A Happy Healthy Himalayan Hippy

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It often strikes me as funny, how your life can break off into different tangents just by starting down one particular path. I never thought that when I embarked on my simple life journey that it would lead to so many changes in different facets of my life. I knew some of my habits would change as I embraced recycling and started to produce my own food and cleaning products, but I am beginning to realise that I am becoming the hippy my kids started describing me as...and that is not such a bad thing.

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Well, it isn't such a good thing if you adopt the traditional Oxford Dictionary definition of a hippy - "a person of unconventional appearance, typically having long hair and wearing beads, associated with a subculture involving a rejection of conventional values and the taking of hallucinogenic drugs". Nope that's not me (what were my kids thinking?) , but maybe I am rejecting the new 'conventional values' of shopping for all of your groceries at the store, of consuming store-bought yoghurt and cakes, and pre-packaged meals. And, I am growing my hair and love wearing beads :)

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Or maybe my kids have confused hippy with greenie - because that's what I think I am becoming - a late-blooming Greenie. I am certainly not going to be chaining myself to trees in a forest, or chasing after whaling boats...but I am now more conscious of my footprints on this earth and I am doing something about it by building my organic vegetable garden, adopting the principles of reduce, recycle and re-use and making many of the things I used to purchase. My time is spent on more productive and fulfilling pursuits and my world is richer for that.

When I spoke of the different tangents this simple living path has taken me, one of those is spiritual. By embracing my role in nature I find that I am constantly looking inside myself, and wanting to change (and embrace) so many things about my life and myself. I don't go to church as often as I should do, but my appreciation for the wonder that is us is still there...and growing every day as I ask more questions of myself and try new and different things. My One Little Word Journey is a great example of this, and my embrace of the word mindfulness is changing the way I think about things and how I handle my stress at work.

Another tangent is my physical health. I am experimenting more with the foods that I buy. I am researching, testing and trying different alternatives. I buy organic when I can, I buy from local sources when I can, I look at what ingredients and toxins are in the packaged foods I used to buy, I preserve to avoid such toxins...but most of all I am more aware of what is going into my body. The himalayan salt crystals my husband bought are one of the many changes to my pantry.

And, yes, I have eyed off a pair of hippy pants at the local Batik Boutique, not to make a statement but to wear at home for comfort - my husband loves his. Paul attended a guided meditation this week and its something on my list to try as I find it hard to switch off and meditate...but I know it would be beneficial for me to learn how to do so.

So, when I started growing a few vegies and made my first soap, I never envisaged that my world would change for the better in so many ways. I am so thankful that it has, and that I can see the tangents as they appear around the corners...and that I take the opportunity to dive in head first. Every day is a new adventure and I look forward to the weekends more than ever before...so that I can spend my time discovering them.

Have you started something that has lead to so many others? If you are thinking of starting to live simply, just do it, you will never look back :)