapers you will still be receiving these messages from billboards, the internet, posters in shop windows, the shape of the bottle your water comes in and from your friends. What is advertising all about? In our opinion, it is a method of brainwashing you into believing that you want or need something - attractive people selling attractive things that will enrich your life and bring you happiness and power. What is it you need in order to be able to have these things? Money, and what do you need to do in order to get money? Work, and thus the cycle of consumerism is complete: you go to work to earn purchasing power so that you can buy the things the marketing messages are telling you you need to be happy. The irony is that often when we work, we are too tired and do not have the energy to enjoy the so called 'rewards' of our lifestyle.
We are told through advertising that unless we have these new things, we are not as good as our peers, we are not as happy as we deserve to be or that we are not attaining the standards set for us by society. These beliefs go to a very deep, psychological level - we feel that they reach to an intrinsic part in all of us as humans; that they echo back to one of our deepest instincts of herding - if we aren't as good as the rest of the herd, then we might be picked off or rejected by the rest of the tribe; which on evolutionary terms would have been catastrophic to our survival. These advertising campaigns successfully reach to the core of our beings as humans; utilising tactics that resonate deep within us at a subconscious level.
We are driven towards having to earn money in order to buy things - no one bothers to learn how to do things themselves anymore, they just earn money to pay someone else to do it for them - and that we are told is what makes the world go round. No one bothers to ask the question 'Do I really want this stuff?' we blindly follow our friends, our neighbours, our colleagues, indeed our herd. A friend of a friend is a landscape gardener, she once said she's sad for the people who hire her to do their showy gardens for her neighbours and friends to see, when they're really missing the experience of creating the garden space.
We are saddened that as a whole, the exchange of energy has been totally lost and it appears that money is the only currency of value within the 'developed' world. This is why people are slaving their guts out selling their souls to the workplace and are losing sight of who they are, why they are here and what their gifts are and it's probably why we're all in therapy too, because we no longer know how to relate to one another, respect ourselves or communicate.
To fulfil our chosen lifestyle, we have made changes; big changes. We grow our own food, repair clothes or buy from charity shops, gratefully receive and adapt hand me downs, we don't choose recreational activities that cost money. We don't buy processed food and instead of using electricity to keep us warm we go out and collect and burn wood to keep warm in the winter. We do all our own house repairs, fix our car and make our own toiletries." .....
for the rest:
http://houseofstrauss.co.uk/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=442
http://houseofstrauss.co.uk/
Living outside the monetary system
"One of the toughest questions people ask me is 'What do you and your partner do?' Invariably in modern 21st century, this ambiguous question means, 'what do you do to earn money and pay your way in life?' Richard and I do not 'work' we have a two year old daughter and have chosen to be with her in order to provide her with what we perceive to be, an advantage in life; an advantage that money cannot buy.
Our chosen lifestyle does not provide us with an income, but after careful, introspective thought we realised that the things which make us happy; truly, intrinsically happy were not things which were money or 'purchase power' related. To break away from the myth that unless we have newer, better, faster we cannot be truly happy takes a lot of soul-searching and self-analysis; not so much to reach that realisation, but to have the conviction and courage to live by that realisation.
Some of our life values include being true to ourselves, having the time and opportunities to explore and develop our own directions and inclinations in life, and being able to share time and common interests within our family unit. When we were both working full time, we simply could not live a life that was true to ourselves. We see our priority as parents to demonstrate a lifestyle which is rewarding - we want to show our daughter that it is good to be here, on planet earth. Being satisfied with our lives shows her that one can step outside of the 'norm' and lead an active, rewarding, enriching and meaningful life and that it is not what she does or earns that is necessary for our approval. When you start to follow your own volition, your own interests, your passions and you Self in depth, you come to realise there is a huge resource within that as yet has been untapped, undeveloped, unexplored and you begin to appreciate that 'doing' and 'earning' is not always that which brings satisfaction. There is never a day that goes by when we are bored or feel unfulfilled - compare that to the average working person. We have discovered too that when we follow a project or research which stems from our own passions and volitions we feel good about the end result ourselves; in the workplace where the majority of the time you do not share the same values, you need the approval of your boss or colleagues to feel you have achieved something or done a good days work - hence our feeling that we are providing good role models and positive energies in which to bring up our daughter.
It is estimated that on an average day, every person is subjected to at least 300 subliminal (and not so subliminal) marketing messages - even if you don't watch TV or read the newspapers you will still be receiving these messages from billboards, the internet, posters in shop windows, the shape of the bottle your water comes in and from your friends. What is advertising all about? In our opinion, it is a method of brainwashing you into believing that you want or need something - attractive people selling attractive things that will enrich your life and bring you happiness and power. What is it you need in order to be able to have these things? Money, and what do you need to do in order to get money? Work, and thus the cycle of consumerism is complete: you go to work to earn purchasing power so that you can buy the things the marketing messages are telling you you need to be happy. The irony is that often when we work, we are too tired and do not have the energy to enjoy the so called 'rewards' of our lifestyle.
We are told through advertising that unless we have these new things, we are not as good as our peers, we are not as happy as we deserve to be or that we are not attaining the standards set for us by society. These beliefs go to a very deep, psychological level - we feel that they reach to an intrinsic part in all of us as humans; that they echo back to one of our deepest instincts of herding - if we aren't as good as the rest of the herd, then we might be picked off or rejected by the rest of the tribe; which on evolutionary terms would have been catastrophic to our survival. These advertising campaigns successfully reach to the core of our beings as humans; utilising tactics that resonate deep within us at a subconscious level.
We are driven towards having to earn money in order to buy things - no one bothers to learn how to do things themselves anymore, they just earn money to pay someone else to do it for them - and that we are told is what makes the world go round. No one bothers to ask the question 'Do I really want this stuff?' we blindly follow our friends, our neighbours, our colleagues, indeed our herd. A friend of a friend is a landscape gardener, she once said she's sad for the people who hire her to do their showy gardens for her neighbours and friends to see, when they're really missing the experience of creating the garden space.
We are saddened that as a whole, the exchange of energy has been totally lost and it appears that money is the only currency of value within the 'developed' world. This is why people are slaving their guts out selling their souls to the workplace and are losing sight of who they are, why they are here and what their gifts are and it's probably why we're all in therapy too, because we no longer know how to relate to one another, respect ourselves or communicate.
To fulfil our chosen lifestyle, we have made changes; big changes. We grow our own food, repair clothes or buy from charity shops, gratefully receive and adapt hand me downs, we don't choose recreational activities that cost money. We don't buy processed food and instead of using electricity to keep us warm we go out and collect and burn wood to keep warm in the winter. We do all our own house repairs, fix our car and make our own toiletries." .....
for the rest:
http://houseofstrauss.co.uk/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=442