Firstly, I’d like to make clear that I’m not talking about ‘grafting’ as in ‘extortion’, but as in satisfying, productive, physical work. In our industrial growth society, I mourn the decrease in this activity with the advances in technology and automation. But it’s not just these mechanical innovations that have caused us to reduce how much of each day we spend on manual labour. If we valued this practice, then surely we would’ve made sure that it remained a sacred part of our everyday lives.

We know that happiness is not linearly related to material wealth. Above a certain level, the point where we personally feel we have ‘enough’, an increase in material wealth does not bring us more happiness. The pivotal point is this place where we have ‘enough’, whatever that might mean for each of us personally. Beyond that, joie de vivre seems to come about more readily from focusing our efforts more on the non-material aspects of our lives, for example our mental, emotional spiritual and physical wellbeing.

Whenever we notice a specialist day or week that inspires us, we can use that as a wake up call – an opportunity to re- engage and re-commit with what makes us come alive. As I understand it, waking up is the process of unearthing our authenticity and uniqueness, of re-connecting to our truth about who we are and how we prefer to live and work.

This article was sparked by a letter I received recently from an energy company. They are attempting to get planning permission for a new nuclear power plant. They are also planning to build a wind farm. Having identified me as the sort of person who supports wind farms, this energy company (let’s call them EC), wrote to me asking for my support for their venture to build one. This communication from EC seemed to me to be a call to examine my values and my beliefs about where to put my personal energy and my commitment.

One of the most enjoyable and eagerly anticipated aspects of downshifting is the opportunity to spend less time earning a living (especially when it’s wearing us down) and more time on other aspects of our lives that we find more meaningful and less stressful. When we’re forcibly downshifted, through having our working hours cut for example, the resulting change in lifestyle and standard of living might not be welcomed quite so readily. How can we handle these changes in a life serving way? What are the pitfalls and how do we avoid them?

Whether we’re at home or at work, creating space in our physical, mental or spiritual environments can lead to enormous benefits. Because of the nature of space clearing (we don’t remember exactly what’s there until we start moving things around!) the particular ways in which the benefits manifest are often surprising and unpredictable. So the sense of this process, in my experience, tends to be one of adventure and discovery.

I've heard several people lately, coaching clients, colleagues and others, express their disappointment when others do not thank them for work they’ve done or for kindnesses they’ve offered. It’s reminded me that I feel this too from time to time. Disappointment, in my view, can be a clue to us that our expectations have not been met. So an insightful question to ask ourselves when someone doesn’t say thankyou is: “What was I expecting?” and maybe also: “How were they to know?”.

By asking ourselves some important questions and reflecting on our answers, we can focus our thinking and our actions. Then downshifting becomes an easier process as we begin to believe that the obstacles in our way are surmountable and to recognise the opportunities that can serve us.

With sustainable business we can do things differently. We can give ourselves permission to re-write the rules on competition and to realign ourselves with the three Ps – people, planet, profit.

Being “frugal” – sparing, economical, careful – in itself doesn’t sound particularly enticing to most of us. It doesn’t appear to meet our needs for prosperity, security and meaning in our lives because of what we’ve been encouraged to believe about those qualities. I’d like to suggest that frugality is actually an alternative route to prosperity, security and meaning in our lives that does not involve the stresses of striving.

It can be a chaotic and challenging undertaking to be self employed or running a small business in these unprecedented times of climate change, peak oil and global economic crisis. What does it mean to “surf” the recession? How do we perform this complex balancing act?

When someone has upset us or done something that has harmed us, what is the best course of action for the benefit of our emotional wellbeing? We can choose to distinguish between what we choose to remember about the facts and what we believe were the intentions of those involved. Rather than following the traditional route of seeking revenge, we can focus instead on transforming our approach to what happened and the consequences that resulted. How do we do that?

Personal resilience is our ability to recover from setbacks, to embrace change and to soften, rather than fight, in the face of hardship. I would suggest that it can be viewed as a kind of sustainable, robust form of self-esteem.

What is sustainable change? I believe it’s when we are able to cultivate a new habit, a novel way of being or doing, and maintain that long term. We might find this very easy to do for some habits however, larger changes, those that test our beliefs and conditioning at a much deeper level, can be far more challenging. One of the methods that I encourage coaching clients to follow is called “Foresight, Midsight, Hindsight”. Although the way in which this is used can vary considerably from one person to another, here are some general guidelines.

It has occurred to me that when we are overly stressed, what we are actually encountering is a misuse of our personal energy. In the same way that we are collectively misusing the sources of fuel that the earth has to offer and causing global stress, on a personal level we can sometimes find ourselves misusing our personal sources of fuel. So, perhaps reducing stress is a process of reducing our use of unhealthy personal energy. Let me explain this idea further ...

There are many negative emotions that can arise on our quest to live and work more sustainably. We can imagine these as being like weed seeds in our minds. If we feed them they will grow. All we need to do to ensure that they remain dormant is deprive them of nourishment i.e. stop dwelling on them, and instead focus on growing the seeds that are good for us.

Apparently January 25th is set to be the most depressing day of 2010. Called “Blue Monday” the Monday on the last week of January each year is the day when we’re most likely to feel down and lack-lustre. This is often attributed to the combination of debt from Christmas, cold and wet weather, suffering from colds and flu and the lack of a public holiday on the horizon! What can we do when we succumb to the Winter Blues? The usual distractions of overeating, drinking alcohol or vegging out in front of the TV that many of us are tempted by can lead to addition physical and emotional difficulties. What simple, sustainable alternatives are there?

Despite what our political leaders insist on telling us, we all know deep down that persistent economic growth is no longer an option if humankind is to survive for very much longer on this planet. Yet it is not “growth” per se that is a bad thing when we consider what it really means. Growth is not about achievement, consumption, exploitation, manipulation, survival of the fittest, take-overs, domination, hierarchy, power or control. This is just what we’ve been led to believe through cultural conditioning and it is now so deeply ingrained that few of us can even imagine a different, more life-sustaining way of living and working. So, if growth is not about all of those parameters I’ve just mentioned, what is it really? And how does this relate to our personal and business lives?

Is downshifting a spiritual act? Is deciding to live more in alignment with the needs of the planet, humanity and ourselves an act of defiance, a refusal to comply, to be “socially included” or is it maybe a shift towards a mode of living that supports both our personal spiritual growth and the raising of global consciousness?

Is downshifting a spiritual act? Is deciding to live more in alignment with the needs of the planet, humanity and ourselves an act of defiance, a refusal to comply, to be “socially included” or is it maybe a shift towards a mode of living that supports both our personal spiritual growth and the raising of global consciousness?

Whilst downshifting or aspiring to live more sustainably can seem on the surface to be like a dream, in reality what I, and many of my clients, find is that it’s more of an interesting journey than a dream to be achieved. So, ironically, even striving towards the goal of a “sustainable living dream” can be counter productive. What guides us on the right path of our journey I would call a vision rather than a dream.

When we consider our need to live more sustainable lives, we are being called to face some very tough challenges, personally, in our local communities, nationally and globally. How can we follow our hearts and speak out for what we believe in without causing further suffering or hardship? How can we be effective and consistent in how we decide to act? How do we engage in non-violent methods of transformation?

A research report from the EMCC (European Monitoring Centre on Change) has stressed the importance of businesses to cultivate “anticipatory awareness” and flexibility in building resilience to change. How does this translate into straightforward, practical steps that a small sustainable business can take to help it thrive during times of change?

In our business lives, the Anyway Principle can help us become clear on our business purpose, inspiring and motivating us and the others we work with and improving our chances of business success. It’s altogether a very effective way of living and working consciously.

Downshifting is what happens when people decide that the demands of their modern working life do not justify the rewards. They want time to enjoy their families, their relationships, and participate in their communities. The process of downshifting is how people change their lifestyle to meet those needs.

In our move to a more sustainable way of living and of doing business, we know that we need to change how we act and also how we think. Our actions, after all, stem from our thoughts and, unless we change our approach to how we think, we will not manage to downshift or to sustain the changes that we make.

Having run several small businesses over the last 20 years, my experience has taught me a lot about myself and what kind of person I want to be in serving a particular customer base and also what it’s like to be a client of fast moving consumer goods type companies versus smaller, sustainable companies with a more humane and environmentally responsible outlook.

One of the saddest by-products of our post-modern society is the isolation felt by many of its inhabitants. With many people living in single person households and single parent or small nuclear families we have lost the confidence building benefits and emotional support of living and working in community. We have also lost the practical advantages of sharing resources. The good news is we can re-create community and reap the benefits even if we do this on a small scale.

Simply put, a business’s “triple bottom line can be expressed in terms of the three Ps – People, Planet, Profit, and, most importantly, in equal priority. So now, rather than taking the conventional view and running our business primarily for profit, we are running our business for the welfare of society and of the environment with the same emphasis on these aims as on earning a profit.

Trees play such a large part in our lives. On a practical level, they are the lungs of the earth and they are each self sustaining eco-systems in their own right. On a more subtle level, they can be symbolic of many aspects of human life. I’ve used this idea to map out some ideas on maintaining sound, sustainable business relationships.

Why do we need to heal? What is it about being in the rat race that causes us so much discontentment and disease? With some studies showing that over 70% of office workers in the UK are currently suffering some form of ill health as a result of their jobs, it seems pertinent to explore downshifting as a healthier alternative.

Since starting my downshifting journey to a more sustainable existence, I have become acutely aware of just how frequently other people voice their exasperation at “having to lead a seemingly pointless and unhappy existence.” I was one of those people a mere 7 years ago. 7 years later and I am working part time from home, living a relatively low cost, sustainable, debt-free lifestyle. My children are home educated and I am self-employed supporting others who wish to tread a similar path. We are all less stressed and happier and are free to enjoy our lives in the moment, rather than striving forever for an imagined, utopian future.