How to Achieve a Low Density Lifestyle: The 12-Steps to Becoming FREE
February 9, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under FREE, High Density Lifestyle, Low Density Lifestyle
I’ve talked about the Low Density Lifestyle, High Density Lifestyle, and the concept of FREE (Flow/Relax/Effortless Effort).
Today I want to outline the 12 steps to becoming FREE. These are the things that if you put into practice, will help you to live a happy, healthy, vibrant, successful and enlightened life.
In tomorrow’s post I will tell you what a Low Density Lifestyle can do for you, and how it can make your life a whole lot better.
After this post and tomorrow’s, the postings will shift in format. What will happen next is that instead of the posts explaining what a Low Density Lifestyle is all about–which is pretty much what we’ve been doing so far–we’re going to bounce around from category to category.
What I mean by a category is one of the 12 steps listed below, along with what is covered in tomorrow’s posting about what a Low Density Lifestyle can do for you. Once we go in that new direction, we will be covering a lot of ground and a lot of interesting topics, so fasten your seat belt
If you feel like you still need to get a handle on the fundamentals of a Low Density Lifestyle, sign up for the free 5-day email course on this website. You can sign up for it by entering your name and email address in the box that occasionally pops up in front of your eyes, or you can put your info in the sign up form that appears in the top right column. I can guarantee you that you will learn a lot from the email course.
Anyway, here are the 12 steps to becoming FREE:
Diet and Nutrition: Eating a whole foods oriented diet.
Health and Wellness: Being proactive with your health and becoming empowered and educated as to how the body and mind work and what it takes to be healthy.
Movement and Exercise: Take up a regular practice of movement and exercise, especially the types that emphasize flow.
Flexibility of Body and Mind: Being able to be flexible with your body and your mind, so that you don’t hold onto dogmas and become rigid and unyielding with the way you think or move.
Mindfulness: Being aware of your actions and reactions in your daily life.
Integrity: Being ethical, being willing to do the right thing, being true to yourself and being authentic.
Attitude and Emotions: The way we see the world is the way the world operates based on our perception, so it’s important to be aware of your attitude towards yourself and others.
Abundance: Are you willing to share of yourself, because you believe there is plenty to go around, or are you immersed in a scarcity mindset, where you believe it’s every person for themselves, and you have to get yours before someone else takes it?
Laughter: Laughter and humor is so good for our health and well-being. ‘Nuff said on that.
The Dreamer: Are you using your dreaming abilities–your creative intelligence and imagination? Are or you thinking the same old same old, and going along with the tribe?
Do What You Love: When you do what you love, and love what you do, life has profound meaning.
Connecting to the Spiritual Dimension: There is a sacred aspect to life, and the more connected you are to it, the better off you are.
Jon Kabat-Zinn on Mindfulness, Effortless Effort and Non-Doing
February 7, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Effortless Effort, Low Density Lifestyle, Mindfulness
Not too long ago, Jon Kabat-Zinn, the author of Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You Go, You Are There, gave a talk at Google on the subject of mindfulness and effortless effort.
The phrase effortless effort comes from the Chinese term wu wei, which is directly translated as non-doing.
Mindfulness and effortless effort are important tools for living a Low Density Lifestyle.
The concept of non-doing is a very difficult one for us Westerners to get, because we are used to doing, doing and even more doing. “How can we not do when there’s so much to do,” Westerners who contemplate wu-wei often ask – or at least this Westerner (me) did when I first learned of the term and tried to wrap my brain around it.
Anyway, I thought it would be best if I let Dr. Kabat-Zinn do the talking, and so I have posted his video from his talk at Google.
Watch it, and enjoy!
Low Density Lifestyle: Keeping It Real!
February 3, 2009 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Low Density Lifestyle
Hi Everyone,
Living in a Low Density Lifestyle (LDL) doesn’t require you to escape from your “normal” commitments to life, nor does it mean that you need the deep spirituality and decades of time in meditation, such as that of the Dalai Lama. Instead living a LDL means being able to handle your life in a healthy and effective manner. It also means that you can bend but never break in times of discontent and mental and emotional turmoil.
I often imagine a Low Density Lifestyle as a metaphor in which I compare us to a rock that sits in the middle of a rushing creek; the rushing creek represents our daily life that rushes by us in a fast paced and stressful fashion. The current can represent such things as your deadlines, the kids, your family, your bills and expenses, and continual commitments you must meet each day.
When you are able to live a Low Density Life, it simply means that you can weather the storm while still remembering that life is unscripted; at the same time, no one can promise you that the road will be smooth and paved with gold. We must also remember that it is with trials and tribulations that we get stronger and more irrepressible. Everyone can be peaceful, calm, serene and have altruistic tendencies when in isolation, but the trick is, can you be the same when being exposed to challenges or obstacles?
I remember hearing an outstanding quote from the great modern-day philosopher Jim Rohn. It says: “The best thing we can do is not to expect the road to be easy but instead expect us to get better, stronger, and more resilient.” I love this quote because it takes the blame right off an external source and puts it back on us, because ultimately, that is all we have control of anyway.
Move towards a Low Density lifestyle.
Until later…
Alvin Brown