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.

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.

Have you downshifted and yet still spend your days racing against the clock? One of the bug bears of many of my clients is this: they manage to leave the rat race, to reduce their working hours, to balance their working lives with their personal lives, to find work doing something they truly love BUT they still feel stressed and pressurised because of their attitude to time. Why is this?