How The Economy Downturn Can Change Our Lives
By Leonid Sharashkin

If you’re like most of us, you’re not just stressed—you’re numb. You wake up each morning already exhausted. You rush to the office and spend the day catching up on yesterday’s workload. After work you corral kids and fly through a flurry of chores before dinner. If you’re lucky, you sit down to a meal by 8p.m. and then crash in front of the TV for a few hours before bed. Wearied and worried about tomorrow, you toss and turn until you finally drop into a fitful sleep—and repeat the cycle the next day.

It would be bad enough that Americans live this way—anxious, overworked, divorced from the quiet rhythms of nature—if we were prospering. The fact that we’re not makes it positively tragic. Our economy is sinking, prices are rising relentlessly, many of us can’t pay our mortgages, and we’re even feeling the fallout from a global food crisis. What this should tell us is that we’re living unsustainable lives. The current economic crisis is a wake-up call…and the good news is, what we wake up to can be a far better life than we’ve ever had before.

We assume the recession is a bad thing, but it may actually be a blessing. Why? Because it forces us to re-evaluate the way we live. As a culture, we need to slow down, cut our consumption, and rediscover our spiritual selves. Most people spend too much money mindlessly, and worse than that, we spend our precious time mindlessly. The recession can inspire us to get mindful about both.

The simple (self-evident) truth is that when we have less to spend, we are forced to spend less. Rather than running hither and yon burning gas, money, and daylight, we have to spend more time at home with the people we love. We have to quit distracting ourselves with toys, trinkets, and expensive adventures. We have to get real … and in the process many of us may finally notice the blessings we’ve had all along.

Suggestions

Re-evaluate your work life. Are you working too much? Does what you do make you unhappy? If you’re like most people, you’re probably feeling the pressure to work harder and faster these days. With the economy so uncertain, the last thing you want is to lose your job. But try to be completely objective:

Would that really be so bad? We know in our hearts that too much work (and too much focus on its ultimate purpose, our paycheck), is unhealthy. Even if you like what you do, human beings can’t work around the clock and be happy. It’s just not how we’re made.

No one is saying you should resign from your job tomorrow, but start taking steps toward a healthier balance. If the recession is a wake-up call for America, it is probably also one for you. Can you work fewer hours? Are you in the wrong job or even the wrong field altogether? Might you go back to school and get trained in a more peaceful and enriching career? Do some soul searching and the right answer will come. Take a step toward change. Then take another step. Over time, you can create a more fulfilling life.

Make a conscious decision to consume less. A big part of the reason many people work so hard is that we feel we need a lot of stuff. We have to live in a certain neighborhood, drive a certain kind of car, subscribe to 500 cable channels to watch on the big-screen TV…right? Wrong! This mindset forces many people into high-paying jobs that they secretly hate. But if you can wean yourself off so much stuff, you won’t have to work so hard. Instead of being an accountant for a big, faceless corporation, you can take a lower-paying but far more fulfilling job like, say, teaching math to youngsters. In many ways, people who have to declare bankruptcy or are forced out of a big house they can no longer pay for have been handed a gift. They can start over with a clean slate and live simpler lives. But you don’t have to face a personal financial crisis to do this. You can just decide to downsize your spending drastically. Don’t buy the new car when the old one still drives well. Don’t mindlessly spend on clothing when you have a closet full. Don’t take the pre-packaged $4,000 vacation when you can spend a few days hiking the national forest just 20 minutes away.

Quit spending so much money on the people you care about. Instead, spend time with them. Examine your motives and you may find that you’re really spending money to buy love or assuage guilt. You neglect your wife so you buy her an expensive car (which you then have to work even harder to pay for). You don’t have time for your kids so you buy them video game systems and send them to the most exclusive summer camps.

If the recession is forcing you to cut out such “extras,” count it as a blessing. Your loved ones need you, not what you can buy for them.

Start by making one evening or one day a week family night. Do something with your family that’s free or very close to it. Go for a nature walk together, work in the yard, or just sit around the house and tell stories. The idea is to break the mental association between love, fun, togetherness and spending money.

Take a TV sabbatical. First of all, you’re going to get only bad news from the TV. It’s constantly blaring stories about the recession (not to mention war, global warming, and so forth) and keeping you upset. But worse than that, watching TV saps your time and energy. It over-stimulates your senses, making relaxation more difficult; especially close to bedtime. And it’s particularly harmful to children, whose minds and value systems are highly impressionable.

Commit to going one month without turning on the TV. You’ll likely decide that once the month is up you don’t want to go back to your old ways.

Imagine what you can do with the time you used to waste in front of the television! Read a good book or play a game with your children or take a yoga class. If you’ve decided to pursue a new career, spend your TV-free time sending out resumes or taking continuing education classes. Create and nurture a vegetable garden.

Almost anyone can grow a significant portion of his or her own food. The “Victory Gardens” that were popular during World War II is a prime example. A small yard is all it takes (along with some seeds, simple tools, and a bit of elbow grease). Even city dwellers can grow herbs, tomatoes, or other produce on balconies or rooftops. And in an age of rising food prices, many could use a self-perpetuating source of free food.

Gardening is a wonderful stress reliever, and also a wonderful way to spend time with your children, but it’s even more than that. It’s a hedge against possible food shortages and what’s more likely, food money shortages. There’s something psychologically comforting about knowing you can cultivate, grow, and harvest your own delicious, nourishing food. It helps reduce the anxiety we all feel, even if we’re barely conscious of it, when we must rely on corporations for our food supply.

Listen to your inner spirit for a moment. Do you feel a deep sense of longing to live a simpler, more natural life? Chances are you’re not alone. As tough economic times settle in, more Americans will come to realize we no longer want or need the consumer-centric lifestyle we so dreaded losing.

Suffering has a purpose: It signals the need for change, and it’s often the precursor to immense growth. The pain we are feeling from the recession is telling us we must change our unsustainable ways.

You may think, well, I can’t change America, but you can because we’re all connected. You can change your own life. Your family can change theirs. Your neighbor, inspired by how much happier you seem, can change his. Every life touches other lives, which in turn, touches still other lives. If the recession can facilitate this kind of change, it’s a great blessing indeed.