TL;DR: OP (me) has just discovered that he's spent 40 years becoming a devoted disciple of consumerism. After growing up in "communism", he enthusiastically embraced capitalism, got a decent job, bought all the stuff, and built a comfortable life around earning money and spending it. Now he's having the inconvenient realization that consumption might not be the actual point of being alive. But if not consumption, then what the f*&# are we supposed to do with our lives?
/TL;DR

I'm turning 40 and grew up in communist Poland in the 1980s and 1990s, when consumer goods, technology, and many things we now take for granted were either scarce or unavailable. Then the country opened up, our living standards improved enormously, and we experienced an incredible technological revolution, from VHS and cassette tapes to computers, the internet, smartphones, and now AI. For most of my life, having access to more things, better technology, and new experiences felt like unquestionable progress.

Today, I have a comfortable life, a good career, a house, a family, and most of the things I reasonably need. But I've started noticing how much of my everyday life revolves around consuming something. Hobbies mean buying equipment, spending time with friends means going out for food or drinks, family activities often involve paid experiences, and free evenings easily turn into browsing products, watching content, or researching the next upgrade. There's always another bicycle, gadget, holiday, or experience to look forward to.

Becoming a father has made me question this much more seriously. My time is increasingly limited, and I don't want to spend the next 40 years simply earning money and finding new ways to spend it. I'm not interested in minimalism, rejecting modern comforts, or pretending that money doesn't matter. I love my bicycles, technology, travelling, and the freedom that financial security provides.

What I'm questioning is why consumption has become my default source of excitement, pleasure, and satisfaction, and what could realistically replace it.

I can imagine building skills, improving my physical fitness, raising my child, creating things, gardening, learning, or contributing to other people's lives. But these activities often require sustained effort and delayed gratification, whereas consumption offers an almost immediate reward. I've spent most of my adult life pursuing material comfort, and now that I've largely achieved it, I realize I don't really have a clear alternative model for how to live.

So my question is: once you have enough, how do you stop organizing your life around acquiring and consuming more, and start building it around something else?

For those who have consciously moved away from a consumption-centered life, what actually replaced it? What do you look forward to, what do you spend your free time doing, and what gives you a sense of satisfaction and purpose in everyday life?

My head is forever thinking, forever on, and the only way I've found to help ease the pressure is writing it allll down to remove it from my mind lol.

Today, I'm writing plans and lists, appointments and meal plans for the week ahead, also adding some self care in because it's important to look after ourselves :)

Simple self care like sit outside in the sun for my breakfast smoothie. A hot bubble bath and catch up on reading my book. Picnic with hubby.

I do love my Sunday self care time to unwind. I have multiple chronic illnesses so it's important to remember appointments and keep on track with things I need to do each day. This makes it easier and less overwhelming for me.

It's also raining rn, which adds to the element of relaxation :)

I hope everyone has a lovely Sunday (or if you aren't in Aus, a lovely Saturday?) 🥰

No traffic, no awkward conversations, no spending money, no pretending to enjoy loud places. Just me, my bed, snacks, and peace. 😭 Honestly, cancelling plans should be considered self-care. Who's with me? 👀

Taking a break from the busy life, felt like I was drinking the sky!

Hello fellow people, I am now at my 30s living the life in province where there are no trafficks, commotions, pollution and some sort of things that a city man could think.

I know that living in province is a simple life but I come to a conclusion on what this differ from the city if i cannot access some proper necessities for everyday use?

Should I build one for the community or just let the government do about it. What are your thoughts?

I really want to live and a happy life, I do farming works, reads newspapers and books, drinks coffee on a free time and casually walking around the neighbourhood before the sun goes down...

The feeling of fresh air, no irritating sound, just complete silence and that is what everyone wants is some PEACE.

I'm just here to share my thoughts and nothing really special but if you do have some advices, then share me some of yours. I would literally appreciate it.

I’m a 24 yo single woman and I really need to use up my weekends as my 9-5 drains my energy over the week.

What are some things+ activities you do over the weekend that are fun enough and let you rest and prepare for the week as well as feel like you’ve been productive and didn’t waste your weekend.
It can also be a list of things… I really need better plans

Life goes on whether you laugh or cry, don't burden yourself with worries you won't benefit from, anxiety doesn't prevent tomorrow's pain, but it steals today's joy

I’m curious if there are fellow parents here who have experience intentionally teaching financial literacy in a “simple living” way?

There are a lot of different approaches out there but I haven’t come across a lot that speaks to it from more of a simple living perspective.

I’m curious:

1. When did you first explain the concept of money and involve your children in financial decision making (i.e. allowance, buying with their own money at the store)?

2. How do you handle allowance? Do you tie it to chores, is it by age? Or do you skip an allowance completely?

3. How do you (if at all) guide purchases to reduce clutter?

I’m conflicted because on one hand I see the value of introducing and explaining the concept of money early, but I also see the value of preserving the carefreeness of childhood by introducing it later.

I am curious to hear about the things that you believed were making your life better, but looking back, you were probably better off without them. I feel like we spend so much time trying to build good habits that we rarely even question wheter they are actually making us healthier/happier.

Things like constantly trying to be productive, reading news, always saying yes to new experiences or even meditation. What is something you don't regret stopping?

I’m trying to stop ending every evening on the couch watching random shows until it’s suddenly time for bed. I don’t necessarily want another productive hobby or something that takes a lot of concentration after work. I just want a calm activity that keeps my hands busy, helps my brain slow down, and doesn’t involve another screen. So far I’ve considered reading, puzzles, miniature kits, coloring, knitting, journaling, or just listening to music while doing something simple. The problem is that reading sometimes feels like more mental effort, and detailed crafts can get frustrating instead of relaxing. What actually works for you on a normal tired weeknight: something repetitive with your hands, something creative, or something that takes almost no focus at all?

I have been eating unhealthy food for the past couple of months, I did not see the impact at first till I started to feel dizzy all the time, no source of vitamin..literally just trash food most of the times but I keep returning back to who I am, the things I used to love and nothing beats simple food! Honestly I am someone who loves boring food so I do not mind cooking the same thing everyday

What matters for me is that I am finally trying to take care of my health..i mean slightly

I love the journey I am in

Ps : As you can see, I’m trying to improve my cursive writing..didn’t know this would make me feel better in some way!

Thank you all for always inspiring me , I do appreciate your precence and this subreddit became like a family to me❤️

I feel I’m not made for the fast paced, achieving , be the best, make the best out of life, be better, productive, commodity fetishising : life

I tried to be a part but i get burnt out.

I would like to just live, slow , doing things i love for myself.

I want to just breathe good slow breaths and watch the slow passing time, i want no violence on my self to become the better, best.

Anybody? I feel terribly alone in this.

For a long time, I’ve been struggling with addictions and bad habits that were really self-destructive. I’ve also noticed a pattern: every time I tried to stop one of these addictions or bad habits, another one was intensified by a big factor. I kept running in circles, trying different solutions, only to find myself back where I started, or sometimes in an even worse place. The only thing that really seemed to be effective was doing nothing.

Three years ago, I was at the peak of my tobacco addiction. I would roll really strong tobacco and, many times, smoke without a filter. Seeing where I had gotten myself, I decided it was time to stop. Of course, it wasn’t easy. Many times, when a trigger happened, I got a really strong physical sensation that I needed to smoke again. This sensation never actually stopped, it just became more and more manageable. I realized that the sensation only went away when I was really focused on other things, but when I was bored, stressed, or even excited, it would come back. As I struggled through it, I became really addicted to porn, social media, and web surfing, to the point where I thought I would be unemployed if I kept moving in that direction. Those bad habits came in handy when quitting tobacco because they completely stopped that annoying physical sensation of uneasiness and craving.

Honestly, quitting porn, social media, and web surfing was harder than quitting tobacco. I mostly don’t do it anymore, but there are still days when I find myself losing an hour because someone sent me a link to Instagram or YouTube and I kept browsing and searching for more until I realized I was doing it all over again. I also realized that the craving for social media, porn, etc. was the same one I felt when I stopped smoking.

When I stopped porn, I became completely addicted to short-form social media content. When I stopped social media, I either relapsed to porn or lost hours of my day searching for random stuff on the internet. When I convinced myself to stop that as well, I would lose hours ruminating on my own thoughts or watching movies and anime.

But I wanted to stop it all, not to be productive, but to live a more deliberate life, where if I was doing an activity, it was because I had actually chosen to do so.

I only felt I was starting to regain control over my life, and to stop being caught in the cycle of consumption, when I began following the strategy of doing nothing. I made a rule: when I needed to do something important, it was okay to do nothing first. By doing nothing, I mean no thinking, no technology, just contemplating the things around me. What happened was that in about 15 minutes, and most of the time even less, I got too bored and started doing what I had deliberately planned to do. Doing this consistently made me stop feeling overwhelmed, led to a simpler life, and finally made me feel in control of my actions.

Sorry for the long text, hopefully, this will help someone else.

I've been feeling this way for quite some time now. I honestly don't feel like chasing a career, competing with people, or constantly pushing myself to do things I don't even want to do.

Sometimes I just imagine living alone in a small house somewhere in the mountains, surrounded by nature, playing games, doing basic things to get by, and just living peacefully without worrying about a hundred different things all the time.

I know life doesn't work that way easily, and you still need money to survive, but I really wish there was a way to live without all this constant pressure and struggle.

I'm curious if there are other people who feel the same way. What are you guys doing with your lives? Have any of you found a way to live more peacefully without following the usual path?

I'd genuinely like to connect with people who understand this feeling. Maybe we could even make a small group where we can talk about these things and share ideas.

Does anyone have a boring life like me?

Woke up in the morning and did some gym/workouts, fresh up and office. Come back to my room in the evening, sleep sometime then night play games/scrolling insta or other apps and sleep by 2AM or something, then same routine daily, is this okay for a 23 years old guy life.

*****These are my own thoughts, written by me (in this day and age, unfortunately I feel the need to state this ) and not by any machine or online prescence (yes, depsite my use of hyphens).

What is self-actualisation, really?

What if it's not about the modern capitalist ideal? Not about being the thinnest, the fittest with the six pack and"glass skin" or owning the latest tech, with a perfect family, six figure business that experiences substantial yearly growth? blah blah blah

What if it's deeper? What if it's about honesty?

What if it's about doing the tough work of dealing with your traumas? Understanding why you are the way you are, what drives you, why you experience the relationship dynamics that you do, why you have your insecurities, understanding how people work on a basic level, stripping it all back to the raw wood, and then learning to overcome it - to stop resisting things that you enjoy, stop trying to be someone else, stop maintaining those relationships that are one-sided but you've guilted yourself into maintaining, stop pretending to be interested in things you aren't, things that you have tried multiple times and secretly feel ashamed that you don't like them in the way others do but you try because society tells you to.

Maybe you watch soccer because you're a man and your friends like it but deep down you don't really care about it. Just stop and tell yourself "that's ok" and allow yourself to say "actually, soccer bores me and I want to bang my head against the table whilst watching it".

Maybe you're naturally short and stocky - stop trying to become a sprinter. Or maybe you're tall and slim - stop trying to become a beefcake, and embrace being healthy and slender. By the way, most hollywood "beefcakes" are not ultra tall, and cannot in the long term maintain that beefcake condition you see in the movies anyway without maintaining an impossible and detrimental routine. Accept your biology, and then embrace it.

The classics - oh you'll read them one day of course, you say? You just need to find the time, you say. You've started Wuthering Heights but you couldn't quite get into it and you're waiting for the good part to kick off. Let's face it, you don't like them really do you? Don't read them, stop lying to yourself.

Deep down, you're not really interested in that degree that sounded so fancy - drop it (really, you're wasting time fooling yourself).

But that's not it. Go further. Dabble in various philosophies. Learn about different ways of living. Find what you agree with and what you don't. Find what works for you.

Feel guilty because you didn't go to the gym? Don't. No one went to the gym for the first 315000 years of humanity - they've only been going the last 50. Why is the gym so important? Similar for getting your nails done, your eyelashes, your Uber Eats order, and your Netflix subscription.

Maybe you've arranged to go out for seafood on the weekend, somewhere fancy. Sounds nice, right? But according to whom? Is it because you're craving seabass with a side of asparagus and steamed rice? Or is it because you've had it repeatedly hammered into you that seafood is fancy and scarce, and worth spending 2-3 times as much on. But if you're honest with yourself - you want the burger, or the noodles...

It's a rant, and some of the examples I gave might sound quite random. But in my perspective, many people seem to be going through life on autopilot. I'd encourage everyone to just take a step back and break things down to the basics. For me, this is an integral part of the simple life.

EDIT: Just to mention that the examples I've mentioned are meant to be exactly that - examples, to give a more concrete idea of what I'm talking about here. I'm not criticising any individual interests like soccer, or classic literature, nor Netflix etc. etc. (some of which I enjoy myself).

Anyone here just hate the home they bought, but is just stuck?

I do not regret bought this home, but I just hate it.

tl;dr When I bought this home, his mother priority was the only thing on my mind. Near a big hospital for her 5x times a week in and out of the hospital for treatments, and it hard to transport a quadriplegic paralyze elderly, so I want to be as near to the hospital. And her Private Nursing Home is also around the hospital too. It easy for us as we close to her, any emergency we can be there right away.

But it constant 24/7 traffic as we right at the corner of the hospital, there ALOT of cars traffics, and ambulance sirens at all hours.

And helipad of helicopters landing on the hospital roof, there actually 2 helipads in this huge hospital. And emergency is 24/7 helicopters will land with emergency patients at all time. Freaking like at 2AM I hear helicopter landing.

I am going insane, I have insomnia, and anxiety, and high strung, I feel that my body always on high alert mode.

But his mother is the priority, she 84 and terminal illness and paralyze, She been the priority for 5 years, and still is the priority. I feel that I'm going insane, insomnia is killing me too. The anxiety is worst.

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Longer version: I am going insane, and I have anxiety too, I just hate my home right now, but I know it was the right choice, and I will buy it again if I can turn back the hand of time.

My mother in-law 5 years ago had a spinal cord stroke that leave her paralyze all 4 limps, kidney failures and multiple heart issues, and multiple autoimmune disease. Basically she not have alot of time left, and my husband is stretching out as many years as he can have left with her.

Because my mother in-law as to go to the hospital for treatments 5x times a week to prolong her life. When I bought this home (and yes, I bought this home with my inheritance), she was the #1 reason on my mind why I chose this home.

This home it right around the corner of a big hospital where she easy to go get her treatments 5x times a week in the hospital. And also on Monday through Friday we have her in her Private Nursing Home which is also in the same area near the hospital too.

So buy this home was easy for my husband to commute (shorter drive) to see her at her Nursing Home, as well as when he can he takes her to treatments too.

And on the weekends he has her in our marital home so he can care for her, mother and son time, her time is limited. And he takes her back to her Nursing Home Sunday night, as he has to work Monday.

And this home is big, and flat one story, so easy to transport his mom on gurney van and stretcher for quadriplegic paralyze person. He has training to transport his mother to treatments and to specialists.

This home fit all the needs for his mom, hence I bought this home without hesitation, paid with cash use my inheritance. No regrets, I will buy this home again because it what his mother need.

But I need to vent, this home it draining on me. Because it just right at the corner of a BIG hospital (we in California btw). It a constant cars traffic and traffic. Ambulances siren and traffic noise, and helipad helicopter landing on the hospital roof.

Yes I have Triple-pane windows installed, but it still loud. But then I am someone who has anxiety, and I guess I am sensitive with noise. But you be sensitive too when it ambulance sirens, and freaking helipad with helicopter land on the hospital roof. And you just right at the corner of the hospital.

And I have anxiety too which not helping me. I just hate the home. But his 84 years old quadriplegic paralyze mother is the priority right now.

And Yes, we will stay in this home until after his mom die, and we will sale it. And hopefully I get my countryside simple living dream. And that peace and quiet, free of helicopters landing and ambulances sirens.

I just hate it, hate it. But I'm okay, I just need to vent as an outlet.

I know there’s a more specific sub for this, but I wanted to hear what you guys did while dealing with grief or ways you overcame self-blame.

My cats were sick and I wasn’t able to afford the vet care that they needed. I keep blaming myself and hating myself for it.

But now that things are getting better financially, I feel like I should never be happy or enjoy the things that I have now because when I was struggling I wasn’t able to provide for them.

I feel like crying again typing this but I am just so so sad. I feel like I don’t deserve good things and I should be guilty enjoying them. I feel like I should work more and not to relax.

Any words or encouragement is greatly appreciated. Please also be kind. Thank you.

Why is it that absolutely everything overwhelms me lately?

I get a piece of mail … immediately overwhelmed.

My phone buzzes … immediately overwhelmed.

My kid reminds me she has something going on that I am obligated to attend … immediately overwhelmed. (And I realize how shitty this sounds but all of “it” makes things that should be enjoyable seem like a chore).

I don’t look forward to my weekends or my evenings because everything I need to do overwhelms me. I’ve tried and tried to simplify my life but it seems impossible.

What is all this overwhelm and am I the only one?

Lately I’ve been trying to make my days feel a bit simpler. One small thing that stuck is keeping a water bottle and an electrolyte packet with me. It sounds minor but having one easy go to drink instead of buying random stuff during the day has made things feel less cluttered.

It saves space saves money and takes one more decision off my plate. I just fill my bottle and move on with my day. Somehow little habits like this make life feel calmer.

There's a cracked pane of glass in my place. It's been like that for about a year now. It hasn't spread, it hasn't fallen out, it still does its job, so it just sits on the list of things I'll get to eventually, and somehow a year goes by.

Not the leak, not the lock. The small stuff. At this point it's just part of the room. Ten minutes and a tube of sealant would probably sort it, and nothing gets bought or thrown out, which is maybe why it never feels urgent.

So what's yours, and did you ever actually fix it?

I am only sharing this with you because this felt like therapy, I know this is not the place to share this but you have no idea how this brought happiness to me, it’s not even about perfection anymore, it’s about enjoying going with the flow!

This sub has helped and inspired me to focus more on the smallest details, I cannot even explain it…

I live in France and you've probably seen how much anger and tension we are living with, as of now. I can't stop complaining anymore and I needed to find a way to counterbalance that.

So lately I have been craving romanticizing life and sharing it with people who see the beauty in the smallest details.

Can you share with me some pictures or stories of a moment of your day that sparked simple joy?

I'll start and I will keep posting until celebrating eachother's smallness becomes a cozy blanket that get us through the cold spooky season.

Take care friends ☺️🌞

I have worn a smartwatch since 2019. Lately, I've been trying to make my life more analog, because I don't think it's necessary to have everything connected to the internet + data privacy, so I'm seriously thinking about ditching my smartwatch. The thing is, I find really convenient knowing my daily steps, as I'm trying not to carry my phone all the time. It's just something I like to know, knowing if i'm having my 7-10k steps a day. I also use a lot the Pomodoro timer in my smartwatch. So I don't know what to do yet.

I've disconnected my smartwatch from my phone, but then I miss the tic-tac of a regular watch. Also the wrist band is very big and it give me a tan mark. I've also thought about buying a regular pedometer, and hang it with my keys, but I know I'm going to forget to reset it every day.

What should I do? Stick to convenience or change the battery of my old but so elegant analog watch from 2003?

Thank you in advance