The Art of Zen Living

I have a confession to make.  I’ve no idea how I arrived at a point in my life where I feel the need to simplify.  I’m just glad I arrived there.  I’d had limited success in weight loss, not much in quitting smoking, and even less in relationships.  It was a bit of a “Perfect Storm” of life’s inevitable problems, difficulties and failures.  I was tired of feeling like I was suffering.  I wanted to Be Happy.  I decided to seek out skills that would allow me to do that.

I do know that for most of my adult life, my priorities have been very different from what they are now.  I know that I have a lot more happiness now than I did then.  I know I feel like I’ve accomplished more things that are important since I’ve changed my priorities.  This website is about nothing less than sharing with you the things that have worked and are working for me.  I hope that in return, you’ll share with me the things that have worked and are working for you.

Here are some of the things I’ve changed in my life in the past few years:

I’ve lost weight, and learned how to keep it off. In April of 2003 I became aware that I was morbidly obese.  I’d been that way for years, but until then, I’d thought of myself as “a little overweight” or “fluffy” or would say “I could stand to lose a few pounds”.  That April, I admitted to myself that I was over 100 pounds overweight, and that 100 of anything is more than “a few”.  It took another few months for me to decide what I was going to do about it and put something into practice.  Between August of 2003 and October of 2004, I went from right around 300 pounds to right at 170 pounds.

I’ve allowed myself to creep up to 220 once and (more recently) to 238 once.  Now I’ve learned how I need to change my lifestyle, my attitude and my priorities to get back down to a healthy weight and stay there.

I’ve quit smoking. I started smoking when I was 13, and by the time I was 16 I was a pack a day smoker.  I think a lot of people were surprised that I took on quitting smoking while I was working on my weight, but it was about changing my lifestyle, my attitude and my priorities.  The smoking had to be addressed.  As of today, I’ve been a non smoker for 73 days and I’ve lost 13 pounds in that time.  Quitting smoking did slow my weight loss, but the change in my health has been dramatic.

I’ve learned fiscal responsibility. I’ve learned how to budget, and learned that part of living simply is living frugally.  In the past 6 months, I’ve cut my expenses by 37 percent (and added a car payment!).  The impact to my lifestyle has been positive - in cutting out the things that add nothing to the quality of my life, I’ve freed up time and funds to use on the things that do add to the quality of my life.  For too much of my life, I’ve chased possessions and luxuries, and that has been the source of much unhappiness for me.  The key to real wealth is being satisfied with what you already have.

I’ve started exercising every day. exercise in a reasonable amount of time while leaving enough of my focus free to be able to listen to a podcast of audio book on a topic I find interesting.  Exercise is something we all know we should do, but for a lot of years it was something I never seemed to be able to do with any regularity.  I’ve learned that I was approaching it unskillfully, and that I needed to change my lifestyle, my attitude and my priorities.  I’ve started with walking, because it allows me to get enough cardiopodcasts or audio books that interest me.

I’ve learned how to be productive. Productivity has always escaped me - it’s been almost a mythical beast.  Once I changed my lifestyle, my attitude and my priorities, things started to get done.  As an example, this isn’t the first website I’ve launched.  It’s the 3rd.  It’s also the first one to actually arrive on the internet.  I’ve always been able to “do work”, but part of being productive is being able to accomplish my goals without stress and without losing time I want to spend on important things (like my family and friends).

I became a writer. I’ve always loved to write, as far back as I can remember.  I’ve also always been a man that works in Information Technology.  I was recently downsized out of a job in the real estate industry, and rather than being an issue, it looked like a terrific opportunity to get started on changing my career.  I will likely need to go back to working in the I.T. field temporarily, but I’m on the downhill side of that career now.  If you’d like to help with this transition, you can do so by checking out some of the ads you find on this site.  I’d be grateful, and I’d encourage you to always take a moment to click on at least one ad on any blog style website that you enjoy.

I’ve begun investigating Buddhism. I’m not sure I’m ready to call myself a Buddhist, but I have been following the 5 precepts and the 8 fold path.  In Buddhism, they talk about ending suffering.  As I’ve learned more about it, ending suffering really means the same thing as achieving happiness.  Either way, the goal is something I can get behind.

Thanks for letting me share with you what I’m learning.  I’m sure there will be posts that cover all of these topics and more.  I hope you find it interesting, I hope you find it useful.