Affluenza?

I’ve been posting for some time about my desire to live life more fully, but more simply. Hubby and I have a shared vision of voluntary simplicity regarding cars and other “things” and are trying to learn more about the ways in which we can regain the joys of life, reduce stress, and reduce our dependence on “more”; to have health and vitality to give our lives back to others (instead of always being on the receiving end!)
A term I came across recently was “affluenza” and it really characterizes what I am hoping to reduce in my life. Wiki defines it as:

affluenza, n. a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more. (de Graaf [1])

affluenza, n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by the pursuit of the American Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth. (PBS [1])

Another quote from Wiki regarding british psychologist Oliver James:

James also believes that higher rates of mental disorders are the consequence of excessive wealth-seeking in consumerist nations. He cites World Health Organization data that English-speaking nations have twice as much mental illness as mainland Europe… James defines affluenza as ‘placing a high value on money, possessions, appearances (physical and social) and fame,’ and this becomes the rationale behind the increasing mental illness in English-speaking societies. He explains the greater incidence of affluenza as the result of ‘Selfish Capitalism,’ the Market Liberal political governance found in English-speaking nations as compared to the less selfish capitalism pursued in mainland Europe. James asserts that societies can remove the negative consumerist effects by pursuing real needs over perceived wants, and by defining themselves as having value independent of their material possessions.

Anyway, as I said, its an interesting term and one that is floating around in my brain with other terms like “intentional community”, “voluntary simplicity”, “cohousing”, “car-free”, so on and so forth.

An interesting observation we made this weekend when reading this blog post about thriving on one income, (in which the family has chosen to live in a one bedroom), was that we never use our bedroom except to sleep. We pay however much more money each month for a room that we literally sleep in for (maybe) 8 hours and that’s it, lol!

Well, if this post had any point, you would have found it by now. Rather, it’s one of those – this is on my mind, I should blog about it posts. There’s a lot more musings in my head about the overall topic of this post, but I’m saving it for an introspective rainy day when a few of our major upcoming decisions have been worked out a bit more Intrigued? Stay tuned…

I also owe you some recent pictures, including the few little things I’ve knitted so far AND my new batch of kefir I just made and kombucha that is brewing (so exciting!) – but alas, I can’t get my card reader… drive… thingy to read my digital card, so it’s a slightly more intricate process that I am too tired for at the moment.

My copy of “Feeding the Whole Family” just came in from the library so I’m going to spend some time earmarking recipes now