Have you ever taken a trip or done a reset that left you rejuvenated, only to find yourself back into the same familiar, energy-draining patterns once you returned to everyday life?
I’ve been there. Likely, we’ve all been there.
Our first season living on our new alpine off-grid property was kind of like a reset, despite the stresses we faced getting our infrastructure up and running (as I mentioned in my last post). But now, we’re back to desert city living… and Amazon Prime one-day delivery and Trader Joe’s around the corner and access to an awesome 3-story spa-like gym.
It’s been a welcome change, actually: coffee at the push of a button, 70 degree sunny days, and a garage, among other things. But there are actually some aspects of living simply on the land in a tiny house that I’m hoping to bring back to this more “citified” life. Maybe these ideas will inspire you to try some experiments of your own.
No TV
When we moved to our tiny house in the mountains, we agonized over what size TV to buy and hang on the wall. I wanted it small, my husband wanted it big… and in our back and forth, we spent a while not watching any TV and realized it was really nice.
We’re not big TV people in the first place, but not watching any TV for a while really opened up our time in the evening to do other things: take longer walks after dinner, play games together, just read/listen to podcasts, talk, and write (me). As the season progressed, we found ourselves going to bed earlier as the sun set earlier as well – the way humans were supposed to.
I’m not saying we won’t ever turn on that 65″ black screen in the living room, but we plan to use it more sparingly. I see this playing out as maybe just choosing only one or two short videos as a family (usually Youtube) to watch each night instead of sitting in front of the thing for hours as the sun sets. Now that Aspen is a bit older, we’re going to try playing more board games as well.
Batching internet and phone time
The connectivity options on our alpine property are currently very limited. One company offers satellite internet service, and our phones have no reception. The satellite wifi is not cheap, and the data is capped; however, there is “bonus time” during the wee hours of the morning when we have extra data for internet and phone calls over wifi. We adopted a practice of confining our downloads, updates, big web work and phone calls to mostly this time period.
As we adopted this habit, I noticed that the days felt more controlled, less reactive, and more open when I wasn’t checking my phone constantly. People talk about batching their social media and web work all the time, and I’ve never really been gotten into it. Now, I’m finally going to play with those batching apps I downloaded and let sit unopened forever.
Less errands
When your only decent grocery store, gym, and gas options are 55 minutes away, you tend to design one or two days a week around errands. Because you can’t just pop over to the store whenever you want to. We were very organized with lists, utilizing a list app that has family sharing so we could keep track of what we needed.
Transportation time to/from errands adds up. So in addition to batching internet time, I think I’m going to try to batch my errands and shopping as well.
Taking time to enjoy tea
Going without my beloved automatic espresso maker, I made coffee in the mountains with a simple hand grind and pourover technique. It tastes great, but it is somewhat labor-intensive, so I would follow up a single morning coffee with a large cup of green tea. Especially as the mornings dipped to freezing temperatures, I savored slowly sipping the hot liquid while warming my hands around the huge mug. And when the mornings were warmer, I would take the mug out in the sun to “my spot” above the stream and just be. It was wonderful.
While I don’t have the need for toasty warm hands nor the amazing view of a stream here in my desert condo, I’ve still been pouring myself a cup of green tea in the mornings. I’ve been able to cut down a little on my coffee consumption and add something that has other benefits, all while making it an exercise in mindful enjoyment. If you think green tea tastes like dirt, try this one. It’s really delicious, IMO, and can be found in most grocery store chains or on Amazon.
Smiling at people
One thing we noticed straight away when we moved to Southern Utah is that people in the nearby town are just. really. nice. They smile. Clerks are courteous. Men open doors. Cars don’t honk.
In contrast, Las Vegas drivers tend to be quite aggressive, and every time you go to Costco it’s a fight to get out of there without having your toes run over by someone’s cart. While I can’t control other people’s behavior, I CAN smile more – even when masked – and just slow down. My attitude is likely to rub off on others, and even if it doesn’t, it makes me happy to do it.
Common Themes
What all these habits come down to, really, is creating more space. More space for noticing. More space for gratitude. More space for downtime and creative time. More space for connection with others.
What habits are you working on this month? How can you make more space for what matters in your life? Let me know by leaving a comment below!
“Let’s do stuff that’s not on the list”
This is a very beautiful post. I feel like I just took a long weekend after reading it. How wonderfully you tied these experiences together into a unified concept at the end.
Thanks so much, Barbara! I’m happy it inspired you into a relaxing mindset.
so true, miss the 80s smile and ppl kindness