Mr. Simplicity And The Simplicity Lifestyle

  “When life becomes too complicated and we feel overwhelmed, it’s often useful just to stand back and remind ourselves of our overall purpose, our overall goal. When faced with a feeling of stagnation and confusion, it may be helpful to take an hour, an afternoon, or even several days to simply reflect on what it is that will truly bring us happiness, and then reset our priorities on the basis of that. This can put our life back in proper context, allow a fresh perspective, and enable us to see which direction to take.”  -  “The Art of Happiness” by Dalai Lama I’ve struggled with addiction most of my life.   I started drinking, smoking, and taking drugs when I was thirteen. In high school I was up to a pack of cigarettes a day. I would binge drink at parties and take most drugs if I could get my hands on them.   This behavior carried over to college and got even worse when I joined my Fraternity.  When I joined the military I was forced to quit everything during basic training.  At fi

  “I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in which all things happen. I am consciousness. I am the Now. I Am.”  -  “Stillness Speaks” by Eckhart Tolle Some people seem naturally happier than others. These affable people seem to breeze through life on a golden cloud of optimism. They see the silver lining in the darkest of clouds and fully appreciate the sunny days.   For some of us, though, long lasting happiness is a little harder to achieve. Promotions, buying something new, making a new friend, and even winning the lottery will give us only a temporary boost of happiness.  We all have a baseline level of happiness that we quickly return to. For some of us that baseline is lower than it is for others.  Pessimists naturally see the negative side of things, but we are not destined to always be pessimistic.  It is entirely possible for a pessimist to become an optimist, but changing our habitual nega

  Sometimes I have really bad insomnia. I’ll go for weeks with very little sleep. When I’m not sleeping well I notice a real difference in my mental and physical health.   When I’m not sleeping well I have difficulty concentrating, I have short term memory problems, I have a shorter fuse, and I feel fatigued and tired all day.  There are many medications which are used to treat insomnia, but they are usually only effective for a little while and they can have unwanted side effects.  The best thing to do is to develop good sleeping habits.  “Sleep Hygiene” is the medical term used to describe having healthy sleeping habits.  Here are fifteen Sleep Hygiene tips that can provide long term solutions to insomnia.  - Get regular  One of the best ways to train our bodies to sleep well is to go to bed and get up at more or less the same time every day, even on weekends and days off. This regular rhythm will make us feel better and will give our bodies something to work from. -Sleep when sleepy