Simple Wellness - Root Systems Institute

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ABSTRACT
SIMPLE WELLNESS: PERCEPTIONS OF HEALTH
IN PERSONS WHO PRACTICE VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY
MURRAY, MaryAnne Christine, Ed.D. Seattle University, 2005, 293 pp.
Supervisor: John J. Gardiner, Ph.D.
This qualitative dissertation examines the lived experience and perceptions of
health in seven Seattle residents who practiced voluntary simplicity in the late twentiethand early twenty-first century. The overarching research questions addressed inquiry into
the internal process that leads to deliberate lifestyle change (simplification) and the
meaning of voluntary simplicity practice in the health and wellbeing of the individual
within his/her community.
Data were collected via a demographic survey which participants completed in
the autumn of 2004, individual interviews conducted in October of 2004, a paper-andpencil wellness assessment instrument which participants completed in October and
November of 2004, and a focus group interview which met in March of 2005. Transcripts
of the audio-tape recorded individual and focus group interviews were analyzed using
QSR N6 software for qualitative analysis.
The introduction provides the setting for the study of voluntary simplicity
practitioners and wellness perceptions. The review of literature reveals a paucity of
medical and nursing research on wellness; rather, most allopathic writing compares
health in context of disease processes.
The themes and values cited by participants as essential to voluntary simplicity
were mindful living; wise use of resources; interdependence between humans, the
environment and non-humans; sense of humor; generosity; and deliberate choice to be
happy. Participants described intercultural experiences as formative in the evolution of
their simplification processes.
The study revealed that participants view wellness holistically in terms of
balancing physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of life. They had low utilization of
allopathic healthcare services and high levels of self-responsibility for health promotion
and health maintenance.
In conclusion, the ethos of voluntary simplicity practice by study participants
contributed to personal wellbeing and that of their various communities.
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SIMPLE WELLNESS: PERCEPTIONS OF HEALTH
IN PERSONS WHO PRACTICE VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY
BY
MARYANNE CHRISTINE MURRAY
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
SEATTLE UNIVERSITY
2005
Approvals:
________________________________________________________________________
Committee Chair: John J. Gardiner, PhD
Date:
________________________________________________________________________
Committee Member: Barbara S. Innes, EdD
Date:
________________________________________________________________________
Committee Member: Beverly Johnson, PhD
Date:
________________________________________________________________________
Educational Leadership Program Director: Roberto Pena, PhD
Date
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
You who have been most influential in supporting this effort know who you
are and how you have assisted. One cannot do a work of this magnitude without
mentors and exemplars. John J. Gardiner, PhD, Chair of my Dissertation Committee,
and committee members Barbara S. Innes, EdD, RN and Beverly Johnson, PhD, RN
have been guiding lights and fine professors in my studies. I thank you for your gifts
of time, interest, and wisdom bestowed upon me.
I gratefully acknowledge my academic heritage in the many instructors and
professors of Nursing who have taught me at Seattle Central Community College,
University of Washington-Bothell, Seattle Pacific University, and Seattle University.
You have inspired me and trusted me. I must also proclaim my gratitude for Alice
Thorpe Foster who insisted that I follow my dream of becoming a nurse, and who
funded my initial nursing studies.
My mentors in the fields of Addiction Studies and Theology at Seattle
University, and Counseling Psychology at Seattle Pacific University, are heroines
and heroes in my academic epic. My earlier educators are also important, especially
Isadora and Michele.
I’ve gotten by, I’ve gotten high on the help of my friends. Nancy Malmgren:
you have been there for me since I was a confused young Girl Scout. Judy Opheim:
you are solid gold; my daughters and I could not have survived without you! Barbara
Suder: eighth grade was a long time ago, and we’re still learning to dance!
And saving the blessed for last, my special thanks to my family:
o Present partner Barbara Beatty: you are useful, ornamental, loving and
beloved;
o Former partner Linda Roise Amar and her bride Adrienne Amar (think
spaghetti!);
o Lovely daughters Kimberly and Karen Morrison whose lives are miracles
for me;
o Siblings Larry, Ted, Christine, John, Roger (all very much alive) and Jim
(most sincerely dead) who tolerated my piano playing and taught me
Latin, Scrabble-for-Blood, the joy of reading, and how to be loyal through
good times and tough: How I love celebrating holidays together at the
Hudna Holka Hilton! Let’s count this one a party victory;
o My parents Edeltraud Hondl, MD and Arthur Murray, MD who set a high
academic standard and piqued interest in all aspects of health, and Barbara
Yagle Murray who was ahead of her time;
o My many cousins, too numerous to count, whose friendships are my great
wealth;
o And my Findlay Family, my faith community, with whom I feel
connected.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... ii
Chapter
1. Introduction.................................................................................................. 1
Perceptions of Health in Persons Who Practice Voluntary Simplicity ........... 1
The Voluntary Simplicity Movement......................................................... 1
Health and Wellness .................................................................................. 4
Contextual Background… ......................................................................... 10
Purpose of the Study..................................................................................... 10
Guiding Research Questions ...................................................................... 11
Professional Significance of the Study....................................................... 13
Review of Relevant Discourses ................................................................. 14
Definition of Key Terms ........................................................................... 16
Summary................................................................................................... 22
2. Review of Literature..................................................................................... 23
Introduction.................................................................................................. 23
Voluntary Simplicity ................................................................................. 23
Health and Wellness .................................................................................. 39
Wellness Instruments................................................................................. 67
Leadership................................................................................................. 78
Summary................................................................................................... 81
3. Research Design and Methodology............................................................... 83
Introduction.................................................................................................. 83
Population and Sample ............................................................................... 83
Access to the Population............................................................................. 84
Problem and Purposes Overview .................................................................. 84
Philosophical Premises ............................................................................... 86
Research Questions ...................................................................................... 88
Research Method.......................................................................................... 89
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Methodological Techniques Introduced ..................................................... 89
Quantitative Data....................................................................................... 89
Qualitative Data Collection........................................................................ 94
Sequence of Data Collection Techniques ................................................... 97
Storage of Data.......................................................................................... 98
Time Limits for Data Storage .................................................................... 99
Data Analysis Procedures .......................................................................... 99
Reliability and Validity Provisions ............................................................ 101
Human Subjects Research Review................................................................ 102
Strengths and Weaknesses of Chosen Methodology...................................... 102
Summary...................................................................................................... 104
4. Presentation and Analysis of Data ................................................................ 106
Introduction............................................................................................... 106
Findings ....................................................................................................... 107
Participant Demographic Survey Data....................................................... 107
The Individual Interviews.......................................................................... 112
The Wellness Inventory and Wellness Wheels.............................................. 138
The Wellness Inventory ............................................................................ 138
The Focus Group Interview ....................................................................... 147
The Research Questions ............................................................................ 173
Summary...................................................................................................... 207
5. Discussion, Conclusion, and Recommendations............................................ 208
Statement of the Problem .......................................................................... 208
Review of the Methodology...................................................................... 210
The Overall Issues Addressed by this Study.................................................. 211
The Internal Journey Leading to Lifestyle Change .................................... 211
Voluntary Simplicity and Wellness of an Individual Within His/Her
Community.......................................................................................... 213
Policy Issues.............................................................................................. 223
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Recommendations for Further Study.......................................................... 224
Practical Applications ........................................................................................ 224
Summary................................................................................................... 226
Appendices
A. Seattle University Human Subjects Research Review Form ...................... 228
B. Seattle University Notification of IRB Approval ....................................... 232
C. Consent for Research Participation............................................................ 236
D. Solicitation Letter for Participants............................................................. 239
E. Simple Wellness Study Participant Data .................................................... 242
F. Schedule of Individual Interview Questions ............................................... 245
G. Schedule of Focus Group Questions.......................................................... 247
H. Simple Wellness Study Research Questions .............................................. 249
I. Wellness Associates, Inc. (John W. Travis, MD) Permission Letter ........... 252
J. Wellness Inventory.................................................................................... 254
K. Wellness Wheels of Simple Wellness Participants..................................... 267
L. Handout for Participants at Focus Group Interview.................................... 276
References ......................................................................................................... 282
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TABLES
Table
Page
1. Old and New Paradigms of Medicine................................................................. 44
2. Wellness Instrument Dimensions ....................................................................... 74
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure.................................................................................................................... Page
1. Wellness, Responsibility and Love............................................................ 139
2. Wellness and Breathing ............................................................................ 140
3. Wellness and Sensing ............................................................................... 140
4. Wellness and Eating.................................................................................. 141
5. Wellness and Moving ............................................................................... 141
6. Wellness and Feeling ................................................................................ 142
7. Wellness and Thinking ............................................................................. 143
8. Wellness and Playing/Working ................................................................. 143
9. Wellness and Communicating................................................................... 144
10. Wellness and Sex...................................................................................... 145
11. Wellness and Finding Meaning ................................................................. 145
12. Wellness and Transcending....................................................................... 146
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
Simple Wellness: Perceptions of Health
in Persons Who Practice Voluntary Simplicity
The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the Simple Wellness Study, a
phenomenological inquiry into the lived experience and health perceptions of persons
who have deliberately changed their lifestyles in the practice of voluntary simplicity.
After a brief description of voluntary simplicity and wellness, the contextual background
of the study is introduced. Finally, the research questions guiding the study are identified
and important terms defined.
The Voluntary Simplicity Movement
One common descriptor of voluntary simplicity (VS) is mindful living.
Sociologist Amitai Etzioni (2003) defined it thusly:
Voluntary simplicity refers to the choice out of free will (rather than being
coerced by poverty, government austerity programs, or being imprisoned)
to limit expenditures on consumer goods and services, and to cultivate
nonmaterialistic sources of satisfaction and meaning (p. 7).
Persons who practice VS organize their lives and make decisions according to
values which run counter to cultural norms depicted in the media. America’s cultural
icons exalt individualism, consumerism, personal freedom, abundant wealth, and power.
VS values communities over individuals, purchase decisions based on need and
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consideration of local and global long-term consequences, sufficiency rather than excess,
interdependent and egalitarian relationships, and creation of lifestyles financed by right
livelihood, frugality, and wise investments as opposed to the debt-based lifestyles of
popular culture. VS embraces moderation and removal of excess (possessions,
commitments, stressors, etc.). Voluntary Simplicity movement leader Cecile Andrews
was quoted in her alma mater’s alumni magazine (Schuyler, 2001, ¶ 17): “This
movement asks you to consider the consequences of your actions on your well-being and
the environment.” Alexandra Fleming (2002, ¶ 2) wrote for Insight in the News,
“Voluntary Simplicity [is] a concept that … has one key tenet: savoring life and
identifying the activities that bring a true sense of satisfaction. For most people this
means spending more time on reflection and less money on stuff …”
VS is a phenomenon of late-twentieth-century and early-twenty-first century First
World societies, and it has roots in early European emigrants to America. Despite their
origins in specific religious traditions, the writings of Puritans, Shakers, and Amish are
particularly consonant with VS literature today (Bender, 1989; Shi, 1985). Christian and
Jewish authors have written numerous books on VS, targeting religious populations, but
the VS movement is not identified with any particular religious ideology. Spiritual
practices and reverence are common among persons who practice VS, but religious
observance is neither encouraged nor discouraged (Ban Breathnach, 1997; Burch, 2000;
Luhrs, 1997; Schut, 1999; Segal, 1999; Swenson, 1992). In many respects, VS reflects an
appreciation for the values of America’s indigenous peoples who counted wealth
according to the richness of relationships rather than possessions (Kohatsu, 2002).
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VS is practiced by persons of all ages and all walks of life. Simplification is not
poverty; rather, it is a choice made by persons who enjoy the luxury of having options.
Typically, VS practitioners are well-educated, middle-class persons who have established
their careers and chosen to retire, reduce work hours, or change work settings or careers
for the sake of improved quality of life (Pierce, 2000).
People come to embrace VS for a number of reasons. Simplifiers Allen and
Cantwell (2003) identify eight primary doors to VS: “environmental concerns, moral
concerns, social justice, personal finance, time famine, debt, spirituality, retirement” (p.
6). Simplifiers describing their VS journeys cite several motivators which demonstrate
their value systems (Pierce, 2000).
Newspapers and magazines across America report about individuals and families
who are making lifestyle changes to simplify their lives. New periodicals, both paper and
electronic, have evolved to track and capitalize on these trends. Many are newsletters and
resource-sharing documents, while others are scientific, consumer-research journals
investigating what motivates simplifiers to spend their money. Real Simple (2005), a
glossy monthly magazine featuring high-end furnishings, jewelry, and cosmetics for the
discriminating buyer, is perhaps the most blatant example of a publication co-opting and
perverting the message of voluntary simplicity.
Among the numerous books promoting voluntary simplicity is a volume in a very
popular series of how-to books: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Simple Living (Lockwood,
2000). Futurists Faith Popcorn (1997), Gerard Celente (1997), and John Naisbitt (1999)
all address trends related to voluntary simplicity in their most recent works.
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Voluntary simplicity links with numerous issues of interest to citizens of the
world. Persons who write about voluntary simplicity also write about community
building (Andrews, 1997, 1999; Doherty & Etzioni, 2003; Etzioni, 1993; Loeb, 1999,
2003), consumerism (de Graaf, Wann, & Naylor, 2001; Princen, Maniates, & Conca,
2002; Schor, 1999), economics (Hollender, 2002; Schor, 2002), environmental issues
(Burch, 2000; Callander & Travis, 1993; Durning, 1992, 1996; Elgin, 2000), family life
(Taylor, 2003), health (Ritchie, 2002; Ryan & Travis, 1991; Travis & Callander, 1990;
Travis & Ryan, 1988, 2001), social justice (Ray & Anderson, 2000; Sider, 1997),
spirituality (Andrews, 1999a; Elgin, 1993; Gould, 1997), and sustainability (Schor &
Taylor, 2002). While literature on lifestyle simplification often refers to lifestyles
experienced in the fifteenth through twentieth centuries in America, voluntary simplicity
literature is overwhelmingly forward-looking in its perspective. Persons who practice
voluntary simplicity write about altering their mindsets and practices to create
communities that are more livable and welcoming to persons in their western homelands,
as well as raising consciousness about First World citizens’ lifestyle choices and the
impact of those choices on Third World citizens (Durning, 1992).
Health and Wellness
The American health care system and its principles have an extensive researchbased body of literature describing illness and its causes and cures. In this system, health
is often conceptualized as absence of disease, or functioning despite disease. Further, the
word health refers to a physical state of being, reflecting Rene Descarte’s influence on
western medical thought (Shames, 1993). Wellness, a term dating to the 1930s, attempts
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to describe a more positive perspective toward health and well-being. Wellness
incorporates nuances of energy, vitality, and balanced lifestyle achieved through adequate
or enhanced nutrition, activity, and rest. Holistic physician John Travis and his partner
Meryn Callander (1990) write:
Wellness is usually defined by our nutrition, fitness, and stress
levels. Rarely is attention given to the psychological forces in our
environment and even more rarely to our state of consciousness—the
source of our behavior. Ultimately, the wellness of an individual cannot be
addressed in any meaningful way unless viewed within the context of the
prevailing consciousness of our world. The impact of this consciousness is
ubiquitous, manifesting in every realm of our society from the medical,
economic, and environmental, to the psychological and the spiritual. It is
inseparable from our wellbeing and yet usually overlooked in wellness
writings (Module A-1).
The Holistic Health Movement
Numerous paradigm shifts are occurring in western medicine and health care.
Many argue that the current American health care system is misnamed because it delivers
sick care and devotes inadequate attention to promoting health (Kohatsu, 2002;
O’Connor, 2001; Shames, 1993). We are moving away from the hierarchical medical
model which dominated the American health care system during most of the twentieth
century. In that system, physicians (Doctors of Medicine) diagnosed illnesses and
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prescribed drugs or surgeries to cure or palliate. Patients were expected to do what the
doctor ordered. Those who failed to do so were cursed as noncompliant.
In the emerging health care paradigm, patients are persons with rights and
obligations, and who are partners in care of their own health. Today’s primary care
provider may be an allopathic physician, a nurse practitioner or physician assistant, or a
physician from another tradition such as osteopathy, naturopathy, or chiropractic. In
addition to treatment of illness, attention is paid to prevention of disease, minimizing
effects of disease, maintaining health, and promotion of health-enhancing practices.
Nonwestern healing traditions including ancient practices such as Ayurved from India,
Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture, and Japanese Reiki, emphasize returning a
person to a state of balance or homeostasis. That balance may be perceived as relating to
hot and cold issues, wet and dry issues, or the movement or blockage of chi or life
energy. These and numerous other healing systems are now recognized as meritorious
and undergoing scientific research to validate their integration into American health care.
In the current American paradigm these non-western healthways are called
alternative systems of healing. Ironically, Western allopathic medicine was the
alternative system of healing a century ago. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has
responded to citizens’ interest in expanding the repertoire of healing modalities by
establishing in 1991 the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(NCCAM). NCCAM defines complementary medicine as that which is used alongside
allopathic medicine, and alternative medicine is that which is used instead of allopathic
(Kohatsu, 2002). The American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA) was founded in
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1978 by physicians wanting to expand beyond allopathic-only practice and the American
Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) was established in 1981 by nurses seeking to
incorporate other healing systems into their western nursing practice. Both of these
organizations offer national and regional conferences which include emphases on
personal wellness and nurturing the healer.
Another new phenomenon in the arena of health care is the emergence of
American physicians as spiritual leaders. The trend began with M. Scott Peck’s (1978)
publication of The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values,
and Spiritual Growth, and has continued with the works of Deepak Chopra, Larry
Dossey, Rachel Naomi Remen, Norman Shealy, Richard Swenson, Andrew Weil, and
numerous others.
Ecology
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the environmental movement signaled an
emerging consciousness regarding humans’ relationship with the earth. Margulis’ and
Lovelock’s Gaia philosophy viewed earth as a macrocosm of the human body (Joseph,
1990; Lovelock, 2000). Writers described the human body as a holographic image of the
earth, with the oceans and rivers as its circulatory system, the rainforests representing the
respiratory system, and later the internet as earth’s nervous system.
Thirty-year-old Worldwatch Institute (2005) is one of many environmental action
groups which informs Americans about ecological issues. The organization’s website
describes its mission of facilitating the creation of an environmentally sustainable and
socially just society.
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Addiction
Alcoholics Anonymous’ Twelve Step program helps substance abusers achieve
long term sobriety and improved physical, mental, and spiritual health through a spiritual
awakening (Emrick, 1999). De Graaf, Wann, & Naylor (2001) describe compulsive
spending and acquisition of possessions as the disease of Affluenza. Voluntary simplicity
and mindful living are recovery pathways for Affluenza. Andrews (2000) proposes
Simplicity Circles as a tool for recovery from compulsive spending: “Simplicity circles,
then, can help these people meet the immediate needs of acceptance and recognition and
at the same time help them design strategies to resist consumerism” (p. 490). Social
scientist Peter Russell writes in Waking Up in Time: Finding Peace in Times of
Accelerating Change (1998):
We normally think of addiction in terms of drugs, but the effects of
our materialist mindset bear all the hallmarks of chemical dependency.
Whatever the drug—alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tranquilizers, or some illicit
substance—people take it for one simple reason: they want to feel better.
They want to feel happy, high, relaxed, in control, free from fear, more in
touch with life. In this respect, the drug user is seeking nothing different
from anyone else—it is just the way in which he or she is doing it that
contemporary society finds unacceptable.
It is the same with our addiction to materialism. We are trying to
make ourselves feel better. But any happiness we get is usually only
temporary; as soon as one “high” wears off, we go in search of another
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“fix.” We become psychologically dependent on our favorite sources of
pleasure—food, music, driving, debating, football, television, sex—
whatever it is we get off on (or whatever it is we believe we should get off
on). And the ever-present problem of habituation means we need larger
and larger doses to achieve the same effect.
This addiction to things is our most dangerous addiction because it
is this addiction that underlies the materialism of our age.
If we are to move beyond this precarious phase of our evolution,
we must discover how to free ourselves from this addiction (p. 70).
Many physical diseases suffered by Americans today are related to affluent
lifestyles. Noteworthy among these is the epidemic of obesity. Worldwatch’s Gardner
and Halweil (2000) stated, “Treating the effects of obesity in the United States … costs
more than $100 billion annually, more than 10% of the nation’s bill for healthcare” (p. 5).
The American Heart Association (n.d.) attributes 38% of deaths in America during 2002
to lifestyle related cardiovascular disease. Additionally, numerous health issues are
stress-related and support the mind-body connection. Type A Behavior, particularly
including hostility and self-involvement, has been linked with propensity for heart attacks
and coronary heart disease (Seigman and Dembroski, 1989).
Similarly, spirituality profoundly impacts physical health. Nurse researcher Ross
(1995) discusses patients’ will to live and hope as important predictors of surviving
illness. She finds that spiritually healthy patients seek meaning in their experiences of
physical illness.
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Health Educator Hawks (1994) notes that “Spiritually well individuals express
themselves through trust, honesty, integrity, altruism and service,” while “Individuals
who organize their lives around self-gratification and pleasure seeking are more prone to
addictions, mood disorders, and a profound sense of emptiness and unhappiness, all of
which are antithetical to the characteristics of spiritual health” (pp. 4-5).
Contextual Background
The author has completed graduate degrees in the fields of nursing, counseling
psychology, and theology. In this study, she sought to integrate these disciplines with her
professional practice as a healthcare provider for clients who suffer from chemical
addictions. She desired to be true to the tradition of nursing which is both science and
art—the science of research to evaluate means by which desired outcomes (improved
health, decreased impact of disease) may be achieved, and the art of increasing comfort
and reducing suffering. In the pursuit of the Simple Wellness study, the author questioned
whether the practice of voluntary simplicity could constitute a reasonable recovery
process from chemical and/or behavioral addictions, which by definition involve out-ofbalance, not-mindful, lifestyle choices. In the section to follow, the author laid
groundwork for this aspect of inquiry.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study was to explore voluntary simplicity and lifestyle change
in the context of physical, mental, and spiritual health. Viewing voluntary simplicity from
the perspective of a pathway for recovery from Western society’s addictions to work,
consumerism, and stress-inducing busyness, participants’ conscientious lifestyle changes
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were examined. Individual practitioners of VS were interviewed for descriptions of the
antecedents to their lifestyle changes, the enacting of simplification, and the satisfiers/
dissatisfiers they have experienced along the way. Attention was paid to the practitioners’
assessments of their physical, mental, and spiritual health prior to simplification and at
the present time. Themes from the interviews were woven into fabric of motivating
factors, goals, and outcomes in this phenomenological study. At the time of this research
few dissertations existed on the topic of voluntary simplicity, so this was an excellent
opportunity to expand the body of knowledge on this important alternative trend in
Western culture.
Guiding Research Questions
The overall question was: What does the practice of voluntary simplicity mean for
the health and wellbeing of an individual within his/her community? The questions asked
of the study participants (see Appendix F) were designed to reveal answers to these
subsets of the overall question:
1. What are the essential understandings of voluntary simplicity as described by
participants who practice voluntary simplicity?
2. What is the internal experience that leads to lifestyle change in embracing voluntary
simplicity?
3. When people begin to practice voluntary simplicity, what do they expect to gain from
it?
4. How do practitioners of voluntary simplicity define physical, mental, and spiritual
health?
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5. How do practitioners of voluntary simplicity perceive their physical, mental, and
spiritual health evolving over the course of their lifestyle changing?
6. What do practitioners of voluntary simplicity experience in community involvement
and leadership?
Design Controls
This study involved in-depth interviews and a focus group with persons who
practice voluntary simplicity. The participants were selected from Pacific
Northwesterners who have publicly declared their allegiance to voluntary simplicity in
print or video broadcast media. It was expected that more than six and fewer than ten
persons would be interviewed before a saturation point was achieved.
Limitations
Because this study sought understanding of twenty-first-century Americans who
chose to embrace the values of voluntary simplicity, it necessarily excluded those persons
whose simple lifestyles were dictated by their life circumstances. Thus participants were
likely to be well-educated, middle-class, middle-aged, or older persons (Schor, 1998).
The simplification of participants’ lifestyles was expected to be evident in reduction or
cessation of full-time paid employment, or in a family’s commitment to live on a single
income. Efforts were made to include persons of diverse ethnic and religious background.
Assumptions
It was anticipated that participant responses to the interview questions would
include varying motivations such as ecological concerns, rejection of materialism and
consumerism, solidarity with the poor of the world, and desire to serve human and other
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life forms. It was further expected that the study would yield multiple definitions for
physical, mental, and spiritual health, and that an holistic worldview would emerge. As is
the case with phenomenologic study, the data emerged with the participants’ telling of
their stories (Morse and Field, 1995). Thus no strict framework could be developed
before those stories were received.
The author recognized that the term Americans literally referred to residents of
North, Central, and South America. However, for ease of description, in this document
she deferred to the vernacular use of Americans to mean residents of the United States of
America.
Professional Significance of the Study
While a growing body of research examined the phenomenon of voluntary
simplicity, no study to date had focused attention on physical, mental, and spiritual health
as experienced by persons who practice VS. The researcher believed that if simplifiers
reported experiencing significant improvements in their perceptions of health and
attribution of those improvements to the lived process of simplification, then VS might be
considered a valid remedy for propensity toward lifestyle-related diseases. This
perceptual change was consonant with a paradigm shift from pharmaceutical-based
secondary and tertiary interventions (initiated after a disease state exists), to natural
(nonpharmaceutical), primary interventions which prevent disease establishment
(Edelman & Mandle, 1998). Further, this study focused on the physical and mental
wellbeing of the participants and the activities which enhanced their spiritual awareness
and growth, as well as the overall quality of their lives.
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VS might then also be considered a holistic process for remedying the myopia of
our current health-care paradigm. Just as our healthcare system suffers from
fragmentation and lack of focus on national goals for health improvement (O’Connor,
2001), this study could spark further investigation such as comparison of lifestyle choices
and outcomes. For example, a study comparing typical American middle-class families
against VS-practicing families, over time, might illuminate aspects of goal-setting for our
national community. Likewise, if it could be demonstrated that a VS lifestyle may be
good for one’s health, then more people might be inspired to counter the media-projected
trappings of American society and make studied decisions for simpler lives.
Review of Relevant Discourses
Literature pertinent to this proposed study drew from disciplines of
addictionology, consumer science, ecology, economics, health education, nursing,
phenomenology, sociology, and spirituality. The topic of voluntary simplicity was
explored from scholarly and popular perspectives.
Research Procedures
The Simple Wellness project was a phenomenologic study of persons who
practiced voluntary simplicity in the cities and suburbs of the USA’s Pacific Northwest.
Participants in this purposive sample were persons who had publicly embraced VS, as
evidenced by their publication of books or articles on the subject, or their appearance in
video or broadcast media on voluntary simplicity, or their having been the subjects of
newspaper articles regarding VS. Access to this sample was gained through introductions
via the Simplicity Forum (n.d.) or its members.
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The participants met with the researcher for audio-taped in-depth face-to-face
interviews which were transcribed verbatim. The interview transcripts and researcher’s
field notes were coded for analysis using QSR N6 NU*DIST software (2002).
Recruitment of participants and interviews continued until a point of saturation was
reached. Triangulation was achieved by identification of emergent themes and
presentation to a focus group of study participants.
The Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988) was a tool for self-assessment of
health/wellness in multiple dimensions which yielded a visual representation of balance
called the Wellness Wheel. The Wellness Inventory was provided to the participants at the
conclusion of their individual interviews. During the focus group meeting, the
participants compared the Wellness Wheels of all the participants to further stimulate
discussion on VS and wellness.
Outline of Dissertation Chapters
Chapter one introduces the proposed study and provides the context in which the
study was conceptualized. An overview of the plan and procedures is set forth.
Chapter two presents a review of literature examining the phenomenon of
voluntary simplicity. After tracing voluntary simplicity’s roots in Western culture, its
current iteration in late-twentieth-century America is considered. Scholarly literature and
popular sources are discussed, with special emphasis on critique of voluntary simplicity.
The literature review continues with exploration into addictions and health. Health is
addressed as wellness, as opposed to absence of disease, in the physical, mental, and
spiritual domains.
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Chapter three presents the roadmap for conducting the research project. This
phenomenological study was based on audio-taped, in-depth, semi-structured interviews
with a purposive sample of voluntary simplicity practitioners. The field notes and
verbatim transcripts of the interviews were coded for analysis. The qualitative analyses
were conducted using QSR N6 NU*DIST (2002) computer software corroborated by
manual coding and analysis. Triangulation was achieved by meeting with a group of
study participants to present preliminary findings and gather refining data.
Chapter four introduces the findings of the study, presenting the thematic material
gleaned from the interview transcripts. This material explicates the motivations of urban
and suburban persons who practice voluntary simplicity in the Pacific Northwest of the
United States of America. Participants’ self-perceived health statuses before the process
of simplification, and at the time of the interviews, are discussed. Participants’
community involvement and leadership are also addressed.
Chapter five concludes the report with discussion of this study’s fit in the body of
literature addressing voluntary simplicity and health. Recommendations for further study
are proposed.
Definition of Key Terms
Addiction: “Addiction is any compulsive, habitual behavior that limits the
freedom of human desire. It is caused by the attachment, or nailing, of desire to specific
objects. The word behavior is especially important in this definition, for it indicates that
action is essential to addiction” (May, 1988, pp. 24-25). “Preoccupation, compulsive use
and relapse constitute a behavioral strategy for identifying addictive behavior … All
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indicate loss of control with a substance that is clearly evident in a pattern of use in which
the substance or drug occupies a high priority in the individual’s repertoire of choices….
The substance or drug is the object of the pathological use (Miller, 1995, pp. 18-19).
Affluenza: 1. “An extreme form of materialism in which consumers overwork and
accumulate high levels of debt in order to purchase more goods (affluence + influenza)”
(McFedries, 1997-2004). 2. “Simply defined, Affluenza is a dysfunctional relationship
with money/wealth, or the pursuit of it. Globally it is a back up in the flow of money
resulting in a polarization of the classes and a loss of economic and emotional balance”
(O’Neill, 1997-2000).
Consumerism: “… The active ideology that the meaning of life is to be found in
buying things and pre-packaged experiences” (Bocock, 1993).
Consumption: 1. Tuberculosis. 2. “To consume, as defined by the Oxford English
Dictionary, means to ‘destroy by or like fire or formerly disease.’ A ‘consumer,’ then, is
a ‘person who squanders, destroys, or uses up’” (Orr, 1999). 3. Purchase of goods or
services, thus contributing to the economy.
Downshifting: “… The will to give up the compulsive purchase of material things
that end up owning their owners and reject the idea to sacrifice non-working activities
such as reading a book at night to a child in order to get a job promotion … it means
work less, spend less, and doing things differently in a leisurely manner” (Juniu, 2000).
Emotional Health: “The ability to feel and express the full range of human
emotions, give and receive love, achieve a sense of fulfillment and purpose in life, and
develop psychological hardiness (seeing change as a challenge instead of a threat, and
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developing strong levels of personal commitment and coping skills). Those with peak
emotional health find beauty and connectedness in life, tolerance and acceptance of
others, and full acceptance of self” (Hawks, 1994, p. 8).
Financial Independence: “Financial independence is the by-product of diligently
following all the steps of the program outlined [in Your Money or Your Life]. It is defined
as having an income sufficient for your basic needs and comforts from a source other
than paid employment” (Dominguez & Robin, 1992, p. xxvi).
Holism: “An integrated, dynamic, evolutionary and vital conceptualization of the
biological, psychological, social and spiritual aspects of human nature” (Hood Morris,
1996).
Saturation: 1. “Repetition of data obtained during the course of a qualitative
study. Signifies completion of data collection on a particular culture or phenomenon”
(Streubert and Carpenter, 1999, p. 322). 2. “Saturation (sic) is a term used to describe the
point when you have heard the range of ideas and aren’t getting new information”
(Krueger & Casey, 2000).
Simplicity Circles: Community-based voluntary simplicity study groups described
by Cecile Andrews (1997).
Simplicity Congress: Annual convocation of the Simplicity Forum membership,
usually held the last weekend of August. The 2003 Simplicity Congress was held on the
campus at Seattle University. The 2004 Simplicity Congress gathered at Winston-Salem
State University, North Carolina. The four-day 2005 Simplicity Congress met August 2528 at Estes Park, Colorado.
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Simplicity Forum: “An alliance of simplicity leaders committed to achieving and
honoring simple, just and sustainable ways of life” (Simplicity Forum, n.d.).
Membership of the Simplicity Forum includes academics, artists, authors, concerned
citizens, ecologists, educators, and researchers.
Spiritual Health: “A high level of faith, hope, and commitment in relation to a
well-defined worldview or belief system that provides a sense of meaning and purpose to
existence in general, and that offers an ethical path to personal fulfillment which includes
connectedness with self, others, and a higher power or larger reality” (Hawks, 1994).
Spirituality: An aspect of the “whole personality and in particular with the
development of awareness of the ‘other’ (for example, self, other person, wider
communities, environment, deity). This evolving awareness is a dynamic process that
involves a deepening integration of cognitive, affective, somatic and experiential
knowledge. Spirituality thus seeks to make connections within the self and beyond the
self: this finds strength and focus in the notions of integrity and shalom (peace with
justice). Such themes offer some grounding on which individuals can base their raison
d’etre and a search for meaning” (Kendrick and Robinson, 2000).
Sustainability: “At its core, sustainability is the theoretical ability to exist in
perpetuity. A sustainable endeavor operates for the long haul. Its activities do not result in
the eventual demise of the individual systems upon which the whole depends for survival.
A sustainable enterprise, then becomes one in which vigilant respect is paid to its
environmental and human resources, and all activities are structured in such a way as to
enrich these elements” (Hollender, 2002, p. 65).
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Time Poverty: Lack of leisure time, particularly in America where average work
hours are greater now than fifty years ago, despite significant increases in worker
productivity (Schor, 2003). American workers average 8.1 days of paid leave after one
year on the job and 10.2 days after three years, whereas European nations mandate four
to six weeks of paid annual leave for their workers (Robinson, 2003). Time poverty
results in decreased time available for cultivating family relationships and community
involvement.
Voluntary Simplicity: 1. Term coined by Richard Gregg in his 1936 essay, The
Value of Voluntary Simplicity:
Voluntary simplicity involves both inner and outer condition. It
means singleness of purpose, sincerity and honesty within, as well as
avoidance of exterior clutter, of many possessions irrelevant to the chief
purpose of life. It means an ordering and guiding of our energy and our
desires, a partial restraint in some directions in order to secure greater
abundance of life in other directions. It involves a deliberate organization
of life for a purpose. For example, the men who tried to climb Mount
Everest concentrated their thoughts and energies on the planning of that
expedition for several years, and in the actual attempt discarded every
ounce of equipment not surely needed for that one purpose.
Voluntary Simplicity: 2. Title of futurist Duane Elgin’s (1982) seminal volume in
which he presents topics of frugal consumption, ecologic awareness, and personal growth
for personal and societal transformation.
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Wellness: 1. “Wellness is not a limited or exclusive concept. Although many
people associate it only with fitness, nutrition, or stress reduction, it is much, much more.
Wellness is a bridge that takes people into realms far beyond treatment or therapy—into a
domain of self-responsibility and self-empowerment” (Ryan and Travis, 1991).
Wellness: 2. “… A lifestyle approach. It is not intended to treat disease. Rather it
is intended to expand potentials for health and level of functioning. It is directed toward
the development of the human potential unhampered by the experience of illness”
(Odom, 1984, p. 8).
Wellness: 3. In his (1961) book High Level Wellness, Halbert Dunn calls wellness
“An integrated method of functioning which is oriented toward maximizing the potential
of which the individual is capable of functioning within the environment.”
Your Money or Your Life: Seminal 1992 volume by Joe Dominguez and Vicki
Robin, founders of the New Road Map Foundation, which introduces many of the
concepts of voluntary simple living and offers a nine-step plan toward financial
independence:
What these [many books on money] have in common is that they
assume that your financial life functions separately from the rest of your
life. This book is about putting it all back together. It is about integration,
a “whole systems” approach to life. It will take you back to the basics—
the basics of making your spending (and hopefully your saving) of money
into a clear mirror of your life values and purpose. It is about the most
basic of freedoms—the freedom to think for yourself.
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The purpose of this book is to transform your relationship with
money. That relationship encompasses more than just your spending,
debts and savings; it also includes the time these functions take in your
life. In addition, your relationship with money is reflected in the sense of
satisfaction and fulfillment that you get from your connection to your
family, your community and the planet (p. xviii).
Summary
This chapter introduced the Simple Wellness Study, a qualitative inquiry into the
experience of persons who publicly identified themselves as practitioners of voluntary
simplicity. Particular attention was paid to participants’ evaluation of their states of
health/wellness and changes in their perceptions of health/wellness over the time of their
commitment to voluntary simplicity. In chapter two, literature on voluntary simplicity
and wellness are explored. In chapter three, methods of inquiry are described, including
individual in-depth interviews, focus group interactions and computer-aided analysis of
thematic material. Chapter four presents analyses of the data and findings of the study.
Chapter five develops conclusions from the study and recommendations for future
research.
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CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Introduction
This review of literature prepares a foundation for the study of evolving physical,
mental and spiritual health of individuals who practice voluntary simplicity. Scholarly
and popular works on voluntary simplicity are addressed first. Next writings on health
and wellness of body, mind, and spirit are examined. Writings on addiction,
consumerism, ecology, sustainability, and leadership are also included.
Voluntary Simplicity
Dissertation Abstracts offered 29 dissertations and theses when keywords
voluntary and simplicity were searched. Of these, eleven related to lifestyle change, from
perspectives of education, religion and social studies. To date, none developed a
relationship between the practice of voluntary simplicity and health or wellness. The vast
majority of popular works on voluntary simplicity attended to issues of frugality, debt
reduction, and the value of time. While many sources, particularly in popular literature,
cited quality of life as an important goal and outcome of voluntary simplicity practice,
few ventured beyond linking stress reduction and improved health or wellness.
The practice of voluntary simplicity had become a popular topic of books, articles
in many genres of periodicals, and a few scholarly studies. Much had been written about
the how of simplifying, the physical acts of removing excesses from peoples’ lives, but
little had been written about the psychological and spiritual evolution of simplicity.
Stories of people’s processes of simplification often mentioned stress reduction and
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improvement of health as motivating goals, but comparison of anticipated outcomes
against actual outcomes over time had received insufficient study.
Although most writings on voluntary simplicity were overwhelmingly positive in
their regard to lifestyle change, few truly thoughtful critiques existed. Among these were
Moeller’s (1986) study in Tonawanda which found that people who moved to that harsh
rural environment rarely remained long-term unless they had strong ties to the
community that predated their attempts to take up residence. McCormick’s (1997) article
Warning: Simplicity May Complicate Your Life offered critical consideration of pitfalls
facing people approaching voluntary simplicity from a romantic perspective. Motherdaughter economists Warren and Tyagi (2003) challenged as myth the notion that
overconsumption contributed to the indebtedness and stresses weighing upon American
families today. These were notable exceptions to the growing body of literature which
extolled the virtues of simple living.
Scholarly Writing on Voluntary Simplicity
Extant dissertations examined voluntary simplicity from the perspectives of
ecological sustainability (Darnovsky, 1996; Frazier, 1985; Knutson, 1982; Mbindyo,
1981; McLain-Kark, 1985), homesteading or back-to-the-land (Gould, 1997; Moeller,
1986), social systems (Allen, 2001; Grigsby, 2000; Kopaczewski, 1999; Mullaney, 2001;
Spina, 1998), philosophy of life (Baumann, 2001; Chauvin, 2002; Gould, 1997; Nolen,
1994; Spina, 1998), and education (Frazier, 1985; Nolen, 1994).
Teris Nolen wrote her 1994 dissertation, Choosing Voluntary Simplicity as a
Lifestyle, for completion of her doctoral degree in human environmental sciences
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(formerly termed home economics) at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
Nolen provided an outline of simplicity traditions in America, particularly with regard to
religious groups such as the Shakers and Amish. She cited ecological simplicity, as
promulgated in alternative periodicals of the 1970s (Mother Earth News, The Whole
Earth Catalogue, and Organic Gardening, for example) as foundational for
understanding a shift in Americans’ interest in humane environmental systems and selfsufficiency. Nolen believed “The mission of … home economics … is to increase
understanding of the factors which influence personal and family choice of voluntary
simpler living as a means of moving toward such lifestyle changes” (pp. 21-22). She
pondered the implications of home economists joining with other academic disciplines in
support of grassroots simplicity movements toward a goal of “sustainable worldwide
culture” (p. 22). She identified solidarity with the poor, economic value, liberation from
bureaucracy, decreased focus on paid employment, and search for meaning (with or
without a religious framework) as hallmarks of her study results. Nolen’s stated purpose
was “… to explore factors that lead individuals and families to adopt simpler lifestyles,
and to determine what people mean by voluntary simplicity and how they practice a
simpler lifestyle” (p. 95).
Anthony Spina’s 1998 dissertation titled Voluntary Simplicity: A New Social
Movement in Response to the Technological Invasion of the Lifeworld was submitted to
the Fielding Institute for completion of his Doctor of Philosophy degree in human and
organizational systems. Spina’s qualitative study sought to “investigate the relationship
between voluntary simplicity and the proliferation of technology, and the pluralism of
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postmodernism” (p. 1) and to determine whether VS constituted a new social movement.
Spina’s literature review addressed simple living/downshifting and quality of life, critical
theory of technology and new social movements. His methodology involved one focus
group and 15 individual interviews from which he found strong themes of frugal living,
conflict with family members around simplification, and minimizing consumerism.
Spina’s findings ultimately supported his premise that VS was a reaction to
technologically-induced noise such as overcommitment to work, information overload,
and television’s invasion into home and consciousness. However, he also found great
resistance to embracing VS, in part because his study participants regarded it as irrelevant
to most Americans.
Family therapist Mullaney’s 2001 Dissertation Voluntary Simplicity: An Enacted
Reality drew on her experience as a participant observer in a simplicity circle (Andrews,
1997). Mullaney highlighted the value of unstructured time and meditation for achieving
clarity of purpose. Allen’s (2001) dissertation Voluntary Simplicity: An Organizational
Analysis completed her studies in Social Work. She examined various organizations
aligned with the VS movement and found that environmental issues and quality of life
were the most frequently cited core values driving organizational interest in VS.
John Baumann’s (2001) dissertation entitled, Radical Simplicity: Intentional
Community as Environmental Activism and Nature Religion, was written to complete his
doctoral studies in religion at University of California, Santa Barbara. Baumann
examined three intentional communities in the coastal mountain range of Oregon State.
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Aerious/Yewwood, located near the former logging town of Deadwood, Oregon
was organized around “communication and cohabitation with nature spirits and nature
devas” (p. 18). Alpha Farm, located northwest of Eugene and six miles from Aerious,
was one of the longest lasting intentional communities in America (p. 19). “Alpha Farm’s
self-identified values include pacifism, feminism, and voluntary simplicity, and the
power of group process” (p. 130). Its founders were part of a Pennsylvania Quaker group
with connections to Findhorn, an intentional community founded in Scotland in 1962. Of
the six who moved west to Oregon in 1972, only two remained. Those who lived at
Alpha Farm during Baumann’s research stated, “people involved in community life at
Alpha are environmentalists … maintaining Alpha Farm is part of being in service [to
nature and to society]” (p.142). Breitenbush was the third, largest, and best known of the
three intentional communities studied. It was famous for its hot springs and retreat center
near the Warm Springs Indian reservation in the Cascade mountain range. The intentional
community at Breitenbush dated to the late 1970s when founder Alex Beamer enlisted
others to refurbish the long-unused retreat center where they could live in community.
One member said, “Breitenbush offers core values to those looking for alternatives to the
mainstream—a great setting, a tight community, alternative technology, which are all
components of a ‘right livelihood.’ People can, and do, have major transformative
experiences through being in community” (p. 200). Many came seeking alignment with
“the tenets of the simplicity movement” (p. 202) and “to live grounded in ecological
ethics” (p. 210).
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Baumann discussed the motivation and experiences of these community
members:
People in the late 20th century crave a sense of significance in their
lives…. Creating a sense of significance requires a context within which to
express that sense, such as the array of contexts referred to as new
religious movements. The banding together of individuals expressing the
personal/spiritual through the lens of the collective/religious takes many
forms, many outside the usual purview of accepted definitions of what
constitutes religion … people belonging to the three communities in
question … are manifesting a response at least and rejection at most of
modern mainstream society and a perceived lack of meaningful values
within that society. To do this, they have constructed, to varying degrees,
alternative models rooted in the values of ecological conservation, nature
spirituality, and simple living, all considered a revitalization of traditional
human existence (updated for the present to be sure) [pp. 240-242].
In his 1985 volume titled, The Simple Life: Plain Living and High Thinking in
American Culture, historian David Shi chronicled various simplicity movements in
America dating from the time of the Puritans. He contrasted the hippies of the 1960s with
responsible individuals who deliberately chose to live a plainer and simpler lifestyle in
the 1970s for the sake of ecological awareness and social justice. He acknowledged a
1976 Reader’s Digest article by Laurence Rockefeller which predicted a burgeoning
movement toward simpler lifestyles. Shi attributed President Jimmy Carter’s sermonizing
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about the energy crisis to his belief that Americans had become too accustomed to
affluence at the cost of concern for communitarian values. The Reagan presidency with
its opulent displays conveyed a disdain for Carter’s worries as Reaganomics predicted
unlimited growth for the American economy. Despite controversy and changing political
winds, proponents of the simplicity movement continued to embrace diverse lifestyles
crafted to support their searches for meaning and virtue:
Simplicity is more aesthetic than ascetic in its approach to good
living. Money or possessions or activities themselves do not corrupt
simplicity, but the love of money, the craving for possessions, and the
prison of activities do. Knowing the difference between personal trappings
and personal traps, therefore, is the key to mastering the fine art of simple
living.…This means that simplicity is indeed more a state of mind than a
particular standard of living (pp. 280-281).
Former corporate attorney Linda Breen Pierce conducted her Simplicity Survey
using a convenience sample of internet respondents and others who requested
participation via US mail. In her Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and
Fulfillment in a Complex World (2000), Pierce described recurrent themes of searching
for meaning and making sense of modern life with its emotional disconnects, and a
lifelong process of developing authenticity while decreasing posturing for wealth, power,
and status. Greed and mental clutter were jettisoned in favor of devoting energies toward
spirituality and balance. Pierce’s 2003 volume, Simplicity Lessons: A 12-Step Guide to
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Living Simply, was a how-to book for both veterans and newcomers of the VS movement.
She encapsulated her observations thusly:
In summary, simplicity helps people fulfill their deepest needs and
aspirations, which in turn leads them to behave in ways that make this
world a better place. Specific lifestyles of simplicity will vary enormously
because what a person needs or cherishes is a subjective determination.
Nonetheless, I have observed the following common lifestyle patterns in
people who live simply:
1. Limit material possessions to what is needed and/or cherished.
2. Meaningful work, whether paid or volunteer, ideally spending no more
than 30 hours per week (in order to make time for items #3 to 12,
below).
3. Quality time with friends and family.
4. Joyful and pleasureable leisure activities.
5. A conscious and comfortable relationship with money.
6. Connection to community, but not necessarily in formal organizations.
7. Sustainable consumption practices.
8. Healthy living practices, including exercise, adequate sleep, and
nutritious food.
9. Practices that foster personal growth, an inner life, or spirituality, such
as yoga, meditation, prayer, religious ceremonies, journal writing, and
spiritually-related reading.
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10. Connection to nature—delighting in spending time in nature regularly.
11. Aesthetic beauty in personal environment.
12. Living in harmony with values and integrity (p.13).
Popular Writing on Voluntary Simplicity
Andrews and Holst (2003) answered frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the
Seeds of Simplicity section of the Simple Living Network webpage. When asked if VS
was just a fad, they responded by quoting a Washington Post writer: “Some experts say
the turn toward the simplified lifestyle nationwide is starting to reach proportions that
foretell a fundamental shift in American society and its consumer culture.” They
proceeded to discuss similarities between today’s VS movement and traditional American
values of thrift, personal accountability, community involvement, and compassion for
others. Still, they insisted that VS was about living consciously in the present and
planning for a sustainable future, not looking backward.
Educator Cecile Andrews’ 1997 volume, The Circle of Simplicity: Return to the
Good Life was a guide to one method of learning about voluntary simplicity and
incorporating it into one’s choices. She wrote, “Voluntary simplicity isn’t a formula, a list
of things to do—it’s a search, a search for a new way to live” (p. xviii). Andrews
contrasted the achievement of the American Dream and its corresponding nightmare of
overconsumption, time pressure, and lack of meaning. Her antidote to the nightmare was
an illuminating consciousness-raising which involved developing personal clarity,
community creating, spiritual connecting, and working for social change. The simplicity
circles Andrews seeded and nurtured grew from her career in education and her
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dissatisfaction with the practices of a former employer. In her angst, she investigated
other learning systems and was particularly impressed with study circles for the purpose
of educating a peasant population. The study circles practice, which was still thriving as
of this writing, was developed by Swedes who experienced the popular American
Chataqua movement during an early nineteenth-century visit to America. Further,
Andrews was inspired by stories of the folk schools of Denmark which existed to satisfy
Danes’ hunger to learn. So, modeled after these very functional European schema,
Andrews proposed simplicity circles in which interested persons could learn about
simplicity, share stories, and develop a supportive community. Andrews’ book provided
guideliness on how such a group ought to proceed.
In their (1999) volume High Tech/High Touch: Technology and Our Search for
Meaning, futurists Naisbitt, Naisbitt and Philips (1999) reported that 10-12 percent of
Americans attempted to practice VS. They attributed this, in part, to people’s growing
awareness of spiritual needs and environmental concerns as a response to the increasing
complexity of technology. Futurist Gerard Celente, in an interview by journalist Perry
Pascarella (1998), reported that VS emerged in the counterculture of the 1970s and had
become a philosophical movement encompassing “moderation, self-discipline, care of the
mind and body and spiritual growth.” He noted that these values led to marketing
opportunities for producers of environmentally kind goods and purveyors of high-quality
products which would appeal to simplifiers who purchased only what they needed and
expected durability. Pascarella predicted that people who embraced VS would become
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increasingly centered in their homes, including home-based businesses, and become more
involved in their communities.
When people talked about the journey into voluntary simplicity, they most
frequently cited one or both of two seminal works in the field. The first of these
published in 1982 by Duane Elgin, was titled, Voluntary Simplicity: An Ecological
Lifestyle that Promotes Personal and Social Renewal. In this volume, Elgin contrasted
the industrial world view with a world view of voluntary simplicity. The former was
characterized by conspicuous consumption, individualistic values, lack of particular
regard for the earth and her resources, and reverence for technological progress, while the
latter emphasized harmony, balance, spirituality, interdependence of all beings (both
living and not-living), and conservation of resources. Elgin described simplification as an
evolutionary process and cited feminism as a major contributor to the growth of
voluntary simplicity in that feminism had led both men and women to liberation from
sexual stereotypes and exploration of alternative ways of being in the world.
Like many of the late 20th century and early 21st century authors on the topic of
voluntary simplicity, Elgin described VS as pertaining to our ability to live purposefully
and seek meaning in our lives. He stated, “… voluntary simplicity means much more than
greater material frugality. Like spokes that reach out from the hub of a wheel, this way of
life radiates outward from an inner core of human experience to touch every facet of life
in distinct and discernible ways” (p. 51). Elgin placed strong emphases on ecological
consciousness and re-evaluation of our global political structures.
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When Elgin published his revised edition in 1993, he changed the title to reflect
his increasing emphasis on spirituality: Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that
is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich. He explained his meaning and called upon people to
embrace VS as a pathway to revitalization of civilization and healing of humanity:
[W]e can describe voluntary simplicity as a manner of living that is
outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich, a way of being in which
our most authentic and alive self is brought into direct and conscious
contact with living. This way of life is not a static condition to be
achieved, but an ever-changing balance that must be continuously and
consciously made real. Simplicity in this sense is not simple. To maintain
a skillful balance between the inner and outer aspects of our lives is an
enormously challenging and continuously changing process. The objective
is not dogmatically to live with less, but is a more demanding intention of
living with balance in order to find a life of greater purpose, fulfillment,
and satisfaction (p. 25).
The second seminal volume was Joe Dominguez’s and Vicki Robin’s Your Money
or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial
Independence, first published in 1992 and re-offered in 1999 with a new forward. This
book included Dominguez’s story of retiring at age 31 from his career as a Wall Street
financial analyst and living frugally off the proceeds of his investments. Dominguez and
Robin, founders of The New Road Map Foundation, encouraged their readers to view
money as a representation of their life energy. Their plan for achieving financial
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independence had guided numerous individuals and families in the early steps of their
journeys into VS. Dominguez and Robin emphasized seeking true fulfillment based on
financial integrity and alignment of lifestyles with values. They modeled ways that
voluntary simplifiers could change their patterns of working and playing, and encouraged
financial freedom as a means of empowering people to fulfill their lives’ authentic
purposes.
A sequel to Dominguez’s and Robin’s work, titled Getting a Life: Real Lives
Transformed by Your Money or Your Life, was published in 1997 by Seattle residents
Jacqueline Blix and David Heitmiller. In their introduction to this volume, Dominguez
and Robin addressed decreased thrift and increasing debt in America, hurried lifestyles,
ecological responsibility, Affluenza—the Disease of the `90s (p. xvi), and
soulfulness/social justice as major issues confronting those who would simplify their
lives. Blix and Heitmiller chronicled their own processes of simplification and provided
vignettes of 28 other individuals and families who embraced similar journeys. Blix and
Heitmiller discussed their participation in a Simplicity Circle, a group of persons who met
to explore VS (see below reference to Cecile Andrews’ work). Later, they joined a group
to study wellness:
All of us who met that day had individual health concerns, but we
also felt we had at least some responsibility for our state of wellness and
wanted to suppport each other in our pursuit of well-being.… We knew
we could do certain things to help our physical health. Almost everything
we heard in the media about maintaining healing came down to the
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importance of moderate exercise and eating “right.” But we also wanted to
explore the connection between mind and body and its implications for
health. The discovery of brain chemicals such as endorphins by Candace
B. Pert, former chief of brain biochemistry at the National Institute of
Mental Health, has indicated that the lines between our physical and
emotional selves are getting harder to draw. A quick survey of people in
that room would have revealed that we believed health encompassed all
aspects of our life—body, mind, and spirit (p. 241).
Blix and Heitmiller devoted an entire chapter to linking financial responsibility
and taking responsibility for health. They chronicled numerous reports of improving
health status for themselves and others who simplified their lives. These health
considerations included the body, mind, and spirit. Healing relationships were identified
as central to living effectively. In the 10th chapter, titled The Way We Are, Blix and
Heitmiller elaborated on changing relationships with friends, family and communities,
including volunteerism and expansion of involvement in broader communities.
The seminal work on simplicity groups was Cecile Andrews’ 1997 Circle of
Simplicity: Return to the Good Life which continued the themes of spirituality and health
of mind, body, and spirit. Andrews began by describing depression and violence as
expressions of soul sickness. She recognized a metaphoric link between the increasing
incidence of cancer and the rapid destruction of our environment. Like many of her
fellow writers on the topic of VS, Andrews discussed authenticity (chapter 7) and right
livelihood (chapter 8: Finding and Living Your Passion). She devoted a large portion of
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the book to experiences of community, which included spiritual growth, increased
reverence for nature, and ecological awareness. Her road map for simplicity circles was
also a blueprint for personal/communal empowerment of change agents.
In her (1997) chapter titled, Seeing Clearly, Andrews cited numerous foci of
voluntary simplicity as stated by people who participated in simplicity circles. Among
these were time, freedom, purpose, identity, environmental issues, concern about clutter
and consumption, money, moving to the country, mental health, and fulfillment.
Regarding mental health, she stated, “Some feel they are being driven crazy by our
lifestyle and that they have no choice but to change” (p. 32). Likewise, under the header
of health, Andrews wrote, “Many are forced to look at living more simply when they find
their health is affected” (p. 32) and she followed with the story of a woman who left a job
because its stress impaired her health.
The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living
was Janet Luhrs’ (1997) contribution to the how-to literature. Luhrs, former attorney and
publisher of Simple Living Magazine (2004), built on the foundations of the Duane Elgin
and Dominguez & Robin volumes to present vignettes of alternatives to our cultural
norms of time perceptions, work, family life, holiday celebrations, housing, and
numerous other aspects of American lifestyles. Like Andrews, she devoted an entire
chapter to health and exercise. Luhrs made a strong case for alternative medicine, citing
mind-body healing and spiritual practices as pathways to fulfillment.
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Futurists Gerard Celente (1997) and Faith Popcorn (1997) identified voluntary
simplicity as major trends of the new millennium. In her (1997) chapter titled, Clicking
With Cashing Out, Popcorn described the trends she saw:
Stressed and spent out, consumers are searching for fulfillment in
a simpler way of living.
For years the American dream was epitomized by more, bigger,
better, and faster. No longer. Today we dream of less. No boss, no red
tape, no climbing or clawing your way to the top. Working the hours we
want, with the clients we choose, setting our own schedule and calling our
own shots. Making do with last season’s car, boat, computer, or evening
dress. It’s what we call Cashing Out, the low-keyed trend that recognizes
that quality of life is more important than the title on the door. We know
we’ll be happier in the long run if we like what we’re doing—rather than
doing it just for the paycheck or because that’s what we’ve been educated
to do” (pp. 217-218).
Likewise, in her chapter titled, Clicking with Being Alive, Popcorn commented,
“Recognizing the importance of wellness, consumers embrace the concept of not only a
longer life but a better overall quality of life…. No longer interested in longevity alone,
we want to enhance the quality and value of our lives right now” (p. 235). She discussed
Americans’ increasing interest in homeopathy, naturopathy, exercise, nutrition, as well as
vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements for maintaining and improving health, as a
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reaction to the increasing costs, self-perpetuating impersonalism, and other inadequacies
of the traditional western medical system.
Health and Wellness
The term wellness came into popular use with the publication of Halbert Dunn’s
(1961) High Level Wellness (Adams, Bezner, Drabbs, Zambarano and Steinhardt, 2000).
Many holistically-minded persons have since expanded on the concept. The words health
and wellness were not synonymous in the context of allopathic medicine. Weiner’s
(2001) qualitative study of physicians’ health-seeking behaviors found that physicians
defined health as absence of disease while their patients held expanded definitions such
as physical ability, ability to take action, or a state of wellbeing on a physical level.
Mackey (2000) synthesized nursing research examining the health and wellness
language. She contrasted a medical model of health as biological homeostasis and
disease-negative state against a nursing model of “wellness as a subjective experience of
health, where health is characterized as a state of stability, balance, and integrity of
functioning” (p. 36). Two different perspectives were used to conceptualize the
experience of health: a sociologic approach comprised of social influences and
measurement of health status; and a humanist approach of acceptance and adaptation
regarding lived experience of wholeness. In this nursing milieu, wellness was a
continuum inclusive of present reality and potential future achievement.
Health Systems versus Disease Systems
In journalist O’Connor’s (2001) comparison of healthcare systems around the
world, she found the United States suffered fragmentation of ineffective parallel systems
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and lack of powerful national goals for the health of its citizens: “We have a diseasebased system of care that focuses on curing rather than a health-based system that
promotes prevention, wellness, and healing” (p. 42). She went on to say:
We have focused on curing diseases, rather than investing in our
people so they can be healthy productive citizens. Additionally, we have
no goal for what a system of care should do. Innovations are left to the
separate business plans of various companies who develop products to
meet the needs of their shareholders. So, while everyone is rushing to find
the cure for cancer, there is no equal rush to immunize all our children or
to assure that our frail elderly seniors will have affordable services and
medications (p. 43).
Nurse researcher Engebretson (2003) described a cultural shift in American
healthcare and its impact on our understandings of health and wellness. She discussed
healthcare as transitioning from treating diseases to developing a broader perspective on
complex concepts of health promotion and disease prevention. Engebretson chronicled 10
relevant indicators of our evolving culture shift regarding health and holism. These
included the issues identified below and their italicized reconceptualizations:
1. Mapping the human genome: Understanding the unique individual
nature of health and illness
2. Role of the environment in health: The environmental context is an
integral part of the pattern of illness
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3. Role of human behavior in health: Individual patient (client) agency is
a major factor in the development of health or disease
4. Impact of social factors on health: The responsibility of society and
social structures in the health of individuals and populations
5. Mind-body connections: allostasis: The systemic effect of stress is
understood as a system of balance rather than excess and deficit
6. Culture and health: This introduces diverse explanatory models of
understanding disease, etiology, potential treatments, and avenues for
wellness
7. Complementary and alternative therapies: These approaches have
expanded the focus beyond disease to the experience of health and
illness
8. Spirituality and health: Healing can be known and experienced, but
not necessarily explained
9. New metaphors of the body: The conceptualization of the body has
moved from the metaphor of a machine to that of a communication
system
10. Race and sex; ethnicity and gender: The existence of biological
differences in gender and race (p. 208).
Engebretson proceeded to discuss the culture of nursing and its emphases on
adaptation to illness/wellness, social justice advocacy, and spiritual basis for healing arts.
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She called upon nurses to exercise leadership in reshaping our healthcare delivery
systems to accommodate to and promote these new understandings of wellness.
Naturopathic physician educators Murray and Pizzorno (1991) described the
concept of health:
Health is a term that is difficult to define; a definition somehow
tends to place unnecessary boundaries on its meaning. The World Health
Organisation (sic) defines health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental,
and social well being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.’ This
definition provides a positive range of health well beyond the absence of
sickness.
The question of health or disease often comes down to individual
responsibility. In this context, responsibility means choosing a healthy
alternative over a less healthy one. If you want to be healthy, simply make
healthy choices.
Many features of our health and lifestyle are based on habit and
marketing hype. Not only do features of our parents’ lifestyle usually
become intricately woven into the fabric of our own lives but the time,
energy and money spent on marketing bad health practices also has its
effect—the mass media constantly bombards us with messages affecting
health, diet and lifestyle.
The first step in achieving and maintaining health is taking
personal responsibility. The second step is taking the appropriate action to
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achieve the results you desire. Achieving and maintaining health is usually
quite easy if an individual follows the basic principles of health—positive
mental attitude, a healthy diet and exercise (p. 17).
Holistic nurses Dossey and Guzzetta (1995) addressed the differences between
health/illness and the concept of wellness:
Health-disease and wellness-illness are neither mutually exclusive, nor
polar opposites, but are part of a process and part of the whole. This
perspective makes it easier to understand the individual is a changing
person in a changing world.
The relationship between health-wellness-disease-illness can best
be explored by reviewing definitions of each. The term health has been
defined in many ways, including an ideal state, an integrated balance, and
a method of functioning that is oriented toward maximizing the potential
of which the individual is capable. Wellness has been described as a
measure of optimal health, an expression of the process of life, and the
subjective experience of integrated or congruent functioning. Disease has
varied definitions, such as the biologic dimensions of nonhealth or
breakdown…. Illness is not the absence of health, nor is it identical to
disease. It involves the human experience of symptoms and suffering of
the state of being in the world; it includes the perceived meaning for the
person and how he or she lives within the limitations of symptoms or
disability. Thus health-disease and wellness-illness are both relational and
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contextual. Health, disease, wellness, and illness are part of the whole, yet
distinct (pp. 116-117).
Visionary humanistic psychologist Marilyn Ferguson (1980) compared and
contrasted the old and new paradigms of medicine and health (pp. 246-248):
Table 1: Old and New Paradigms of Medicine
Assumptions of the
Assumptions of the
Old Paradigm of Medicine
New Paradigm of Health
Treatment of Symptoms.
Search for patterns and causes, plus treatment
of symptoms.
Specialized.
Integrated, concerned with the whole patient.
Professional should be emotionally
Professional’s caring is a component of
neutral.
healing.
Pain and disease are wholly negative.
Pain and disease are information about
conflict, disharmony.
Primary intervention with drugs,
Minimal intervention with “appropriate
surgery.
technologies,” complemented with full
armamentarium of non-invasive techniques
(psychotherapies, diet, exercise).
Body seen as machine in good or bad
Body seen as dynamic system, context, field of
repair.
energy within other fields.
Disease or disability seen as thing,
Disease or disability seen as process.
entity.
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Assumptions of the
Assumptions of the
Old Paradigm of Medicine
New Paradigm of Health
Emphasis on eliminating symptoms,
Emphasis on achieving maximum wellness,
disease.
“Meta-health.”
Professional is authority.
Professional is therapeutic partner.
Body and mind are separate;
Bodymind perspective; psychosomatic illness
psychosomatic illness is mental, may
is province of all health-care professionals.
be referred to psychiatrist.
Mind is secondary factor in organic
Mind is primary or coequal factor in all illness.
illness.
Placebo effect shows the power of
Placebo effect shows the mind’s role in disease
suggestion.
and healing.
Primary reliance on quantitative
Primary reliance on qualitative information,
information (charts, tests, dates).
including patient’s subjective reports and
professional’s intuition; quantitative data an
adjunct.
“Prevention” largely environmental:
“Prevention” synonymous with wholeness:
vitamins, rest, exercise, immunization,
work, relationships, goals, body-mind-spirit.
not smoking.
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Economists Princen, Maniates, and Conca considered the commodification of
heath care in their (2002) volume on consumerism which critically examined the
voluntary simplicity movement. They described health care delivery in three strata of
commodity potential, ranging from direct or local relationships between service providers
and receivers, as in the case of low commodity potential, to high commodity potential
which involved distant, amorphous relations between consumers and service producers.
Mass-marketed equipment, pharmaceuticals, and insurance were considered the high end.
The medium range included hands-on therapies and treatments provided by medical
practitioners. The low end, the most personal level, included “… knowledge of healing,
personal health maintenance and illness prevention, life-style adaptations, sense of wellbeing” (p. 75). Similarly, mental health services were outlined from the very personal
interventions of friendship, exercise and peer-counseling, to therapists and fitness clubs at
the mid-range, to psychotropic drugs at the distant end. Thus their schema encapsulated
personal choices for wellness with relatively low-tech interventions created and
administered from within the community. Medium commodity potential interventions
involved direct interactions between the consumer and the service provider, while highend interventions were impersonal and likely to be less satisfying.
Health Promotion
Health promotion, grounded in nursing and health psychology, offered a body of
research into behavior change for enhancing health. According to Lashley (1995):
Health promotion programs seek to increase the level of well-being and
promote self-actualization of individuals and aggregates by advocating
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behaviors that seek to expand the potential for health and personal
development. The goal of health promotion programs is to enable persons
to positively act in their environment by creating conditions that nurture
and promote health. Risk reduction programs, however, are directed
toward facilitating health protective behaviors, which enable persons to
react to threats in the environment through early identification and
avoidance of risks (p. 411).
Boise State University nursing professor Ingrid Brudenell (2003) studied health
promotion in the context of parish nursing programs in Idaho. She observed that parish
nursing, which she defined as “… a health-promotion, disease-prevention model based on
the care of the whole person within a religious community” (p. 85), used the processes of
community health nursing to assess needs and create programs which included advocacy,
health promotion and risk education, early intervention, and care systems coalitionbuilding for congregants of churches with health ministries. She identified strong
potential for these programs and parish nurses to mobilize resources and increase access
to health-enhancing information and behavior change.
American nursing professors Carter and Kulbok (2002) conducted a meta-analysis
of health promotion-related nursing literature to explore the concept of motivation for
health behaviors. They found that the definition of motivation was not sufficiently clear
to accurately assess its role in predicting health behaviors. They identified several
variables which could partially explain motivation, including “… health locus of control
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and self-discipline, social support and approval, value orientation, income, education,
employment, self-esteem, attractiveness, and health” (p. 327).
Australian nursing professor Janet Roden conducted a study of young caregiving
mothers for validation of the health belief model (HBM). This study compared parents in
a lower socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhood with parents in a high SES
neighborhood, and found that while the lower SES group reported higher health-risk
behaviors such as smoking and overindulgence in caffeine, and lower levels of healthimproving behaviors such as accessing health and dental care, the lower SES group was
strong in its perception that more health resources were available and accessible to them.
The lower SES group had more stressful lives, but felt their families were more cohesive
in sharing family tasks and allowing their children more decision-making regarding
dinner menus, bed times, and similar issues. While the higher SES group’s longer
working hours may have reduced opportunities for family cohesion, they exercised more
control over their children’s nutrition and sleep domains. The researcher concluded that
the study results ought to be used for guiding increased efforts toward health promotion
education in child care centers, especially for children from lower SES families.
British social psychologists Campbell and Gillies (2001) considered the analyses
of American political scientist Robert Putnam (2000, 2003) in identifying social capital
as a major factor in the health of a community’s members. They found Putnam’s
descriptions to be too narrow and failing to account for constraints of limited time,
energy, and socioeconomic status for predicting health of persons residing in a given
geographical area. Rather, Campbell and Gillies identified informal networks, often non-
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local across neighborhoods and regions, as important as local formal networks and
associations in enhancing the health of community members.
European Occupational Therapists Birgit Aust and Antje Ducki (2004) studied the
use of health circles for workplace-based health promotion activities. The health circles
met monthly or biweekly over an average of 15 months time. Aust and Ducki found two
essential elements contributing toward success in such programs: self-determination in
decision-making and learning experiences which encouraged the learner to develop
his/her own health-enhancing capacities. When workers were perceived as the experts on
their own working conditions and allowed authority in workplace decision making on
health and safety issues, they were found to be highly invested in the health circles and
their outcomes. These researchers examined results of multiple European studies which
reported decreased sickness-related absenteeism and improved worker retention in health
circle participants. In addition, participants identified positive changes in their perceived
health status, improved self-efficacy and greater workplace satisfaction as a result of the
health circles experience.
Canadian health researchers Buijs, Ross-Kerr, Cousins, & Wilson (2003)
conducted a qualitative study to examine low-income seniors’ participation in a healthpromotion program designed to improve their quality of life and promote continued
independence in community-based residences. Participants reported improved energy,
feeling more alive, and improved perceptions of health. Their participation was motivated
by confidence that they could manage the exercises, expectation of benefits to health,
plus anticipated fun and social interaction. Barriers to participation were forgetfulness,
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schedule changes, other priorities, and not feeling well. The researchers noted that strong
and meaningful relationships between program staff and participants were important
social aspects of Pender’s (1996) Revised Health Promotion Model.
Nursing theorist and professor emerita Nola Pender (n.d.) drew upon her doctoral
studies in psychology and education to study cognitive processes involved in changing
cognition and health behaviors. She identified health promotion and disease prevention as
the necessary central issues to guide health care reform. Her revised health promotion
model (HPM), built upon her nursing and behavioral science background, included
individual characteristics and experiences such as socio-cultural, psychological, and
biological personal factors as starting points. From these bases an individual’s thoughts
and feelings, their perceptions of barriers and benefits to action, and additional
interpersonal and environmental influences, shaped movement toward committing to a
plan of action. That plan was modified by one’s preferences and demands placed on
oneself in the outcome of behavior for health promotion. The more a person perceived
himself or herself to be able to make positive changes, the greater the likelihood that
she/he would alter thought processes, feelings, relationships and the environment in order
to change health-related behaviors.
Canadian nursing professors Northrup and Purkis (2001) wrote of their belief that
nursing is uniquely able to contribute to understanding the human experience of health
and practices which promote health. They cited Parse’s definition of “… health as a
process of becoming, a synthesis and living of one’s values” (p. 67) as a guiding
philosophy for their research, and advocated for transcending the familiar nursing process
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in favor of a new form of practice based on human science and openness to change. They
stated a need to move beyond what they perceive as simplistic, problem-oriented nursing
process:
By teaching nurses to diagnose and manage situations, we are
abdicating our obligation to participate responsibly in the human-universe
condition. Where the complexities of human health within the wholeness
of historical, cultural, and personal reality are taken up seriously in the
mobilization of nursing, nurses are enabled to practice in ways whereby
the uniqueness of each person makes a difference to our care (p. 69).
They noted that this kind of nursing practice requires a changing of worldview
and moving from an arena of greater comfort and familiarity to an unknown, unfamiliar
arena which potentially can bring greater freedom and richer rewards to the practitioner
of nursing in the context of human science.
British health and social work professor Dean Whitehead (2003b) distinguished
between health education activities which typically were based in “biomedically
positivist frameworks that advocate the use of reductionist, mechanistic, individualistic
and allopathic activities in health interventions” (p. 796) and health promotion activities
which were based on empowerment and community-based aspects of health such as
environment, economy and political factors. Whitehead advocated for nurses embracing a
holistic perspective which included both health promotion and health education along
with valuing the individual patient/client’s autonomy and critically applying the best of
both to enhance options for health-related activities of the individuals served.
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Whitehead (2003a) also attempted to describe existential health in the context of
health promotion. Citing Oliver Sacks’ Awakenings as an example, Whitehead discussed
individuals’ capacities to access powerful internal resources for self-healing in response
to illness. This existential health was based in the interior connectedness of individuals
and their interactions with the environment. Components of existential health reflected a
synchrony between the conscious and unconscious mind, and a self-transcendence which
empowered an individual to find meaning in existential problems. Whitehead believed
that this existential health existed across various physical states from wellness to
moderate or severe illness, but was largely neglected in nursing and medical literature
which tended to focus on disease states. He attributed the public’s increasing interest in
complementary healing modalities to their recognition of existential health issues that
were not addressed in the more recently-traditional biomedical model.
British physician Peter Phillips (2002) acknowledged genetic, environmental,
social, and educational factors which could contribute to an individual’s succumbing to
disease despite his or her best efforts otherwise. He contrasted these with overwhelming
benefits to physical and economic health which might be effected through regular
physical exercise. He reported that if citizens of England and Wales universally adopted
recommended physical activity levels, they could reap a 33% reduction in coronary heart
disease, 25% reduction in cerebrovascular events, nearly 25% reduction in type two
diabetes mellitus in persons over 45 years of age, and prevention of more than 50% of hip
fractures in that same age group. The saved financial and human misery costs would be
staggering. To realize such dramatic outcomes, he stated it would be necessary to shift
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focus and allocation of resources from secondary and tertiary treatment to primary
prevention in our health care systems. If a majority of the populace regarded it as
fashionable and attractive to make such changes, they could and would embrace
initiatives such as emphasizing physical education in schools, creating bike and walking
paths for safe self-transport, extensive public education about nutrition divorced from
legislators’ loyalties to agricultural and food manufacturing lobbies, subsidies for
healthful foods, stress-reduction programs available to all workers, and replacement of all
tobacco advertising with media campaigns educating about the health hazards of tobacco
use. Phillips concluded that “Prevention is better than cure” (p. 419) and required
engagement of the populace in active work for health rather than continuing the passive
expectation that healthcare providers would correct disease states.
Spiritual Health
Many writers distinguished between religion and spirituality. The former
addressed rational conceptualizations of spirituality, while the latter built upon religious
beliefs to incorporate life experiences into a contemplative learning. Persons describing
spiritual health spoke of feeling harmonious connections with powers greater than
themselves, interconnection with nature and other humans, serenity/inner peace, and a
sense of wholeness (Hood Morris, 1996).
Native American Franciscan Sister Jose Hobday (1998) wrote about simplicity in
terms of spiritual awakening. Hobday posited interior focus on values:
Simplicity can be understood in one way as the refusal to dissipate.
… simplicity is focused. Where our treasure is, there our heart is. Our
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heart is where we live and love and discover the magnificence of revealed
inner treasure. Simple living goes straight like an arrow. It seeks the
center. It won’t tolerate the clutter that keeps us from understanding. It
clarifies the center, the real meaning of life (p. 20).
Hobday examined six aspects of material need in life (food, clothing, shelter,
work, transportation and recreation) and categorized these at four escalating levels of
expenditures (need, help, preference and luxury). For example, the hierarchy of
transportation might include pedestrian (need), bicycle (help), Volkswagen bug
(preference) and luxury (Cadillac). She acknowledged the importance of discerning the
levels at which expenditures of time, energy and money were facilitative and the points at
which they became directly or indirectly obstructive to the flow of spiritual energy.
Advanced practice nurse Kendrick and pastoral care professional Robinson
(2000) differentiated between spirituality and religion. They described spirituality as
independent of religious ideologies, and inclusive of search for purpose, synthesis of
meaning, and transcendence of one’s own concerns toward attention to others’ needs.
British Registered Mental Nurses (psychiatric nurses) Nolan and Crawford (1997) viewed
psychiatry as a means of looking at distress in the human condition which too often failed
to consider spirituality in its equations. They believed that nursing must include spiritual
well-being in its goals for practitioners and patients. This entailed healthy relationships
with self and others, including groups of others, as well as with the transcendent, the
unknowable in itself. They challenged nursing “to define spirituality and create a spiritual
epistemology to underpin the mental health services” (p. 291). Nurses Price and Stevens,
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and pastoral caregiver LaBarre (1995) invited nurses to “work with spirituality as ‘the life
principle that pervades a person’s entire being,’ and as ‘that which integrates and
transcends the biological and psychosocial nature,’” associating spirituality with “some
sort of transcendental relationship with God or with an inspiration to transcend the
material world” (p. 6). They found that spiritual caregiving addressed meaning,
relationships, and self-worth.
Perceptions of Health
Rutgers University sociologists Idler and Kasl (1991) reported on a study of more
than 2,800 seniors’ perceptions of their health. They found that self-perception of health
status was second only to age in predicting mortality among an elderly cohort. Adams,
Bezner, Drabbs, Zambarano and Steinhardt (2000) posited subjective perceptions as valid
predictors of illness and identified three common themes pervading descriptions of
wellness. These were (a) multiple dimensions, (b) balance between those dimensions, and
(c) salutogenesis or health-causing/promoting behaviors. The components of their
particular wellness model were “… emotional centeredness, intellectual stimulation,
physical resilience, psychological optimism, social connectedness, and spiritual life
purpose.” Their research identified optimism and coherence/connectedness as essential
for a purposeful, meaning-filled life and consequent wellness.
Gerontologist and parish nurse Boland (1998) discussed the importance of
spirituality, rather than religiosity, in the lives and health of seniors. She observed that
this link between health and spirituality was rarely addressed in healthcare research or
health promotion programming. She found that older people identified spirituality as
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central to their perceptions of wellbeing. Meaningfulness of life and rich human
relationships were included with diet and exercise (maintaining physical functioning) in
seniors’ citations of essential components of feeling healthy.
Holistic and allopathic physician Larry Dossey (1991) wrote that meaning held an
important role in wellness and illness. He blamed Americans’ disillusionment with our
existing healthcare system on allopathic medicine’s failure to acknowledge the search for
meaning as an essential part of health. Likewise, Dossey attributed inclusion of mind,
body and spirit into a holistic perspective as the cause of increasing popularity of
naturopathic and other complementary health care philosophies. Espeland (1999)
discussed spiritual distress as a significant barrier to wellness and cited health
professionals’ discomfort with the concept of spiritual care as a major gap in mainstream
healthcare today.
Mental Health
Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung was reputed to have said that life is pain, and
mental health is the absence of unnecessary pain (Peck, 1978). Pastoral caregivers and
health educators Tubesing and Tubesing (1991) wrote of the pejorative connotations
attached to the term mental health. They described mental wellness as including mental
flexibility, creativity, curiosity, humor, self-respect, ability to feel emotions, and ability to
make sense of life experience.
The area of health care which addressed psychiatric and substance use disorders
was commonly known as behavioral health, according to the website of Behavioral
Health World for Professionals (1997-2003), an online resource for mental health
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professionals. The web site of Harvard physician researcher and prolific author of The
Relaxation Response (1975), Herbert Benson, MD, charted the development of
Behavioral Medicine [also known as Mind/Body Medicine] (2000). Benson noted that of
10 risk factors to morbidity and mortality mentioned in the US Surgeon General’s 1979
report, seven were related to lifestyle issues and susceptible to positive changes if
addressed in a holistic approach: “The individual is assessed not only in terms of physical
and psychological symptoms, laboratory and diagnostic tests, but also in terms of his/her
psychosocial environment—stressors, habits, risk factors, social supports, work schedule,
hobbies and spiritual wellbeing.”
Affluenza: Consumerism and Addiction
Marketing Professor Hirschman (1992) wrote of a phenomenologic study
exploring compulsive behaviors and experience of addictions. She compared the
experiences of compulsive behaviors regarding drug use, eating disorders and shopping
in addicted and nonaddicted persons. Among her findings were greater propensity for
compulsive behaviors during role transitions and personal crises, and indulgence in
simultaneous and serial addictions. Participants in her study told of childhood
experiences with addictions in their families, attempts to create boundaries around
addictive behaviors in order to control their out-of-control impulses, deception of others
lest those others interfere with addictive indulgence, suicidal thoughts and impulses in the
face of seemingly insurmountable failures to constrain the addictive behaviors, and
multiple experiences of relapse. She commented:
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Perhaps the greatest irony of addiction is that when you are immersed
within it, you can feel it but not see it. Once you emerge from addiction,
you can see it but not feel it—at least (thankfully) not feel it with the
intensity you once did (p. 177).
Social worker Ramona Goldman (2000), exploring compulsive buying as an
addiction, wrote:
The concept of addiction, once used only with reference to the
abuse of alcohol or drugs, has been broadened to include a number of
other conditions. Among these are overeating, declining to eat, compulsive
exercising, pathological sexual activity, gambling, and an array of
disorders involving the use of money. To these we must now add
compulsive buying…. With growing frequency we see the inclination to
buy more merchandise than can be afforded, more than is needed or can be
used, often more than can be conveniently stored. This behavior is
strongly supported by the environment. Credit is easy to obtain, and
buying may be done in a variety of ways—by shopping in a store, by
ordering from a catalog, by use of the various shopping channels, or online
(p. 245).
Goldman went on to discuss such acquisitive behavior in terms of motivation to
appear competent “… so as to create an aura of someone who is in command of herself
and her world” (p. 246) with the actual enjoyment of the purchased items secondary to
creating the impression of culture and refinement. Goldman regarded
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addictive/compulsive shopping behaviors as defenses against aggressive feeling states
and compensation for feelings of inadequacy. She specified, “The addictive involvement
constitutes a flight from full awareness of these feelings, and from having them emerge
undisguised for others to see” (p. 246).
To the same volume on compulsive shopping, Cecile Andrews (2000) contributed
a chapter on her simplicity circles in which she presented voluntary simplicity as a
recovery pathway for the isolation experienced by persons with addictions or
compulsions. She expressed compassion for those who suffer such isolation:
Americans are denounced again and again as a shallow,
materialistic, and status-seeking group of people. But the truth may be that
we are instead a lonely people starved for affection and attention. Much of
the research on compulsive or addictive shopping seems to indicate that it
is not the stuff we want, but the sensation. It’s not another blouse or a new
sweater so much as a friendly smile and a compliment. It’s not a new VCR
we need, but another way to find self-esteem and a sense of belonging. To
help people deal with their compulsive shopping, we need to help them
find new ways to deal with the stresses and anxieties of our
commercialized, competitive, consumerist society (p. 484).
In this context, Andrews described voluntary simplicity in terms which are
directly applicable to addictive and compulsive behaviors:
Voluntary Simplicity is not … a life of self deprivation. It is a
turning away from activities that have failed to deliver satisfaction and
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contentment—activities such as shopping and scrambling up the career
ladder—to activities that bring true joy and meaning—creativity,
community, and the celebration of daily life.
It is people taking stock and trying to live with balance,
moderation, and harmony with nature. It is people learning to live
consciously and making their own choices. It is a movement that questions
the American definition of success that is measured in terms of wealth and
status; it is a redefinition of “the good life” (p. 485).
Andrews claimed that the simplicity circle format of sharing thoughts and feelings
with others was a useful tool for helping shopping addicts to examine their psychic
discomfort by providing them with positive attention and supportive interactions.
Through such trust-inspiring experiences in simplicity circles, shopping addicts could
build the community connections which would help them construct more healthful selfidentity, increase reflection skills, relieve boredom, and problem solve for strategies to
change their behaviors.
The language of addiction was used repeatedly in literature on voluntary
simplicity. Futurist John Naisbitt (1999) discussed VS at length in his chapter aptly
named, Technology is the Currency of Our Lives. He quoted Barbara Brandt (author of
Whole Life Economics: Revaluing Daily Life) in describing simplification as “… weaning
ourselves from an addiction to high-tech electronic devices, in particular our television
addiction” (p. 40).
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Psychiatrist Gerald May addressed addictions in more spiritual terms in his (1988)
volume Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions:
… I am convinced that all human beings have an inborn desire for
God…. as a longing for wholeness, completion, or fulfillment…. The
longing at the center of our hearts repeatedly disappears from our
awareness, and its energy is usurped by forces that are not at all loving….
We give ourselves over to things that, in our deepest honesty, we really do
not want…. Addiction is the most powerful psychic enemy of humanity’s
desire for God (pp. 1-3).
These descriptions of addictions were antithetical to the tenets of voluntary
simplicity which included community involvement, relationships with people rather than
things, and limiting consumption to that which was needed instead of the consumption of
goods for the sake of consumption. While addiction provided a temporary escape from
reality (May, 1988), voluntary simplicity led people to a deeper experience of reality
(Andrews, 2000).
Environmental Concerns versus Consumerism
Economists Princen, Maniates, and Conca (2002) acknowledged that experiencing
nature was not the primary impetus for downshifting in the average American embracing
voluntary simplicity. Still, as they critically examined the behaviors of voluntary
simplifiers and their general trend toward reducing consumption and promoting
recycling, the authors essentially stated that simplifiers meant well and attempted to make
a difference. That difference, however, was significantly limited by the individual rather
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than collective nature of those ecologically-directed behaviors. Rather, Princen et al.
predicted that the VS movement would recognize its significant opportunity to organize
its members and provide leadership for the rest of our society in moving from individual
to collective change and addressing ecological issues earlier in the process. Instead of
recycling glass or plastic bottles, for instance, a well-organized VS movement might
demand re-usable containers, which would require significant changes in the
manufacturers’ practices and yield a tangible reduction of resource consumption. In order
to correct ecological problems and create lasting change, the onus for environmental
preservation should be on the manufacturers and raw material sources whose
conservation efforts were potentially more effective than thousands or millions of
recycling citizens.
Finnish business and economics researchers Moisander and Pesonen (2002)
studied students’ considerations of environmentally friendly green consumer attitudes and
behaviors, and compared these responses with data gleaned from in-depth interviews with
twelve members from four different Finnish ecocommunes. They found that the students
held strong beliefs in individual responsibility for making environmentally friendly
choices and felt marginalized from society for these beliefs. The students held little hope
for government and businesses to progress in sustainable practices. The marginalization
experienced by the students committed to environmental causes was related to their
embracing voluntary simplicity which was perceived as radical, countercultural, and
incompatible with lifestyles of urban professionals. Among the commune dwellers, many
cited transformative experiences such as major illnesses which propelled their lifestyle
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changes. Search for community, commitment to ecological concerns, nature-related
spirituality, and desire to change the world were recurrent themes in the interviews with
the communards. Many interviewees despaired of effecting a difference via traditional
channels of social change, but cited their communal living choices as their means of
promoting change.
Sharper (2002) discussed spiritual loss in terms of deforestation and other
ecological crises which separate humans from their relationship with mother earth. He
quipped, “Were the human race to receive a report card from the Creator for its
stewardship of the Earth at the dawn of the third millennium, it would likely read, ‘Does
not play well with other species’” (p. 43). According to Sharper, “cosmology entails
discerning the laws of the universe and viewing it as an ordered whole. Philosophically,
as a branch of metaphysics, cosmology examines the provenance and progression of the
created world and the role of the human within it.” He drew on the wisdom of geologian
and Catholic priest Thomas Berry in mourning the decline of nature-based cosmology in
favor of a cosmology of consumerism with a new catechism:
Q:
Why did God make you?
A:
So that I can enter the cash-based consumer economy and be competitive
in the global marketplace.
Consumerism
In her 1999 treatise, economist Juliet Schor discussed her social, rather than
individual, approach to consumerism. This perspective viewed spending decisions as
dictated by social and economic class. Whereas neighborhoods once represented
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homogenous groups of persons with similar economic strata and interests, over the last
20-some years the neighborhood gave way to the workplace as a primary site for social
interactions and comparison of status symbols. With the decrease in neighborhood-based
socializing, television viewing increased to occupy as much as 40% of adult viewers’
waking hours. Television primarily portrayed upper-middle-class and upper-class
characters, which led uninformed viewers to believe that television characters’ lifestyles
reflected those of average American citizens. Schor’s Telecom Survey found that
increased television watching correlated with increased spending and decreased savings,
apparently as viewers sought to close the widening aspirational gap between their desires
and income available to purchase their desired goods. In the past, religious and societal
constraints against ostentation protected many from what Veblen (1912) called
conspicuous consumption. As of this writing, continual media bombardment incited
citizens to seek happiness in material possessions, unbalancing the four major competing
uses of income which are private consumption, public good, savings, and leisure. The
average worker hours increased while public spending on common good decreased, and
the icons of our society, the so-called rich and beautiful, had increasingly larger shares of
income and influence over the masses (Schor, 1994).
Orr’s (1999) analysis of the consumer society found its origins in a critical mass
of four developments: “… a body of ideas saying that the earth is ours for the taking; the
rise of modern capitalism; technological cleverness; and the extraordinary bounty of
North America, where the model of mass consumption first took root” (p. 141). He cited
excesses and overconsumption as killers in the forms of ever-increasing cancer, obesity,
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and heart disease. Orr promoted creation of sustainable societies wherein citizenry would
decry wastefulness and instead be schooled in self-sufficiency such as growing food and
the creation and repair of household objects or tools. A significant barrier to people’s
awareness of sustainability issues existed in the long distance between products’ origins
and the retail sale sites of the products. The mall shopper did not typically see the mines,
wells, sweat shops and other factories, landfills and toxic chemicals which were
supported by the distant manufacture of the goods she/he purchased. Orr advocated for a
re-valuation and reconstruction of communities which made space for healthy interaction
between humans and other living beings, including the earth and animals, and which
encouraged a slower, more humane pace of life. He regarded overconsumption as a
symptom of social fragmentation and isolation which seemed endemic in the American
way of life. Orr proposed healing by building local networks and relationships for the
necessities of life.
International economist Edward Luttwak (2000) examined consumerism by
comparing Americans’ financial demographics with those of Europeans, Asians, and
Third World citizens. He found Americans to have the highest individual and national
debt loads and the lowest savings rates of developed nations. Further, he observed that
the traditional association of debt and poverty was invalid in America because the poorest
twenty percent of the population were denied the credit which would allow them to
become indebted for consumer goods. Meanwhile, crushing debt overtook the more
affluent in their liberal use of credit to purchase and pay inflated interest on luxury items.
Luttwak viewed consumers’ demands for increasingly luxurious cars, homes, and other
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toys as booby prizes for their failure to recognize and address their longings for
emotional support as once was found in extended families and tightly-knit communities.
Again comparing Americans to Europeans, Luttwak found Americans to be more isolated
and lacking strong emotional intergenerational connections. He offered as evidence the
tendency of Americans to hire care for elders rather than provide that care directly, and
Americans’ disinclination to travel to visit relations and establish new relationships with
persons of distant lands. Lastly, he commented on affluent American society which failed
to provide directly for the vulnerable, the poor, and the ill as evidenced by our failure to
create a system which would provide health care for all our people.
Community
Baumann commented on our culture’s movement from communitarian values to
glorification of individualism in his enumeration of self-words: “self-esteem, selffulfillment, self-realization, and self-expression” (p. 14). He decried the loss of
interconnectedness and:
[T]he triumph of capitalism [which] has resulted in consumerism as
perhaps the most influential social force, creating symbol and value
systems not unlike religious dogma, what Miller has called
“moneytheism.” Growth is the highest good, and individual rights take
precedence over the concerns of the whole. Instead of sacred symbols and
meaningful rituals forming a foundation of values, modern society has as
its icons production, consumption, and expansion. All aspects of modern
life can be objectified and thus commodified. Society … is no longer
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based on human inter-relationships, but on relationships between
individuals and things (p. 14).
Sociologist Amitai Etzioni’s 1993 volume, The Spirit of Community: The
Reinvention of American Society provided guidance on renewing and recreating
functioning systems of social connections. He emphasized responsibilities which
accompany rights and encouraged engagement in democratic processes to effect change
from glorification of individuality to rebuilding structures for enhancing the common
good.
Wellness Instruments
Few wellness instruments examined health/wellness outside the context of
disease. Extant instruments have been created by nurses, physicians, occupational
therapists, psychologists, and others. The choice of the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed.
(Travis, 1988) for this study is explained in the following discussion.
Theoretical Background. For her doctoral dissertation at Michigan State
University, counseling psychologist Barbara Palombi (1987, 1992) created a study to
establish the reliability and validity of three wellness instruments which included the
Lifestyle Assessment Questionnaire (National Wellness Institute, 1983) now known as
TestWell (National Wellness Institute, 2000), the Lifestyle Coping Inventory (Hinds,
1983) and the Wellness Inventory (Travis, 1981). Then Palombi used these three wellness
instruments to compare traits of college students who used their university’s counseling
center versus students who did not avail themselves of counseling services.
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Among Palombi’s premises was the expectation that youthful college students
were generally well or free from those major threats to wellness which increased over
time and age. In contrast she found that young students often made choices which could
potentially result in catastrophic health consequences, such as driving while intoxicated
or casual sex without condoms and contraception. Those behaviors were considered in
the arena of behavioral health, and their impact on life expectancy was measured in
health risk appraisals:
Health Risk Appraisals (HRA), also known as Health Hazard
Appraisals (HHA), are tools that describe an individual’s chances of being
ill or dying from selected diseases…. The questions used on Health Risk
Appraisal forms cover age, race, sex, height, weight, blood pressure,
cholesterol level, history of chronic bronchitis or emphysema, family
health history, and such life-style issues as smoking, drinking, seat belt
usage, and exercise habits. The objective of HRA is to modify an
individual’s behavior by motivating lifestyle changes (Palombi, 1987, p.
29).
HRAs were available in print and online formats for determining one’s risk-based
age. These instruments factored potential reduction of life-years due to behavioral issues,
compared this risk-based age to chronological age, and then calculated prospective
recovery of life expectancy achievable with selective behavior changes.
While many of the topics addressed in HRAs were modifiable risk factors, many
others were genetically determined and could not be changed. Age, race, sex, height, and
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family history were fixed factors for an individual, while compliance with dietary and
safety recommendations were variable across time and could be altered with appropriate
education. As an example of primary prevention (mentioned above in discussions of the
medical model and health promotion model), many colleges and universities offered
workshops and health fairs to target students’ modifiable risks in order to reduce
morbidity and mortality due to these issues.
Palombi (1987) compared HRAs and wellness assessment tools:
The HRA tells people what not to do and overlooks what one can
do in a positive way to remain or to become healthy. For this reason, a
number of the available Health Risk Appraisals include sections providing
information on aspects of an individual’s health other than morbidity and
mortality estimates. These sections have been labeled and developed into
wellness inventories.
Wellness inventories encompass all aspects of one’s life, including
the dimensions of work, play, emotional awareness, social interactions,
spiritual development, coping styles, eating habits, and more. Wellness
inventories provide positive and encouraging information to the individual
about his/her lifestyle over which s/he has the greatest control (p. 41).
Holistic physician John W. Travis, author of the Wellness Inventory (1988) wrote
about the evolution of his understanding of wellness:
I intuited a synergistic connection between my three major areas of
interest: 1) risk screening, health education, and self responsibility, 2)
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intentional community with an emphasis on simple living, and 3) expanding the human potential for communication and self-understanding …
[Halbert Dunn’s] global perspective and his focus on energy
systems, rather than disease, remain radical thinking even to this day.
Through Dunn’s book I saw that the key to tying together all my interests
was one word—wellness (Travis, 1990, p. AA-4).
Travis was a pioneer in development and use of HRAs for application in
preventive health care (Palombi, 1987). He and other theorists, including seminal
wellness writer Halbert Dunn, developed a model of dynamic equilibrium or wellness
through which they viewed interrelationships between health, lifestyle choices, and
stress. Their theories meshed well with the work of humanist psychologist Abraham
Maslow regarding human psychological growth and hierarchy of needs.
In Maslow’s personality theory, humans moved from deficit needs such as
physiological needs (food, clothing, shelter), safety and security needs (stability, routine,
structure, limits), love and belonging needs (friendships, families of origin and creation,
and community involvement), and esteem needs (self-confidence, competence, respect),
to being needs which were included in self-actualization. The deficit needs drove a
person to obtain or achieve what was previously missing in her/his existence, while the
being needs drove a person to growth and development for the sake of the fullest possible
human experience (Boeree, 2004).
To research his theory, Maslow examined the lives of some unnamed
contemporaries as well as historical figures regarded as exemplars of self-actualization
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(these included Abraham Lincoln, Jane Adams, Albert Schweitzer, Eleanor Roosevelt,
and other luminaries). His qualitative methods involved a process of biographical
analysis and yielded a collection of traits which distinguish these individuals from
common humans who struggle through stages of the deficit needs (Boeree, 2004).
This author would argue that Western medicine was a system which operated in
the deficit-needs mode, as evidenced by its focus on illness or disease. Holistic or
wellness theory corresponded more to the being needs which assumed functionality and
expanded into continuous improvement. Quantitative health research, upon which
Western medicine was built, studied singular issues and correlations to determine what
was necessary to a given situation or condition. Qualitative health research, in contrast,
assumed sufficiency and sought to identify conditions conducive to fulfillment of
potential. Clark (1996) regarded quantitative research as isolative, as being narrow in its
focus and likely to miss important interactions between variables, especially those outside
the particular scope of a given study. Conversely, Clark found qualitative study to be
holistic in nature and able to encompass multiple realities and relationships such as the
role of meaning in human experience.
Clinicians Bell et al. (2002) at the University of Arizona’s Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine also posited qualitative research for integrative
medicine:
For research on personal meaning to the individual, qualitative
research approaches, with their emphasis on interpretative methods,
become more useful than quantitative studies. Qualitative research, for
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example, revealed a definition of spiritual well-being in elderly persons
whose conventional health ranged from good to terminally ill (i.e., “… a
sense of harmonious interconnectedness between self, others, nature, and
Ultimate Other, which exists throughout and beyond time and space”). In
other words, the nature of medical research itself can and must expand
beyond the prevailing reductionist approaches and quantitative study
designs to measure the systemic effectiveness of integrative medical
practice (p. 139).
Health psychologist and epidemiologist Abanobi (1986) concurred regarding the
difficulties of studying wellness using conventional (quantitative) methods:
[T]he medical concept of health displays a gross case of content validity
problems in health status assessments at both the individual and
community levels.
Basically, medicine conceives health from a disease/illness status
perspective. Good health status is one characterized by the absence of any
recognizable signs and symptoms of disease. This is a negative view of
health by which the appraisal of an individual’s health status is accomplished through assessment of his/her state of unhealthiness … (p. 39).
To overcome the inadequacies of the medical model due to its
negative orientations, the wellness model seeks to extend the concept of
health to include “better than normal” states. Its primary orientation is
increasing the conditions of wellness by focusing on life experiences
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resulting in aliveness and optimal opportunities for self-actualization. The
basic application of this model lies in health promotion and prevention
rather than diagnosis and treatment of illness and disability. According to
Travis’ Schema for illness-wellness continuum, the vehicle for the
actualization of high-level wellness is not the medical care system as we
presently know it, but through wellness education … (p. 40).
Abanobi continued discussing difficulties of establishing content validity in
wellness research. He believed that the medical model held to an overly narrow
conceptualization of health which rendered low content validity in quantitative health
research. When the four most common operational parameters of health (physical
activity, nutritional choices, stress management, and responsibility for one’s choices)
were considered for research, they yielded a useful but incomplete perspective on health
(p. 40). He reconciled these concerns by identifying health promotion and education as
the major foci of wellness research. So Abanobi concluded that traditional Western
medical quantitative research did not fit for wellness research, while he found qualitative
research methods to be well-suited to health promotion.
Reliability and Validity. Reliability and validity are important considerations in
the selection of testing instruments for use in research. Reliability of a test is the degree
to which it can be depended upon to measure what it measures. The greater the reliability
of an instrument, the greater the likelihood that scores of its administration today will be
similar to scores obtained when it is administered for the same group at another time. To
the extent that a test measures what it purports to measure, it is considered valid. Validity
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cannot be generalized absolutely. Rather, an instrument can be determined to validly
measure a particular issue for a particular population (Gay, 1992).
Palombi’s (1987) study utilized three popular wellness assessment instruments
with a sample of American citizens ages 18-50 who attended one university in the
southeastern area of the USA. Undergraduate and graduate participants included 57
students who utilized the university’s counseling center services and 53 students who did
not use the counseling center. All of the participants completed the three self-scoring
wellness instruments: The Wellness Inventory (Travis, 1981), the Lifestyle Assessment
Questionnaire-Wellness Inventory Section [LAQ] (National Wellness Institute, 1983),
and the Lifestyle Coping Inventory [LCI] (Hinds, 1983). The LAQ had been developed as
an educational tool and normed on 250,000 persons who had taken the instrument. The
following table lists the dimensions or subscales of the LCI, LA and WI:
Table 2
Wellness Instrument Dimensions
Lifestyle Coping
Lifestyle Assessment
Wellness
Inventory
Questionnaire
Inventory
1.
Coping style actions
Physical fitness
Self-responsibility and love
2.
Nutritional actions
Nutrition
Breathing
3.
Physical care actions
Physical self-care
Sensing
4.
Cognitive and emotional
Drug/driving
Eating
Social/environment
Moving
actions
5.
Low-risk actions
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Lifestyle Coping
Lifestyle Assessment
Wellness
Inventory
Questionnaire
Inventory
6.
Environmental actions
Emotional awareness
Feeling
7.
Social support actions
Emotional control
Thinking
8.
Intellect
Playing/working
9.
Occupation
Communicating
10.
Spiritual
Sex
11.
Finding Meaning
12.
Transcending
Palombi (1987) noted three extant studies reporting reliability of the LCI and
LAQ through pre- and post-test experimental designs. In a 1983 study, scores from
administration of the LCI to twelve chronic pain patients yielded a split-half reliability
coefficient of 0.74. Administration of the LAQ twice with a two-week interval to a nonclinical population of 39 persons produced test-retest reliability coefficients ranging from
0.57 to 0.87. The overall test-retest reliability score was 0.76 for that 1983 study. Testretest reliability of the LAQ subscales ranged from 0.81 to 0.97 in a 1985 study of eightyeight nursing students; Cronbach’s coefficient alpha computed on the wellness subscales
estimated internal consistency reliability from 0.67 to 0.94. Two experts in measurement
and health promotion evaluated the LAQ and established its content validity (Palombi,
1987, p. 76). Construct validity was not evaluated in these studies, so Palombi addressed
construct validity in her dissertation project.
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Using data from previous studies which established validity of the LCI and the
LAQ, Palombi’s study established concurrent validity of the Wellness Inventory.
According to Gay (1992),
Concurrent validity is the degree to which the scores on a test are
related to the scores on another, already established test administered at
the same time, or to some other valid criterion available at the same time
(p. 189).
Palombi (1987) found that the Wellness Inventory (WI) had internal consistency
scoring of 0.93 computed by Cronbach’s coefficient alpha. Furthermore, eight of the 12
subscale scores had coefficient alphas exceeding 0.74 with significance at a 0.001 alpha
level. For her population of university students, she found that the Wellness Inventory
“provide[s] the university community with a safe and reliable method to assess the
wellness level of today’s university students … the feedback … educates students about
their level of wellness.”
J. Cohen (1998), writing about holistic assessment of health and wellness for a
textbook on health promotion, stated:
Travis’ wellness assessment tool is now used nationally as an
assessment process to help realign a client’s entire concept of health and
personal power and control over health … Travis asks people to take
responsibility for anything that interferes with reaching an optimal level of
wellness (p. 345).
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The Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. has rarely been used in research. An appeal to Dr.
Travis, its creator, for assistance in validating the instrument yielded a reply indicating
that it was intended more for education than research: “We don't think validation is
appropriate with an instrument that's primarily designed to educate. Good luck” (personal
communication, April 19, 2004). Despite this lack of research, the Wellness Inventory, 3rd
Ed. is selected for the Simple Wellness Study because of its emphasis on balance and its
usefulness as a tool to expand users’ understanding of health dimensions.
Summary. This section reviewed the evolution of health and wellness assessment
tools, from disease-based instruments common to Western medicine, to health risk
appraisals, to wellness assessments. Three popular wellness assessment instruments, the
Lifestyle Assessment Questionnaire, the Lifestyle Coping Inventory, and the Wellness
Inventory, were studied in Barbara Palombi’s (1987) dissertation research project
establishing their reliability and validity. Although it has received less research attention
than the other instruments in Palombi’s study, the WI is selected for use in the Simple
Wellness Study for the following reasons: (a) it is more comprehensive than the LAQ and
the LCI, (b) it considers multiple dimensions of vibrant health, (c) it is oriented toward
health education, and (d) because its development by a holistic physician embracing
voluntary simplicity in the context of an intentional community makes it a good fit for
this project.
This discussion has provided rationale for use of qualitative research methods in
the study of wellness, and offered endorsement for the Wellness Inventory. In the Simple
Wellness Study, the Wellness Inventory assisted participants in learning more about their
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own philosophies and meanings of wellness, and provided an additional basis for
discussion when the focus group was convened.
Leadership
Transformational leadership theorist John W. Gardner (1990) described six
characteristics of leaders: (a) working for the long term rather than focusing only on
immediate effects, (b) viewing their work in the context of the big picture beyond the
organization or issue at hand, (c) extending their influence beyond local communities or
organizations, (d) recognizing and valuing the important intangibles (vision, values and
motivation) as well as the rational, (e) political astuteness to manage multiple needs and
constituencies, and (f) working toward continual positive change in content and process
issues of their organizations. He discussed the loss of traditional communities in our
society and the need for creation of new, diverse alliances of people based on “… shared
secular values (justice, respect for the individual, tolerance, and so on)” (p. 115). He
found schools to be fine examples of contemporary communities based on diversity,
common culture, effective communication within, caring relationships, self-governance,
shared leadership, development of community members, and connections with the world
beyond. In Gardner’s perspective, leadership development was a lifelong process in
which the mentoring of a younger generation expressed the generativity of an older
generation of leaders.
Organizational psychologist Jean Lipman-Blumen’s (1996) theory of connective
leadership presented three primary styles and corresponding tasks of achievers. She
identified these styles as relational, with its agenda of contributing to others’ tasks,
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instrumental which maximized interactions through use of social networks and personal
power, and direct mastery of one’s own tasks through competitive achievement for its
own sake and taking charge when necessary. Lipman-Blumen developed a schema of
leadership through three distinct evolutionary eras. The first of these, the physical era,
required leaders whose achievements involved mastery of multiple physical
environments for survival and expansion of human habitats. The second era was dubbed
geopolitical for its establishment of political alliances and defenses across borders and
continents which had previously served to define differences between peoples. The third
and current era was called connective in representation of interdependent relationships
within and between organizations and nations, and between the earth, atmosphere,
humans, and nonhuman beings. Connective leaders operated in ways which transcended
the tactics of earlier eras in identifying and achieving goals through sharing power and
responsibility with diverse constituents. Twentieth-century exemplars of connective
leadership included Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, and
numerous others who inspired followers to create and find meaning in their far-reaching
visions. Connective leaders tended to act in ways counterintuitive to second era wisdom,
promoting collaborative efforts, mentoring, and empowerment of prospective leaders.
Connective leaders planned for the very long term to ensure the ongoing vitality of their
organizations and projects. Their greatest accomplishments may have been networking
and coalition building for ethically and ecologically sound actions which could reduce
present profitability in favor of future sustainability.
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Economist and social commentator Juliet Schor’s (1998) chapter titled The
Downshifter Next Door looked at the place of simple-livers in American culture. She
found that her interviewees were persons with strong commitments to community
building. Because of their socioeconomic status as well-educated and middle class, the
majority of VS practitioners knew their options and the dominant culture sufficiently to
enable well-chosen causes in which to invest their altruistic energy. Ironically, the most
frugal of these may have met federal criteria of poverty while celebrating their richness of
social and cultural capital.
The literature on VS offered extensive evidence of leadership and a strong
foundation in education. Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, authors of Your Money or
Your Life (1992) established the New Road Map Foundation to educate others about
eliminating debt and establishing lifestyles based on meaning and service to the
community. Although Dominguez died in the late 1990s, Robin continued their work in
her public speaking, teaching, and active participation in the Simplicity Forum. One of
her more recent projects was Conversation Cafes, a format for open discussions in public
places, which was her response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist tragedies. Cecile
Andrews divided her time between Berkeley, California and Seattle, Washington. In both
locations, she taught classes and led workshops on simplicity. Her latest endeavor was
establishment of agendas for simplicity education and activism in academic settings.
The Simplicity Forum was an assembly of leaders in the voluntary simplicity
movement. While many of its members were authors of scholarly and popular books,
many others were organizers and behind-the-scenes workers who devoted themselves to
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bettering our society through various grassroots efforts. Simplicity Forum members led in
ecological organizations such as Earth Ministry whose motto caring for all creation
suggested its bridge between spirituality and ecological concerns, and the Sierra Club.
Another focus of Simplicity Forum members was education regarding financial matters
and philanthropy, through such organizations as Share-Save-Spend which assisted
parents in the financial education of their children, the New Road Map Foundation which
taught Joe Dominguez’s and Vicki Robin’s nine-step program for financial
independence, and More Than Money which assisted wealthy individuals to explore the
meaning of plenitude in a world where many have little. Many Simplicity Forum
members exerted their influence as academics, film makers, artists, mentors, and in
numerous other capacities as agents of social change.
Summary
This chapter has reviewed extant literature related to philosophy and practice of
voluntary simplicity and health/wellness. Academic and popular sources of information
on simplicity were considered, as well as links to ecological concerns, consumerism and
addiction. Literature on wellness was explored for insight on high level wellness (Dunn,
1961) or health as opposed to absence of disease, with consideration given to physical,
mental and spiritual dimensions, and health promotion. Health assessment instruments
were discussed and rationale provided for the selection of the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed.
(Travis, 1988). Lastly, Simplicity Forum members’ leadership and participation in related
organizations were discussed.
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In chapter three, the research plan for the Simple Wellness Study is presented.
Data were obtained via demographic survey, individual in-depth interviews, and a focus
group. A wellness assessment instrument was incorporated into the study as a tool for
honing participants’ understanding of health and to offer an organizing theme for the
focus group discussion. Data collection via multiple means increased reliability, validity
and richness of the data. Computer-assisted qualitative analyses of the individual
interview transcripts yielded thematic material for initial presentation to the focus group.
Analyses of the focus group transcripts and refinement of the material in accord with the
focus group interactions completed the data collection and analyses processes.
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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter describes the plan for the Simple Wellness research project. The
issues of voluntary simplicity and wellness are discussed briefly. The philosophical
underpinnings for the hermeneutic phenomenological study and wellness instruments are
considered. Then the research questions, data gathering process, data storage, and data
analyses plan for the project are detailed. Appendices include forms which were used in
the project’s preparation and process.
Population and Sample
The population studied was American adults who practiced voluntary simplicity.
The sample consisted of persons who had publicly identified themselves as practicing
voluntary simplicity, each of whom had either appeared in a publicly broadcast video or
news segment, or authored at least one published book or article in which their practices
of voluntary simplicity were presented. These criteria were established in order to select
participants who had demonstrated longevity in their leadership in, and commitment to,
the voluntary simplicity movement. For the purposes of this study, a convenience sample
was selected of persons who met these criteria and resided in the Pacific Northwest. This
latter criterion yielded a sample of seven participants.
Participants were solicited and interviewed until saturation was achieved.
According to nurse researchers Streubert and Carpenter (1999), saturation is that point at
which data obtained from different participants becomes repetitive. Saturation indicates
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completion of data collection on an issue. It was expected that after interviews with no
fewer than six and up to 10 participants, emerging themes would become repetitive and
confirmatory of previous interviews, indicating that the number of participants was
sufficient to yield rich data for analysis. In the planning stage of the study, it was not
possible to specify exactly the number of participants due to variability of factors such as
availability of suitable participants, and time constraints of the participants and researcher
(Morse & Field, 1995).
Access to the Population
Candidates for participation in this study were solicited from the Simplicity
Forum, a group comprised of leaders in the voluntary simplicity movement. The
Simplicity Forum is a subgroup of Seeds of Simplicity, a nationwide, nonprofit
organization of persons offering education and resource sharing regarding voluntary
simplicity. Seeds of Simplicity’s website indicated that the organization was a nonprofit
program of Cornell University’s Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy. The
researcher was a member of the Simplicity Forum, and through this membership gained
access to prospective participants.
Problem and Purposes Overview
The voluntary simplicity movement was a phenomenon upon which little
scholarly research had been conducted. Extant dissertations examined voluntary
simplicity from the perspectives of ecological sustainability (Darnovsky, 1996; Frazier,
1985; Knutson, 1982; Mbindyo, 1981; McLain-Kark, 1985), homesteading or back-tothe-land (Gould, 1997; Moeller, 1986), social systems (Allen, 2001; Grigsby, 2000;
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Kopaczewski, 1999; Mullaney, 2001; Spina, 1998), philosophy of life (Baumann, 2001;
Chauvin, 2002; Gould, 1997; Nolen, 1994; Spina, 1998), and education (Frazier, 1985;
Nolen, 1994). As yet no published research considered voluntary simplicity and health or
wellness.
In the ever-growing body of extant popular literature on voluntary simplicity,
numerous issues were identified as motivators for lifestyle simplification. These included
(in no particular order) concern for the ecological wellbeing of the planet, commitment to
social justice, dissatisfaction with consumerism and its impact on families, and healthrelated issues. Various health issues were cited, such as coping with chronic illness,
desire to prevent exacerbation of existing illness, stress-related disorders, and perceived
need to slow down and de-stress for the prevention of illness.
Extensive research existed on all aspects of health, with emphases on disease
diagnosis and treatment. Most studies on health or wellness targeted subjects coping with
particular disease processes. Relatively little academic medical research addressed
wellness in its own right. Within nursing literature was a body of literature on health
promotion and health beliefs. The Health Belief Model was created in the 1950s and
refined extensively over the past 50 years to predict behaviors people would decide to
change in hopes of protecting themselves from developing health problems. Such models
were action-oriented but did not directly address outcomes or actual lifestyle changes.
Recent researchers in health promotion recommended that community health nurses
move beyond the traditional nursing process to consider existential health (Whitehead,
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2003a) and individuals’ abilities to draw upon inner resources to combat disease and
enhance holistic wellness.
In this Simple Wellness Study, participants were selected without regard to health
histories or commitments to health promotion activities. Rather, Simple Wellness
participants reflected on their understandings and lived experiences of physical, mental,
and spiritual health/wellness in the contexts of their lifestyle changes. The study included
use of a health assessment instrument for expanding and refining participants’
conceptualizations of wellness.
Philosophical Premises
This section provides background for understanding phenomenology and
hermeneutic inquiry. These concepts were rooted in the disciplines of philosophy and
psychology.
The field of phenomenology was established by German philosopher Edmund
Husserl with the publication of his first paper in 1890. Existential-phenomenological
psychologists Valle, King, and Halling (1989) defined Husserl’s phenomenology as “the
rigorous and unbiased study of things as they appear [sic] so that one might come to an
essential understanding of human consciousness and experience” (p. 6). Another German
philosopher, Martin Heidegger, linked phenomenology and existential philosophy to
consider the interactions between a person and her/his environment or world. This
interdependent relationship, or co-constitutionality between person and context was
called being-in-the-world, or, in Heidegger’s German language, Dasein, which meant,
literally, being there (Cohen, Kahn, & Steves, 2000). Husserl was interested in humans’
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uninterpreted lived experiences, for which he coined the term Lebenswelt or life-world.
Husserl believed that in the study of human experience, and in order to understand a
person’s Lebenswelt, it was essential to set aside interpretations and biases by eidetic
reduction or bracketing, a process of declaring and clarifying one’s prejudices and
presuppositions (Cohen, Kahn, & Steves, 2000; Valle, King, & Halling, 1989). This
iterative process involved laying out one’s assumptions and reflecting upon them before
laying them aside. By examining emerging layers of meaning, one could progress from
the natural attitude or unexamined perspective, toward a transcendental attitude or
consciously examined, phenomenal experience (Valle, King, & Halling, 1989). Schwandt
(2001) described phenomenology thusly:
[Heidegger] viewed the phenomenological project, so to speak, as
an effort to get beneath or behind subjective experience to reveal the
genuine, objective nature of things and as a critique of both taken-forgranted meanings and subjectivism. Phenomenology, as it is commonly
discussed in accounts of qualitative research, emphasizes the opposite: It
aims to identify and describe the subjective experiences of respondents. It
is a matter of studying everyday experience from the point of view of the
subject, and it shuns critical evaluation of forms of social life (p. 192).
The word hermeneutic was derived from the god Hermes who, in Greek
mythology, was the gods’ messenger to mortals. Hermes’ work included interpreting
information for mortals’ understanding. The field of hermeneutics arose in JudeoChristian traditions as the study and interpretation of texts. In the field of
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phenomenological research, hermeneutics has become the interpretation of lived
experience to determine its meanings (Cohen, Kahn, & Steves, 2002; Valle, King, &
Halling, 1989). Moustakas (1994) described the hermeneutic process as a circle of
bracketing, reflectively interpreting texts which may include interview data, and coming
to new and deeper understandings of the phenomena studied.
Thus hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry involved examining particular
aspects of human experiences as described by persons who have lived those experiences,
and examining their descriptions to uncover the meanings of those experiences. The
inquiry delved into meanings which may not yet be directly articulated by those who
have had the experiences. The analysis of texts, such as interview transcripts and field
notes in this case, yielded themes which were reflected back to the participants for their
corroboration or correction.
The Simple Wellness Study sought to understand the lived experience of wellness
in persons who practiced Voluntary Simplicity. The meanings and motivations of study
participants were examined in the hermeneutic phenomenological process.
Research Questions
What does the practice of voluntary simplicity mean for the health and wellbeing
of an individual within his/her community? This was the overarching question to be
answered by the Simple Wellness Study. To arrive at answers to this overall question,
answers to these sub-questions were sought:
1. What are the essential understandings of voluntary simplicity as described by
participants who practice voluntary simplicity?
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2. What is the internal experience that leads to lifestyle change in embracing voluntary
simplicity?
3. When people begin to practice voluntary simplicity, what do they expect to gain from
it?
4. How do practitioners of voluntary simplicity define physical, mental, and spiritual
health?
5. How do practitioners of voluntary simplicity perceive their physical, mental, and
spiritual health evolving over the course of their lifestyle changing?
6. What do practitioners of voluntary simplicity experience in community involvement
and leadership?
Research Method
Methodological Techniques Introduced
The Simple Wellness Study involved individual and group interviews, as well as
paper-and-pencil instruments for data collection. In this section, the instruments are
presented first, followed by a discussion of the evolution of wellness instruments and the
selection of the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988).
Quantitative Data
Demographic Survey
A survey (see Appendix H) was prepared to gather ordinal level demographic data
which set the context for participant responses. Using Patten’s (1998) guidance, questions
were formulated with ranges of responses. Survey questions included age, income,
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marital/family status, appraisal of health/wellness, and use of health care services. The
survey was furnished to participants prior to their respective in-depth interviews.
Wellness Instruments
The Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988) was selected for use in the Simple
Wellness Study for the following reasons: (it identifies and measures components of
vibrant wellbeing and it regards health or wellbeing as a baseline state rather than
utilizing an operational definition of health as absence of disease. This researcher had
pervious experience using this instrument in a parish nursing project whose participants
described the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988) as a valuable teaching tool and
guide for continued health improvement.
The Wellness Inventory. The Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988), a paperand-pencil instrument was furnished to study participants for the purpose of assessing
their current state of wellbeing. The instrument consisted of 120 items organized into 12
categories of 10 items per category. Each item was answered on a scale of 0 to 2 points,
from No, rarely which yields 0 points, to Sometimes, maybe which yields 1 point, to Yes,
usually which yields 2 points. The higher the number of points scored, the greater the
positive result. The points scored for each category were totaled and divided by the
number of items answered to obtain an average score for each category. The average for
each of the 12 categories was then entered on the participant’s Wellness Inventory Wheel
to provide a visual representation of balance and areas of concern.
The directions for completing the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988)
instructed the individual:
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This questionnaire was designed to educate more than to test. All
statements are worded so that you can easily tell what we think are
wellness attributes…. Full responsibility is placed on you to answer each
statement as honestly as possible. It’s not your score, but what you learn
about yourself that is most important (p. 2).
Some of the items in the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. were footnoted to refer to a
section at the end which provided information about the relationship between those
footnoted items and one’s state of health. For example, Section 1 Item 2, “I vote
regularly,” had this footnote: “Voting is a simple measure of your willingness to
participate in the social system which ultimately impacts your state of health” (p. 8).
Additionally, each section of the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. also referred to a
corresponding chapter in Dr. Travis’s Wellness Workbook, 2nd Ed. (1988) which provided
more information about pertinent aspects of health. Chapter one of the Wellness
Workbook, 2nd Ed. contained a timely quote from John Knowles, MD, former president of
the Rockefeller Foundation: “The next major advances in health of the American people
will come from the assumption of individual responsibility for one’s own health and a
necessary change in lifestyle for the majority of Americans” (p. 6) and explained about
personal responsibility without laying blame:
To take charge of your own life and health implies taking
calculated risks. It means a recognition that you have choices, and carries
with it your willingness to live with the consequences of those choices.
For instance—in order to meet a deadline you may place yourself under
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prolonged stress, neglect your diet, and forget your exercise. These are
your choices. If they are short-term, you will probably bounce back easily.
But occasionally, they might result in a cold, or other condition, that sends
you to bed. Are you responsible for the cold? Yes, at some level you are.
You may have no conscious awareness of it, but you created the condition
which weakened your body and made it an environment of “disease.” If
you are self-responsible, you will accept the cold as an important message
from your body, and use it as a chance to rest and rebalance.
Taking responsibility for choices which result in illness does not
mean taking on blame. There is a big difference. With blame you berate
yourself for not learning a lesson, or burden yourself with guilt which
creates more stress. With responsibility, you accept that you engineered
your life situation, and that you can change it as well. You open yourself
to learn the valuable lessons which the consequences offer (pp. 7-8).
Section 1 of the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. addressed issues of Wellness, SelfResponsibility and Love. Questions in this section asked about self-care and prevention
concerns such as fire safety, dental care, seat belt use, drinking and driving, and beliefs
about connections between lifestyle choices and one’s state of health.
Section 2 considered Wellness and Breathing. Its questions dealt with deep
breathing and meditation, energy levels, maintaining physical flexibility, feeling
peaceful, and managing stress. The nature of the questioning conveyed increasing
awareness of a natural process which enhanced or degraded one’s sense of energy.
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Section 3 questioned about Wellness and Sensing, considering communication
through, and protection of, the five senses. Special emphasis was placed on the sense of
touch and its powerful ability to nurture, calm, and heal.
Section 4 was concerned with Wellness and Eating, including selecting high
quality, nutrient-dense foods which would meet the caloric needs of the body, as well as
eating to meet other needs which might be better served in other ways. Section 4 helped
the individual distinguish between stomach hunger and mouth hunger (p. 4).
Section 5, Wellness and Moving, investigated the individual’s physical
movement, stretching, and exercise. These were correlated with physical flexibility,
energy levels, and sense of wellbeing. Wellness and Feeling was the content of Section 6
which targeted one’s comfort with emotional expressions and attachments to others. The
7th Section titled, Wellness and Thinking, included all manner of thought content and
response to internal and environmental conditions. Section 8, Wellness and
Playing/Working, considered leisure activity, hobbies, indulgence and guilt. Section 9,
Wellness and Communicating, questioned one regarding honesty when interacting with
self and others. Section 10, Wellness and Sex, was concerned with physical and psychic
intimacy with self and with others. Section 11, Wellness and Finding Meaning, asked
about goals and satisfaction, attitudes toward death of self and others, and existential
issues. The final Section 12, Wellness and Transcending, dealt with spirituality and
connectedness with other beings and the universe.
The Simple Wellness Study implied health promotion through the health-related
questions on the demographic survey, and its use of the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed.
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(Travis, 1988) for participants’ post-interview assessment of their health. After the
content of individual in-depth interviews was analyzed, a focus group of the participants
was convened to present and refute or embellish the initial findings. The participants’
anonymous individual and collective Wellness Inventory results were used to converge
discussion of voluntary simplicity and health.
Qualitative Data Collection
Individual Interviews
This phenomenological study involved individual, in-depth interviews with seven
persons who have aligned themselves with the voluntary simplicity (VS) movement and
made deliberate lifestyle changes. The researcher attempted to arrange for the interviews
to be conducted in the participants’ own homes, with the environs to be described in the
field notes. Because the interviews contained questions regarding retrospective
assessments of their states of health, and more complete answers were likely when the
participants had the opportunity for reflection, the topics of the open-ended questions
were provided to the participants in advance of their interviews. The interview questions
accompanied the invitation letter and telephone contact (see Appendices D & F).
The in-depth participant interviews combined an interview guide approach with a
standardized open-ended approach (Patton, 1990). Open-ended questions were carefully
worded in advance, in order to focus the interviews and maximize the time available
(Rossman and Rallis, 1998; Patton, 1990).
To facilitate the flow of the interviews, some questions were formulated using
carefully planned presuppositions (Patton, 1990), which served to affirm the topic of
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voluntary simplicity. By assuming the interviewees had opinions and experiences which
they would describe, the quality of those descriptions was expected to be enhanced. The
interview guide with the standardized open-ended interview allowed for a logical,
sequential exploration of the research questions without sacrificing flexibility.
Elaboration probes were utilized for encouraging interviewees to provide in-depth
descriptions of their experiences. The expected outcomes were participants’ stories, in
their own words, regarding their individual perceptions and experiences, with reduced
interjection of interviewer bias (Patton, 1990).
The interviews were audio-tape recorded and promptly transcribed verbatim for
analysis of thematic material (Patton, 1990). The researcher made extensive field notes
and kept a journal during the interview process. Those field notes and journal were used
in the analysis to enrich the field text and create multiple layers of understanding. David
Kahn (in Cohen, Kahn & Steves, 2000) described this rich textual material:
Thus, the field text constructed in data collection is not only
multilayered, but also symbolic and distanced from the experiences of
interests in order to allow hermeneutic interpretation, which forms the
basis of data analysis in the hermeneutic phenomenological method. That
the text is distanced from the experience enables objectification and hence
interpretation—the metaphor that fits is that of a person stepping back
from a painting to better view it as a whole (p. 59).
The content of all the VS participant interview transcriptions and field notes was
compared for identification of commonalities and differences. The findings from the
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interviews were presented to a focus group consisting of the five available study
participants for their confirmation, refinement and rebuttal. The product of these
proceedings was this written description of the inner experience of VS practitioners, as
reported by those VS practitioners (Patton, 1990).
Focus Group Interview
A focus group for face-to-face discussion of an issue or product is a commonly
used data-collection tool for qualitative research. The purpose of convening such a group,
usually with up to 10 participants and a skilled moderator, is to develop understanding of
participants’ thoughts and feelings about a particular issue. The use of focus groups
began during World War II with social scientists’ efforts to understand morale of military
personnel. Soon market researchers adopted focus groups as tools for timely collection of
opinion data. Later, academics rediscovered focus groups for social science research
(Krueger & Casey, 2000).
Focus groups typically have five common features: they consist of (a) people who
share (b) some common interest or experience, whose meeting provides (c) qualitative
data via (d) moderated discussion to (e) yield understanding of the topic around which
their discussion is focused. A project may consist of a single focus group meeting, or
serial meetings, for the purpose of needs assessment, product or program development or
evaluation, planning, goal setting, research, or other designs (Krueger & Casey, 2000).
Open-ended questions asked of the focus group were sequenced carefully to move
from the general to the specific, and then to summarize and close. Initial questions were
ice-breakers to relax participants. The next questions established the discussion topic and
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invited participants to offer their perspectives on the topic. Questions key to the study
followed, and these were specific questions regarding participants’ understandings of
physical, mental, and spiritual health and wellness. Ending questions summarized the
material already presented, offered an opportunity to voice a differing perspective, and
invited evaluation of the focus group experience.
In the focus group conducted as part of the Simple Wellness study, the
participants had a common commitment to voluntary simplicity. Participants met together
in a relaxed, informal atmosphere to discuss their understandings of physical, mental, and
spiritual health in the context of the Wellness Inventory Wheel. The questions asked of
the Simple Wellness focus group are found in Appendix G.
Sequence of Data Collection Techniques
The data collection was sequenced as follows. First, an invitation letter and
demographic survey were sent to each prospective participant. Within two weeks of the
invitation mailing, a telephone call was made to each prospective participant to schedule
the interview with him/her. Seven persons agreed to participate in the study, and their six
interviews (five individuals and one couple) were audio-tape recorded. At the end of each
participant’s individual interview, the researcher provided the participant with a WI form
and a self-addressed, self-stamped envelope for return of the completed WI.
Following each interview, the researcher transcribed her interview notes and
descriptions into a word processing file. The collection of interview transcriptions was
analyzed using QSR N6 NU*DIST (2002) software to identify themes and issues.
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The WI was provided to each respondent as his/her initial interview was
concluded. With this timing, each respondent had already provided the researcher with
substantial information about her/his perceptions of wellness. The respondent completed
the WI before participating in the focus group which addressed respondents’ further
reflections upon wellness in light of the WI. With the permission of the Wellness
Inventory author and publisher, the researcher obtained a photocopy of each respondent’s
Wellness Wheel for inclusion in the research project, while the original was retained by
the respondent for his/her personal use and health promotion.
After the WI forms were received and the tape transcripts analyzed, the researcher
scheduled a focus group meeting of the participants. At that meeting, each participant
was furnished identifier-deleted copies of all the participants’ Wellness Inventory Wheels
(see Appendix K) and a summary of the themes identified in the interview analyses (see
Appendix L). The focus group reviewed and discussed the summarized interview
findings to affirm, expand, and refute them. Like the individual interviews, the focus
group meeting was audio-taped. After the conclusion of the focus group meeting, the
researcher transcribed her notes. The focus group meeting audio-tape was transcribed and
analyzed using QSR N6 NU*DIST software.
Storage of Data
The field notes and interview scripts were word-processed in Microsoft Word and
stored in electronic files on the researcher’s personal computer. These files were also
copied frequently to a Jump Drive, a very compact, removable and portable storage
device for redundant storage of up-to-date material. The original interview tapes were
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labeled with numbers, and the key to the numbers was stored as an electronically locked
computer file. There were no obvious link to the subjects’ names and the tape numbers
(Morse & Field, 1995). The researcher was the only person to know the identity of the
interviewees on their respective tapes.
Time Limits for Data Storage
All Simple Wellness Study data are to be retained by the researcher for a
maximum of five years. The locked electronic data files on the researcher’s desktop
computer and the audiotapes (without interviewee identifiers) will be destroyed by the
researcher no later than October 1, 2009.
Data Analysis Procedures
The data analysis and interpretation were creative processes engaged as the
interviews progressed. Organization of field notes and verbatim transcriptions of
interviews into “thick descriptions” were the initial stages of analyses (Rossman, 1998;
Patton, 1990). Then data were classified, coded and reorganized into themes. Patton
(1990) instructed that:
The point of analysis is not simply to find a concept or label to neatly tie
together the data. What is important is understanding the people studied.
Concepts are never a substitute for direct experience with the descriptive
data. What people actually say and the descriptions of events observed
remain the essence of qualitative inquiry. The analytical process is meant
to organize and elucidate telling the story of the data (p. 392).
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Further, Patton noted that qualitative analysts must “rely on their own intelligence,
experience and judgment” and creativity in attempting to recognize patterns, themes and
categories (p. 406).
Miles and Huberman (1994) recommended using easily-intuited non-numeric
codes to organize data, with a master key for easy reference. Memoranda could be written
to note themes detected early in the analyses so that impressions would not be lost in a
mountain of data. Data from the respondents’ interviews was organized into within-case
and cross-case matrices to facilitate identification of congruence and divergence. A
thematic conceptual matrix was constructed to visualize the natural history of persons
adopting voluntary simplicity. Contrasts and comparisons were drawn and summarized.
For this study, the data analyses were accomplished with the assistance of QSR
N6 NU*DIST (2002), a software package for microcomputers, which was created for the
purpose of qualitative data analysis (QDA). QSR N6 included a document system for text
retrieval, as well as a tree-structured indexing system (Gahan and Hannibal, 1998). The
researcher’s field notes plus transcripts of the individual participant interviews and the
focus group interview were imported into QSR N6 for coding and exploration of complex
relationships. Data were coded into 62 themes or nodes which were arranged into the
major categories reported to the focus group interview and refined. From repeated review
of the interview tapes, plus the transcripts and data analysis, the narrative was written
about the process and content of the study. These data were incorporated into this
dissertation and an article accepted for publication and presentation at Seattle
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University’s May 14, 2005 Educational Leadership Conference Leading for Tomorrow
Today.
Reliability and Validity Provisions
In qualitative analysis, reliability and validity are increased through use of
multiple data collection techniques, evaluating consistency of differing same-method data
sources, using plural analysts for reviewing findings, and approaching the data from
multiple perspectives. Patton (1990) identified these strategies as triangulation while
Denzin and Lincoln (2000) used the term crystallization to describe a process of viewing
the studied issue through many figurative qualitative lenses with potentially different
refractive powers.
This study included multiple data collection methods. The use of the demographic
survey provided substantial background information on each participant, all of which
yielded ordinal level data. The individual interviews provided information on each
participant’s experience of voluntary simplicity and health. The field notes embellished
the interview transcripts for richer understanding. The Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed.
(Travis, 1988) and its visual summary, the Wellness Inventory Wheel, offered visual
representations of twelve aspects of human health and life balance. These wellness tools
also served as bases for further learning and discovery in the focus group session. The
focus group generated additional data and insights which were revealed in the group
interactions (Morgan, 1997). Computer-aided analyses of the transcribed interviews,
focus group session, and field notes increased the capture of emerging themes from the
various data sources.
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Human Subjects Research Review
In any study which involves interaction with human persons, the researcher is
ethically obligated to ensure that care is taken to minimize potential harm to participants.
Seattle University required that all proposed research involving human subjects be
reviewed for conformity with community standards of harm prevention/reduction and
protection of participants’ rights to privacy. A formal evaluation by the University’s
Institutional Review Board (IRB) was required for projects which posed potential
physical or psychological risk to participants, such as may occur with human trials of
new medications, invasive procedures like phlebotomy, and psychologically challenging
conditions involving stress-induction or deliberate deception. Research projects could be
reviewed at the departmental level when proposed study activities demonstrated
relatively low risk of harm to participants. Such was the case for the Simple Wellness
Study, with its plan for in-depth individual interviews, the focus group interview, the
demographic data collection tool, use of the self-scored wellness assessment instrument,
and data storage procedures designed to safeguard confidentiality and identities of the
participants. Upon examination of the Human Subjects Research Form (Appendix A),
Seattle University’s School of Education research reviewer granted departmental-level
approval for the Simple Wellness Study plan on April 7, 2004 (see approval notification,
Appendix B).
Strengths and Weaknesses of Chosen Methodology
The target population from which the participants were drawn was urban and
suburban residents of the Pacific Northwest. It was anticipated that most, if not all, of the
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subjects would reside in the greater Seattle area. Targeting urban and suburban citizenry
yielded a group of subjects who were more mainstream than the hippie survivalists or
back-to-the-landers encountered by Moeller in her 1986 ethnographic study sited in
Tonawanda, Washington. Rather, the subjects were expected to represent VS
practitioners who attempted to simplify their lives while retaining ties to their
communities. While a number of persons residing outside of Seattle were invited to
participate in the study, all of the persons who agreed to participate happened to live in
the northern part of Seattle, within the city limits.
One weakness of this proposed study was participants’ retrospective self-report of
health, and the one-time use of an instrument to quantify their states of physical, mental,
and spiritual health. Ideally, such an instrument would be administered at the onset of
decision to simplify, and at a later time to evaluate and compare state of health/wellness
after a period of months or years of conscious efforts to simplify. That sort of project will
be reserved for future study, probably in the concept of a Simplicity Circle (Andrews,
1997) or community-based study group of people sharing about their efforts to simplify.
Another weakness was the small sample size. While a larger sample might have
been more desirable, given the phenomenological focus of this study, increasing the
sample size would have made this project entirely unwieldy. It was expected that six to
10 persons would need to be interviewed in order to reach saturation. Eleven persons
were invited to take part, of whom nine responded and seven agreed to be interviewed.
By the time the seventh person was interviewed, the data were already recursive with two
major patterns of lifestyle evolution taking shape and a congruence of values and
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intentions across both of those patterns. At that point, the researcher elected to remain
with those seven interviewees and not seek more participants. Therefore seven
individuals were interviewed in greater depth than would have been possible with a larger
sample.
Findings from this study have been presented to groups organized around
voluntary simplicity, including the annual Simplicity Congress of the Simplicity Forum
convened in August, 2005 at Estes Park, Colorado. Also these data will be presented to
the American Holistic Nurses’ Association (AHNA), which promotes research on, and
practice of, wellness and integrative healing at their annual meeting and conference in
June of 2006. Additionally, an article based on this research has been submitted to the
Journal of Holistic Nursing for publication in AHNA’s official journal. It is probable that
an article will be submitted for inclusion in publications related to parish nursing as well.
Summary
The Simple Wellness study involved data collection through face-to-face, indepth interviews with seven individuals who practiced voluntary simplicity. These audiotaped interviews were conducted using open-ended questions and an interview guide.
Upon completion of the initial interview, each respondent was given a copy of the
Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988) which was completed and mailed to the
researcher. The Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988) was used to assess multiple
domains of each participant’s level of wellness as an individual and as a part of larger
social and ecological systems. Each participant’s Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis,
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1988) yielded a Wellness Wheel, a visual representation of balancing the various areas of
functioning in life.
The field notes and transcripts of the taped interviews were analyzed using QSR
N6 NU*DIST (2002) software for qualitative analysis. Upon identification of themes and
trends, a summary document was prepared for presentation to the focus group consisting
of five interview participants. At this same focus group, each participant was furnished a
copy of his/her respective Wellness Inventory (3rd Ed.), and a set of Wellness Inventory
Wheels, one for each of the respondents derived from the respective respondents’
Wellness Inventories and a composite of all the participants’ Wellness Wheels.
This chapter has described the plan for the phenomenological Simple Wellness
study. The researcher conducted audio-taped, in-depth individual interviews of seven
persons who were practicing voluntary simplicity. The audio-tape transcripts and field
notes from those interviews were coded and analyzed using QSR N6 NU*DIST (2002)
software for qualitative data analysis. Travis’s (1988) Wellness Inventory (3rd Ed.) was
self-administered by each participant after his/her respective individual interview. After
all thematic data were analyzed, they were presented to a focus group meeting to which
all study participants were invited, and which five attended. The interview themes and the
group members’ anonymous Wellness Inventory Wheels were reviewed and discussed for
further clarification and learning. Upon completion of the focus group, refined data were
coded and assembled into this final report. This resulting document has been prepared to
satisfy the dissertation requirements of Seattle University’s doctoral program in
Educational Leadership.
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CHAPTER 4
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
Introduction
As proposed in Chapter 1, the qualitative study reported here investigated the
lived experience of Seattle city-dwellers who have aligned their lives and interests with
the voluntary simplicity movement. The study considered participants’ perceptions of
physical, mental, and spiritual health over the time they had made lifestyle changes in
accordance with voluntary simplicity. Data were collected via a demographic survey,
individual interviews, a paper-and-pencil instrument, and a focus group interview. The
demographic data were analyzed with an electronic calculator and StatView (1996)
statistical software. The interview data were analyzed using QSR N6 (2002) computer
software for qualitative analysis.
This chapter is organized according to the chronological order of the research
activities. The individual and group interview sections present responses to the sequence
of the questions as listed in their respective interview schedules (see Appendixes F & G).
In order to safeguard the privacy of the participants who could be readily identifiable to
persons within the voluntary simplicity community, certain devices have been utilized in
this report. These include designation of the different participants by alpha codes ranging
from T to Z. Also, the narrative text avoids all pronouns which would specify gender of
the particular participants.
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Findings
Participant Demographic Survey Data
The seven respondents ranged in age from 51 to 87 years, with a mean age of
about 64. The exact ages of the youngest and oldest participants were revealed during the
interviews, but the exact mean is unknown because the survey wording used a broad age
category range (50 to 65 years) which included all six younger respondents. Three
women and four men participated in the first three of four data collection activities.
Healthcare Access
All of the seven participants had health insurance coverage and the access to care
it offers. Two persons’ health insurances were provided by their respective employers. Of
the remaining five who purchased their own health insurance, two paid between $250 and
$399 per month for the premiums, and three paid less than $250 per month.
Healthcare Services Utilization
Each of the seven participants acknowledged having established a relationship
with an allopathic (meaning the dominant paradigm of Western medicine using
pharmaceuticals and surgeries to effect cures) primary care provider (PCP). Two of these
PCPs were nurse practitioners (NPs) and five were allopathic physicians (MDs). Four
participants visited their PCPs and other providers two or fewer times during the previous
year, while three participants visited providers three to five times during that year. Four
persons had dental visits during the past year. Other practitioners consulted by three of
the participants included an acupuncturist, chiropractor, homeopathic physician, massage
therapist, naturopathic physician, and osteopathic physician.
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Four participants revealed diagnoses of chronic diseases, two of which had
potential for significant disability. One participant was at risk of significant disfigurement
due to an existing disease process. One participant had lost a limb to cure a chronic
disease resulting from a catastrophic childhood illness; a second chronic disease
challenging that person was likely contracted during that surgical recovery.
None of the participants had had an overnight hospitalization during the previous
year, although one individual recently underwent a surgery. Three participants took one
or two daily prescription medications; four participants had no daily medications.
Dietary Considerations
Four participants took daily vitamin and/or mineral supplements. One participant
declined to eat beef or pork, while all seven included chicken, eggs, and cheese in their
diets. Four tried to limit their meat consumption to organic products or that which was
raised without hormone additives. Two participants excluded cow’s milk from their diets.
Four limited their fruit and vegetable intakes to organic or naturally-grown produce.
Despite the fact that all seven participants resided in urban Seattle, and several had very
small postage-stamp lots, three grew their own fruits, and five grew their own vegetables.
Yet another participant had previously maintained an extensive garden of fruits and
vegetables but was no longer physically able to do so.
Exercise Habits
Although one participant had no regular exercise program (which is attributable to
mobility impairment), the remaining six exercised for 15 or more minutes at least three
times a week; and four were committed to exercising five or more times per week. One of
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the two overweight participants was among the most frequent exercisers, and the other
exercised three to five times per week.
Education Levels
Participants’ academic achievement levels included three baccalaureate degrees,
one master’s degree, and two doctoral degrees. Ironically, the participant who claimed
the least achievement in formal education (a high school diploma) had perhaps the
greatest and widest global influence by virtue of extensive professional media credits as
well as leadership in international activism.
Volunteer Work and Paid Employment
Although six participants were between the ages of 50 and 65, and the seventh
was late into the ninth decade of life, all were committed to volunteer efforts at least a
few hours a month for a variety of causes. Two participants volunteered an average of
three or more hours per week, including the one individual who held a full-time job.
Several channeled their volunteer energies through religious organizations. Additional
endeavors included community education, peace/antiwar issues, environmental advocacy,
arts and crafts, advocacy for incarcerated individuals, and promulgating the values of the
voluntary simplicity movement.
One person worked about 30 paid hours per week, and two were semi-retired with
about 20 weekly wage-earning hours apiece. Two persons were fully retired, and one was
a student preparing for professional paid or volunteer work. All of the retired participants
had previously held professional white collar positions. One employed individual had left
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a lucrative professional career to study for a lesser-paid but more fulfilling human
services profession.
Time in Grade with Voluntary Simplicity
The relative newcomer among the participants had self-identified as a simplifier
for a mere five-to-ten years. Three individuals claimed 11-to-15 years each along their
simple paths, one specified 21 to 25 years, and the remaining two had over 25 years
commitment to their respective simple lifestyles.
Religious Activities
Three of the seven participants claimed church membership and attended services
three or more times per month. Two self-identified as Roman Catholics, two as agnostic,
and two participated in interfaith activities. The seventh cited spiritual devotion outside
of an external religious philosophy. Four participants prayed or communed with the
divine weekly or more frequently.
Ethnic and Cultural Heritage
Six of the seven participants were Caucasians with a variety of cultural and
nationality identifications. One person was of Asian heritage. All were born and raised in
the United States of America.
Financing the Simple Life
Four of the study participants identified current annual household income in the
range of $35,000 to $49,999; two claimed higher income ($50,000 to $64,999 range) and
one stated a significantly lower income in the $10,000 to $19,999 range. Sources of
income, listed from greatest number to least number of individuals citing, were
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salary/wages, stocks and bonds, savings, real estate investments, royalties, Social
Security, retirement pensions, and IRA withdrawal. Four participants had authored books,
but only two participants cited royalties among their income sources. Those two not
drawing royalties were believed to have donated their royalties to an organization which
provided information and education about voluntary simplicity.
Geography Simplified
The seven participants in the Simple Wellness Study resided in the city of Seattle
north of the downtown area. Six of the seven made their homes in modest, working-class
neighborhoods. The one who resided in an upscale neighborhood owned an unassuming
cooperative apartment in a densely populated area. Five lived in multi-family buildings.
Two lived in homes originally constructed as single-family homes which they converted
to create auxiliary dwelling units. Two lived in a single family residence which they often
shared with others in need of housing. The Simple Wellness Study’s most recent
newcomer to his or her home had resided there for five to 10 years.
Summary of Survey Findings
The demographic survey gathered ordinal-level information about participants’
living situations, financial circumstances, health care access, and health seeking
behaviors. In addition, the survey yielded data regarding paid and volunteer work, and the
causes to which the participants devoted their energies. The next sections report the
qualitative data regarding participants’ lived experiences as revealed in the individual and
focus group interviews. Participants described their thoughts, feelings, and choices in
their processes of aligning their outward lives with their evolving inner awarenesses.
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The Individual Interviews
Interviews of five individuals and one couple were conducted in the respective
participants’ homes in October, 2004; the single exception was one participant who chose
to be interviewed on a weekend in the workplace. The sequence of open-ended questions
followed the interview schedule (see Appendix F). All of the questions on the schedule
were asked of each participant. These six interviews were audio-taped and transcribed for
qualitative analysis using QSR N6 (2002) computer software for qualitative analysis.
Schedule of Individual Interview Questions
Every invitation letter mailed to the prospective participants included the schedule
of eight questions for the individual interviews. All of these questions were asked in each
of the interviews. In this section, selected participant responses to the questions are
quoted in edited form, as the actual responses were quite lengthy.
1. How did you come to identify with voluntary simplicity?
Some of the participants found that their initial encounters with the term voluntary
simplicity revealed insight into the lifestyles to which they had naturally gravitated. One
participant described the realization that experiencing boredom despite lots of
possessions constituted a common form of craziness in America:
I think I’ve always been critical of consumerism … even from
when I was very young and certainly became aware that possessions
weren’t what made people happy.… It was very clear to me then … that
possessions can actually get in the way of the good life, but I’ve also come
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at it from an environmental perspective.… We just can’t continue to grow
forever (Participant T, Personal communication, October 4, 2004).
Another person was attracted to the simple lifestyle lived by friends who had
immersed themselves in working for social justice:
I think the first time I heard the term “Voluntary Simplicity” was
when my [spouse], before we were married … moved into this Catholic
Worker House of Hospitality up on Capital Hill. I was really becoming
concerned about … the problem of homelessness itself…. I might just not
have been aware of it [in my hometown] `cause there was certainly a lot of
poverty where I grew up … but I didn’t see people on the streets. And
visiting … at the [Catholic Worker] house and being involved with the
community there, especially attending some of the lectures and listening to
some of the speakers that they had come in, I came to realize that a lot of
the homeless are families with young kids. That didn’t seem right!
Anyway, so the Catholic Worker was definitely a movement that
explicitly espoused VS…. I’ve always been aware of the unequal
distribution of wealth and resources in the world and just had never felt
that that was right. So that’s something I grew up with, but it wasn’t the
answer. I was never presented with the idea of VS as the answer to that
problem, choosing to forgo some material things so that there’d be more
left over for other people, but that perspective became clearer to me as I
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was peripherally involved with the Catholic Worker (Participant Y,
Personal Communication, October 19, 2004).
One participant described volunteer work and a history of literary thought as
major influences on eventually embracing voluntary simplicity. Simplicity was a theme
linking books cherished in childhood and beyond. In adulthood, the term voluntary
simplicity was discovered in more books:
For two years I worked with the Quakers there [volunteering in the
USA] and then I spent other time with the Quakers…. And then, in 1981, I
was in a … small, used bookstore, and there was Duane Elgin’s Voluntary
Simplicity and it was published in 1981, and so it was like Ahh! And so I
kept reading that, and I didn’t really know anybody else who was reading
it…. Then I started reading other books like Philip Slater’s Wealth
Addiction (1983) , and then David Shi’s (1985) book came out on the
history [of simplicity].… I remember reading Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s
Gift From the Sea. So, when I think of this influence of books, I go back
even to Little Women. I read and re-read that over and over. Anne of Green
Gables … and all of those really had a theme of simplicity. Most people
don’t say, oh, yeah, Little Women talked about [simplicity] … but that was
one of the main themes. They were very, very poor, but very happy
(Personal Communication, Participant Z, October 25, 2004).
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The above-quoted participant and the one whose quote follows were
attracted to the precepts of simplicity and identified with the term voluntary
simplicity upon first encountering it:
I got to know a family, a group of people who might have been
known as hippies in the `60s. And they traveled around the countryside
living simply, and they traveled in something they called a UB: Ultimate
Bus. It was a bus they’d converted to traveling in and they could … sleep
eight people. They’d drive along, and the night came along and they’d
sleep in there and they’d go and visit various communities. They were …
hippies who were really determined to simplify their life. Their idea
primarily was to allow us all to choose whether we want to work for a
dying as Joe Dominguez, one of the founders of it called it, or do what we
want to do. So, if you learn to live simply, then you have a choice. If you
have to work for a dying then you’re stuck with it and your life will not be
happy. Now, they wrote the book that got this started. It’s called … Your
Money or Your Life (Participant U, Personal Communication, October 13,
2004).
Other participants approached voluntary simplicity as a means to an end. One
such person told of purposeful investigation into early retirement and debt-free living:
There was an article in Parade Magazine that featured a woman
named Amy Dacyczyn who was writing a newsletter called The Tightwad
Gazette. I thought that sounded interesting and so I subscribed to it. It
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turned out that there was an article or a little blurb in there about a group
which was a foundation locally here in Seattle that was called the New
Roadmap Foundation and they had some information about getting square
with your finances…. I called them up.… They sent me out some
information about a tape … called Transforming Your Relationship With
Money and Achieving Financial Independence (Dominguez, 1990)….
Because I was on their mailing list, we were notified that starting that fall
there were going to be VS groups forming as part of a program through
North Seattle Community College. And, we’d never really heard that term
before, VS, but the idea behind it was … downshifting or simplifying life
and … that sounded really interesting, and that is essentially this domino
thing of how we got involved (Participant V, Personal Communication,
October 18, 2004).
Planning for the future and stark realizations about implications of retirement
were potent influences for one participant:
I was … looking ahead and realized that if I stayed in the corporate
world and worked to the traditional retirement age of 65, I still had 20
more years to go, and it did not look like a very smooth road or a very
happy road. So, I was looking for something else but I didn’t know what
that something was, that I wanted to do with my life. This … tape course
came [Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving
Financial Independence (Dominguez, 1990)] and we listened to Joe
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Dominguez talking on these tapes about a whole different way of thinking
about finances and about how you spend your money, and it resonated.
And so we actually started to try to do these steps in Your Money or Your
Life (Dominguez & Robin, 1992)…. I didn’t go initially to the VS study
circles, but as soon as I did I realized … that was a really good group of
people to help us … `cause we quickly realized if we’re going to do this
it’s going against the grain of mainstream society. And so, being in a study
group was actually a support group and people brought lots of ideas. Some
of the people that were in that group were people that had lived simply for
many years. Other ones were like us—it was completely a new concept.
And there were some people that were in the middle. Some people had
come from an environmental perspective; they were concerned about
what’s happening to the planet and … how do they do that in their own
lives? What impact can they make to their lives? So that’s what really
attracted me initially (Participant W, Personal Communication, October
18, 2004).
2. When you started on the journey of simplification, what did you hope/expect to gain
from it?
Those who made conscious decisions to embark on the process of simplification
were motivated by needs for integrity and camaraderie:
[I needed] … to live in a way that was congruous to my values, for
integrity, [to] walk my talk. `Cause I never looked at it like, Oh I’m gonna
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be happy if I do that or I’m gonna be maybe at peace if I do this. My goal
wasn’t necessarily to be happy, but I felt like to live in this world with
integrity that I needed to be conscientious about everything I did and at
least examine it and know why I’m doing it. A lot of it connects to my
faith, if not all of it…. This is being a good Christian from my
perspective. (Participant X, Personal Communication, October 18, 2004.
Participant T stated a desire to avoid being trapped in the work-and-spend mode.
Decreasing work hours in order to make time for pursuits of higher values factored in for
several participants, including this one:
At the time I felt like I was earning more money than I really
needed to live. `Course I didn’t have a family at the time. But, I had
enough money to buy a house for myself and … one thing I wanted was
more time. I figured if I was making more money than I needed, then I
didn’t have to be working as hard as I was, so I’d have more time to do
things in the community that I thought might be worthwhile. At that time,
I was heavily involved with the anti-nuclear power movement through a
group called the Crabshell Alliance. So that was one thing, more time. I
wanted to be able to work in a field where I didn’t have to rationalize or
justify what I was doing to myself to sleep at night … this hadn’t occurred
to me before, but … I wanted to know other people that had a similar
value system. You know, rather than be closeted with [major local
employer] types all day, I wanted to be with people that had more of a
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world view that was closer to mine … But, I think the main thing I wanted
to get out of it was just the time and a sense that I was doing something
worthwhile (Participant Y, Personal Communication, October 18, 2004).
Several who were active in the peace and antiwar movements of the Vietnam war
era found the VS movement as a reservoir for their energies directed toward social
change:
I guess the evangelist in me came through. I hoped to get others to
join me and I’d been looking… Before that I was involved with the
Beyond War movement which was very active for quite awhile.… I was in
a group there where we’d get together and talk about what we could do to
avoid war, particularly nuclear war, and of course we were protesting
against storing all the waste over at Hanford and all these things. So I
expected to help, and for awhile I guess I was very happy that I could feel
okay about my approach to the future which was the simple way. It was no
longer tightwad and skinflint. And I could get the message across to others
… and then I started thinking. I’ve got … great grandchildren and I’m
hoping for a world to still be around as they grow up, which doesn’t look
very hopeful right now … because of the way we’re using up the nonrenewable resources (Participant U, Personal Communication, October 13,
2004).
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Other participants had no particular goals at the outset, and some could not
identify a definitive time when their VS journeys began. Retrospectively, this
participant identified how VS provided conflict and benefit:
[Simplicity] was just something I kept getting drawn into. It
always has excited me. It still excites me…. There’s so much intellectually
that is exciting about exploring the idea of simplicity. And this whole
Seattle U thing, the salons this year, Consumption and Poverty…. Because
simplicity is a response to both of them I think…. there was nothing I
thought I was gonna gain, it was just kind of this call.… I really think of
all the people I’m the hedonist of the movement. I mean, I really think
wow, that looks fun! So, that’s what I do.… Simplicity for me was like oh
wow, you know, I’ve never liked to shop anyway so, ahh, I can get out of
shopping. I never really liked to decorate a kitchen so I can get out of that.
It’s like nobody has any expectations of me. It’s like, well no, we don’t
expect her to wear new clothes every day. So, it’s been a tremendous
freedom that way.… Some people would say oh no, no, no, you’re not
living simply, you shouldn’t have any stuff in your house. You shouldn’t
have… TV. Not only do we have one TV, we have three TVs.… As you
know, because none of this is new to you, we got them once a long time
ago and we don’t have to do it again. And the same thing with most of the
furniture and everything…. It’s not that we were ever tremendous
consumers, but we’ve got the basic things…. So, it wasn’t a conscious
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hoping to get but just, I think I’ve always wanted to figure out how can I
do what I want to do, get out of stuff I don’t want to do and just enjoy
myself more. So, I’d say that’s basically it. I just wanted to enjoy myself
more (Participant Z, Personal Communication, October 25, 2004).
3. How did you go about the process of simplifying?
Participants strongly voiced their beliefs that simplifying one’s lifestyle is a
gradually evolving process:
I think sometimes there’s a perception that … it’s an overnight
thing, that you wake up and you say okay from now on everything is
gonna be simple.… It became a whole way of thinking for us … changing
the way we thought about things, and looking more at things in their
entirety and how they were connected with other things (Participant V,
Personal Communication, October 18, 2004).
A couple of participants began with tracking expenditures for later reflection,
which led to a great deal of introspection about larger, existential issues:
You start asking yourself these questions about whether these
things are really important to you based on what you believe are your
values and goals and your life purpose…. You have to try to figure out
what is really important to you. What do you want your life to be about?
It’s … those philosophical questions that people have asked themselves
since the beginning of time in one way, but few people in this fast-paced
culture that we live in actually step back long enough to really think about
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that. What do I want my life to be about? And when you start thinking that
way, then you realize that there’s a lot of stuff out there, material stuff,
that really aren’t that important…. We had been on … a high spending,
fast track lifestyle, and so this was … a U-turn for us…. We came to
realize, if you ask yourself is it really worth it in comparison to the
amount of time that I had to go to a job to earn these dollars to get this
stuff or have these experiences? And that is the core of it…. When you
start thinking about that, then you start thinking and … behaving in a
different way and … then it leads to further thinking about … how
cumulatively all of us societally are consuming all of the resources.
What’s that mean to the planet? When we got into this originally, we
didn’t have a clue about what was going on.… The environment, the
degradation of the planet, the fact that we’re using up the resources at an
unsustainable rate.… It started out as a personal thing, but then over time
… we came to realize that overconsumption is the result of all of us
behaving in this way and using way more than our resources, so we tried
to reduce our impact on the planet as well as on our pocketbooks…. We
started out very small and then we cut back (Participant W, Personal
Communication, October 18, 2004).
Defining for oneself the satisfaction of need and desire was an important step in
the simplification process of two participants. Some persons jettisoned excess
possessions and/or developed discernment processes regarding new acquisitions:
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If you do this right, the things that aren’t important to you fall
away by themselves. You just stop spending money on them, or you get
rid of those things. If they’re really important to you, then you keep them
in your life. And that becomes part of what in your life terms they call the
concept of enough.… In this society it’s a concept that almost doesn’t
exist. And yet, we figured out for us over a period of time what was
enough in terms of what … are these things we want to keep in our lives?
There’s other stuff we don’t really need anymore, and here’s how much it
takes us annually as far as income is concerned to support our lifestyle
based on what we determine is enough.… We’ve continued to follow that
program now for … 14 years (Participant W, Personal Communication,
October 18, 2004).
One participant was captivated when In Context magazine published an issue
titled, How Much is Enough? This issue contained articles from all different kinds of
people around the topic of VS, the concept of enough, and ecological implications related
to sufficiency:
He had a piece in there about the Green Triangle (see Callenbach,
2000)…. He talked about how … things that are on the more economical
side not only save you money but they’re good for the environment, and
they also tend to … impact your health. For instance, riding your bicycle
to do errands … where you’re not polluting the environment, and getting
exercise, costs a lot less than driving a car.… There’s the whole time
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aspect, having more time. There’s the aspect of not having to earn as much
money so, therefore, you’re not at a job you dislike, and you’re also
impacting the environment a lot less if you’re not buying more stuff all the
time…. That exchange of your money for using the earth’s resources and
consuming products …
I had been in the corporate world and fortunately we didn’t have a
lot of debt. We actually had saved some money, but there was some of the
ideas that we had about what a good life was all about that we were
starting to question…. It’s a process, and you just learn more and more as
you go along…. We started with a very narrow focus of our own financial
situation and it just expanded all the way out from the environment to
spiritual, including mental health, physical health and other things
(Participant V, Personal Communication, October 18, 2004).
Three participants had maintained simple lifestyles throughout their adult years,
including many years prior to their acquaintance with the term voluntary simplicity. One
spoke about lack of need for specific changes:
I didn’t really have that far to go because I never had allowed
myself to get to the point where I would have to change that much about
my lifestyle. That is, I wasn’t into buying stuff for the sake of having stuff
and I’d never felt like I had to have the latest newest thing. I kept my first
car for 13-14 years, for example…. My house has always been furnished
with used furniture from … various sources. I’ve hardly ever gone out to
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buy a new piece of furniture in my life, and never was into fancy clothes
or spending money on clothes at all. So my entire professional wardrobe
has almost always been from the thrift stores. So, I never really had to
downsize exactly other than the amount of time that I was spending at
work…. I was already … interested in eating for health at that time. I
bought my first vegetarian cookbook when I was in college and read
Frances Lappe’s book [Diet for a Small Planet, 1965] and so that’s
basically been my orientation since I was out on my own. I guess I didn’t
really have to change that much. The other thing is that I’ve always
enjoyed living in community with other people … I never really had to
adapt that much `cause I was pretty much already there (Participant Y,
Personal Communication, October 19, 2004).
4. What, in your opinion, are the essential elements of voluntary simplicity?
Participants spoke eloquently about the issues which they felt were most
important in their relationships to life in the world of their expanding consciousnesses:
Being conscious of what you consume, what its impact on the earth
is, what its impact on you is, what it costs you to buy it, how much time
you have to spend to obtain these things, where the resources come from.
It’s really about living consciously and understanding what these products
are…. The key thing that simplicity is for is time (Participant T, personal
communication, October 4, 2004).
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The concept of consciousness was mentioned by every participant. This
consciousness included ecologic, social and economic issues:
The recognition that everyone is connected and that everything you
do affects everyone else in some way, shape, or form, and not just people
but … the planet in general. That … is essential, that recognition, and then
a value system that is not rooted in consumerism, where what is most
important is relationships with people. And that consuming is a tool but
it’s not the end in itself…. My identity is not bound up in what I look like
or what I own but more my character and other people’s too…. And then I
think the idea of living conscientiously, like really giving thought to why
am I buying this? All the extra energy it would take to own this! What that
would mean in my life and how I use my time? I think every aspect of my
life, doing it conscientiously (Participant X, Personal Communication,
October 18, 2004.
At the very core is … trying not to take up more of the earth’s
resources than we need. Just taking your share and no more. But then
around that have been other ideas like having a livelihood that is
meaningful to you and that allows you to serve other people and … that
doesn’t result in your accumulating a lot more money or things than you
really need. That … takes care of itself when you work in the human
services field. You’re not gonna get paid as much as you would anyway in
some other field…. Another important aspect of it to me is just making
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wise use of resources. Not wasting stuff, not wasting energy, reusing old
things, because we just can’t go on filling up our landfills with plastic and
basically soiling our habitat…. Related to that is the idea of sustainability.
Having a lifestyle that doesn’t consume more resources than can be
replaced in a reasonable amount of time (Personal Communication,
Participant Y, October 19, 2004).
5. How would you describe health?
In the individual interviews, participants’ descriptions of health contained holistic
appraisals with emphases on balance. One participant gave a two-word answer:
“Wholeness. Integrity” (Participant V, personal communication, October 18, 2004).
Others elaborated on individual and societal levels of health:
I describe health as … feeling well enough to do the things that are
important to you…. It has to do with one’s mental attitude. It’s easier for
me to say what I think helps make us healthy than it is for me to say this is
health.… It’s now clear in public health that … we have more lonely
people, more people by themselves, people … constantly feeling because
of an insecure economic environment that they have to move anywhere,
anytime, in order to take jobs. All of those kinds of things in this society
which is obsessed with GDP [Gross Domestic Product], and all of those
things work against health, and so it’s no surprise that the US ranks last
among all industrial countries in terms of health. According to the WHO
[World Health Organization], we have the lowest, the shortest longevity,
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the most infant mortality, the worst performance by kids on physical
fitness tests, the most chronic illness despite spending 1½ times as much
as any other industrial country in the world per capita for health care …
and the simple life and changing the way we’re doing things … gives the
opportunity to put time, instead of into working and to consuming, to put
it into family and community, relationships, caring, all of those things, and
that’s ultimately good for your health (Participant T, personal
communication, October 4, 2004).
I found myself going back to Your Money or Your Life
(Dominguez & Robin, 1992), the whole idea of living your life in
alignment with your values…. If you figure out what are your values and
your life purpose and you bring your behavior into alignment with them,
then … you release a lot of tension that a lot of people walk around with in
life because they first of all, they maybe have never bothered to even
figure out well, what are my values? What are my core values? What do I
think is really important to me and how do I want to be remembered?
What do I want my life to really be about? As I tried to do that and started
to behave that way, it just seemed natural! … You’re honest with yourself
as much as possible, and you end up being healthier both mentally and
physically … because of it (Participant W, personal communication,
October 18, 2004).
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All these aspects of myself come together in a way that’s balanced,
and that gives me a sense of well being.… If one of the areas was … very
out of balance, how it affects everything else (Participant X, Personal
Communication, October 18, 2004.
[Wellness] goes beyond just physical health or even mental or
spiritual health…. It would be like having the capacity to be fully engaged
with the world around you, and taking advantage of and making use of
that ability rather than just like letting it sit unused. I don’t think one has to
be necessarily in perfect physical condition to be considered healthy from
my point of view. It has much has to do with how one interacts with the
world around them so that you’re contributing to the world and you’re
appreciating what’s there and allowing other people to give back to you.
It’s just being fully integrated in your community (Participant Y, Personal
Communication, October 18, 2004).
6. How would you describe your health before the process of simplification?
While this question was posed in every individual interview, it proved to be
superfluous. Every participant launched directly into comparison of present health with
pre-simplicity experience. Therefore, responses to this question are included within
responses to the following question.
7. How would you compare your health then versus now?
Responses to this question included stories of coping with crises and development
of resilience:
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I had this … neurological episode … they said that it looked like it
was Multiple Sclerosis. It was kind of a shock because I was in the middle
of [a major writing project] … and it really gave me pause to kind of think
about what I was doing, why I was doing it and … it was a wake-up call in
a sense.… I continued on and finished my [project], but I think that was
really a start of a whole process or a different way of thinking about my
life…. What it brought to the fore is that you just really never know
what’s gonna happen. It became very clear to me that having choices and
being able to live the way you would like to, now versus later, or delaying
things, or waiting until that wonderful day someday to be happy … it
didn’t make a lot of sense. As things worked out, I’ve never had any
recurrence of any symptoms…. I just started … looking at my health …
more holistically…. Before, I was just so caught up in trying to live up to
a certain image or certain persona … that I was just uptight all the time….
And now I’m just a lot more relaxed about stuff. If I don’t get something
right … I just have a very different attitude (Participant V, Personal
Communication, October 18, 2004).
One participant reported, “I’m never sick” (Participant T, Personal
Communication, October 4, 2004); this was discussed further in the focus group
interview which took place later. The other six participants all indicated present health
improved over their experience before simplification. Cited aspects included awareness
of increased maturity, of being able to help others, of embracing right livelihood, as well
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as health-enhancing lifestyle changes that accompanied the process of simplification, as
will be shown in the following quotes:
Mentally and emotionally, my health is much better now. I have
learned … how much is enough. I’ve learned to not load myself down
with messages of have to and so on. I’ve gained personal confidence.
(Participant U, Personal Communication, October 13, 2004).
You’re impacted by health care as one of the systemic things that
you can’t avoid if you live in this country, in this culture, that you have to
deal with in one way or another. And so those things add certain levels of
stress. But, in general, I would say that we’ve been able to minimize a lot
of that because of VS. And living a simpler lifestyle which allows you
more time to physically exercise, to do yoga, to meditate or to read, and
things that are beneficial for your physical being (Participant W, Personal
Communication, October 18, 2004).
I’ve often said the last 10 years … have been the best years of my
life. There’s no question about it!… I’ve felt better generally health wise.
I’ve been able to do things that I think are much more beneficial for
society…. I maintain my own website and know how to do that and put
information out there about simplicity and sustainability that people can
access…. I’ve just felt like the things that I have done with my life now in
the last 10 years are more meaningful and more fulfilling (Participant W,
Personal Communication, October 18, 2004).
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Psychologically, emotionally, spiritually I … am definitely more
where I would like to be, more sure… I have more grounding, more a
centering of why I’m here on earth, more of a sense of purpose. Part of my
health now is connected with humor and laughter. Although I’ve always
loved humor and laughter my whole life, now it’s a conscientious thing
and to the point where I talk about it with people.… I am healthier now …
definitely emotionally, because I had some traumas…. I’ve had other
things that were really stressful, and I’ve done a lot of therapy for that and
worked through a lot of those kinds of issues. Spiritually I’m very
connected with my church, with my community, with God and … I feel
healthy in that area. Emotionally, this is more challenging because I have
[a family member with special needs] and it’s a very stressful life.
(Participant X, Personal Communication, October 18, 2004).
There are definitely some things that … I was able to improve after
leaving [the corporate world]. Just for example, exercise. I’d never been
overweight, but I know I wasn’t getting enough exercise for optimum
health when I was working for [a major corporation] and driving in my car
for an hour each way to go to work, and having a job where I was just
sitting at a desk eight hours a day staring at a computer screen although,
ironically, I probably spend more time looking at a computer now in my
current job than I did back then…. Once I became a student [again] … it
became possible to ride my bicycle to work and back, or to school and
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back, and that became my primary mode of transportation at that time. So,
that was one way in which … I was able to improve my health after I
made the career switch. I think I’m eating somewhat better now…. I like
to cook out of the garden and make use of what’s there. And so, gradually
I [have] … gotten better at cooking with whole grains and … having this
kind of orientation did make it easier for me to learn about ways to prepare
a meal healthier. And, the other thing was what I was mentioning before
about the mental stress at being in an occupation that you’re not totally
comfortable with … either that you don’t enjoy or that you think may be
doing more harm than good to the world. And, we certainly know that
stress contributes to heart disease and a variety of other physical illnesses.
So, I think the fact that I don’t have that stressor in my life anymore has
probably made me healthier. The fact that I can hold my head up and be
proud of what I do for a living and enjoy what I do for a living. It takes a
lot of the stress out of life that would be a detriment to most peoples’
health (Participant Y, Personal Communication, October 19, 2004).
8. What does your involvement with voluntary simplicity have to do with education and
leadership in your community?
Study participants described numerous subtle ways of providing leadership
through example and informal teaching:
[When people ask what I do] typically I’ll say … I’m retired, but
then you get into some … level of discussion about what we’ve done and
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how we’ve gotten to where we are. And sometimes it happens directly or
very indirectly. You’ll be talking to people about how you do something
or how you handle a situation or whatever. And that’s an educational
process too because they might say gosh, I never thought of doing
something that way … at first when I started sort of letting them know
what I did they were [saying] … that’s rather strange. And now they tell
me about other people that they know that they’ve heard of … they’re
kind of supportive.… It’s like what somebody asked Gandhi once, what is
your message? And he said, My life is my message…. We’re living
examples of VS … if we talk to anybody for any length of time, they’re
going to hear about VS `cause it’s the way we think, it’s the way we live.
So, that’s an educational thing that happens (Participant V, Personal
Communication, October 18, 2004).
Leading by example is a powerful teacher. One participant attempted to change a
small portion of the universe by carrying a commuter mug to church meetings where
Styrofoam was commonly used. Although that person never spoke in the church group
about the intent to induce changes in others’ behavior, others started bringing their own
mugs as well. Soon Styrofoam disappeared from the church and reusable mugs became
the norm. Another participant protested the perception that social change must be a long
and laborious process:
I’ve always had a negative reaction … because an awful lot of my
friends say and said the same thing: It takes a long time … Dennis
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Kucinich said, “When people say, well, you haven’t a chance to get
elected anyway,” he says “If you vote for me, I have.” I said, if you believe
that it’s gonna take a long time, it will. Let’s think outside the box
(Participant U, Personal Communication, October 13, 2004).
Leadership may be demonstrated in one’s way of being, in one’s observable
approach to the world, as in the walking my talk quoted above, or as discussed by this
participant:
People somehow see the way we live and the way that we behave
over the years with a certain integrity … they just seem to sense that we
know something they don’t know…. It comes out in our demeanor, in
ways that we don’t even realize it’s happening.… We’ve been living this
lifestyle for a long time and have been living in line with our values, and
somehow other people observe that…. It’s leadership, it’s an indirect sort
of reaction that people have, and our hope is that they would question their
own direction and at least consider an alternative way (Participant W,
Personal Communication, October 18, 2004).
Leadership happens in planned and unplanned ways. As the next participant
describes, sometimes leadership is being willing to model behavior when an opportunity
presents itself:
By virtue of having been in that program Escape from Affluenza
[I’ve] been held up as a model for others without really intending to be in
that role…. Several years back … the Phinney Neighborhood Center here
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put on a program about downsizing, and they put together a panel of three
speakers who had made unconventional career choices so that they could
downsize. I was one of those people who got to speak and tell basically
this same story in front of a big room full of people. But, beyond that sort
of exposure, I don’t really feel like I’m any kind of a leader or educator in
the VS movement, other than just trying to lead by example. I guess just
being visible out there on the road on my bicycle with my bright yellow
jacket, that’s … a statement, if nothing else. I don’t know if anyone is
going to be convinced that they should start riding their bike just from
seeing me, but I’m not afraid to be visible. But I just don’t really see
myself particularly as a leader either. And I’m not writing books or
writing articles about it (Participant Y, Personal Communication, October
19, 2004)
The value of leadership was expressed and exemplified in diverse ways by study
participants. In the following quote, one presented a personal mission to encourage
optimism:
[Norman Cousins] was the first person that the medical community
really took notice of … that connection between the body and the mind.
So, there are so many benefits of it and … sometimes I think well, why am
I putting a lot of energy into this? Because there’s so many other things
that need to be done. In fact, I was doing a workshop … a couple of weeks
ago and a man said … “I don’t know why you’re laughing. People are
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dying!” I don’t think we’re meant to go around glum all the time because
if you do think about it, of course, there’s horrible things happening all the
time, but also children are born, too. There’s joyful things happening all
the time and creation is beautiful and I think we need to strike a balance—
and part of that balance is having joy in our lives and appreciating beauty
and relationships and having gratitude. It’s not like being heavy about
everything happening in the world…. I don’t get propelled to action when
I’m down. It’s like that notion that if I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part
of the revolution. That’s how I feel (Participant X, Personal
Communication, October 18, 2004).
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Summary of Individual Interviews
The seven participants were interviewed in depth in six sessions which took place
in October, 2004. The interviews followed the schedule of interview questions (see
Appendix F) and all questions were asked of all participants. When participants were
asked about their states of health prior to beginning their journeys of voluntary simplicity
(question six), six proceeded to contrast their health at interview time with health prior to
simplification. The seventh question, dealing with that comparison, was posed in its turn,
even though in most cases it had already been addressed.
In the individual interviews, participants described the ways they were influenced
to align with voluntary simplicity, and ways they attempted to influence or attract others.
Their comments about health and lifestyle choices suggested holistic approaches to
health, which were further elaborated in the health assessment instrument which each
received at the completion of his/her respective interview.
The Wellness Inventory and Wellness Wheels
The Wellness Inventory
The Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988) was a pencil-and-paper instrument
created by an holistically-oriented medical doctor who practiced voluntary simplicity. It
was typically used for educating about, and assessing, wellness. After the individual
interviews in which each participant was asked about her/his perceptions of wellness,
each participant was furnished a copy of The Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988)
and a self-addressed, stamped envelope in which to return the instrument to the
researcher. Those completed instruments were received within the month after the
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interviews, and the scoring was calculated by the researcher for presentation at the focus
group interview. Each participant who attended the focus group interview received
his/her respective original Wellness Inventory at that time.
The Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988) measured self-appraisal of health
across twelve domains and yielded a Wellness Wheel (see Appendix K), a visual
representation of balance in a mandala-like form. For ease of understanding, these results
are presented here in bar chart format. Each of the domains had 10 items with three
possible responses per item: Yes, usually earned 2 points, Sometimes, maybe earned 1
point, and No, rarely earned 0 point. The instructions advised to skip any items one
preferred not to answer. Upon completion of the instrument, the scorer obtained the sum
for each domain and divided the sum by the number of items answered in that domain in
order to arrive at the domain average. The averaged score for each domain thus would be
a value between 0 and 2, as is seen in the charts which follow. The higher the score, the
greater the participant’s level of comfort or satisfaction with that domain of his/her life.
Figure 1. Wellness, Self-Responsibility and Love
Univariate Bar Chart
2.25
Self-Responsibility and Love
2
1.75
1.5
1.25
1
.75
.5
.25
0
-.25
Observations
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The Wellness Inventory’s first domain addressed self-care such as dental flossing,
hazard prevention, voting, and belief that one’s daily choices affect one’s health. Simple
Wellness participant scores for Self-Responsibility and Love ranged from 1.6 to 2.0.
Figure 2. Wellness and Breathing
Univariate Bar Chart
1.8
1.6
1.4
Breathing
1.2
1
.8
.6
.4
.2
0
-.2
Observations
The second domain, Wellness and Breathing, contained items regarding deep
breathing, meditation, relaxation, energy level, physical flexibility, and sense of peace.
Participant scores in this domain ranged from 1.2 to 1.7
Figure 3. Wellness and Sensing
Univariate Bar Chart
2
1.8
1.6
Sensing
1.4
1.2
1
.8
.6
.4
.2
0
-.2
Observations
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The third domain, Wellness and Sensing, was concerned with preservation and
experiences of the five physical senses and self-regard. Participant scores ranged from 1.3
to 1.8, with four participants scoring 1.6.
Figure 4. Wellness and Eating
Univariate Bar Chart
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
Eating
1.2
1
.8
.6
.4
.2
0
-.2
Observations
Domain four, Wellness and Eating, posed questions regarding ingestion of fresh,
healthful foods, actual body weight in relation to ideal body weight, and discrimination
between stomach hunger and mouth hunger. Participant scores ranged from 1.2 to 1.9.
Figure 5. Wellness and Moving
Univariate Bar Chart
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
Moving
1.2
1
.8
.6
.4
.2
0
-.2
Observations
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The fifth domain, Wellness and Moving, had the lowest overall scores of all the
domains, with an average score of 1.2, and the widest range (from 0.5 to 1.8). Questions
addressing regular physical activity including walking, running, stretching, and the
body’s need for movement and exercise, were weighted such that the participant who
rode a bicycle to work several days a week obtained a very high score, whereas riders of
bicycles for errands or occasional trips netted far less robust scores.
Figure 6. Wellness and Feeling
Univariate Bar Chart
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
Feeling
1.2
1
.8
.6
.4
.2
0
-.2
Observations
Wellness and Feeling addressed self-esteem, assertion, comfortable expression of
positive and negative emotions, guilt-free ability to say no to others’ requests, and ease of
verbalizing warm regard. Participants’ scores ranged from a low of 1.1 to a high of 1.9.
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Figure 7. Wellness and Thinking
Univariate Bar Chart
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
Feeling
1.2
1
.8
.6
.4
.2
0
-.2
Observations
Wellness and Thinking, the seventh domain, considered a range of cognitive skills
and physical responses to mental processes. Items queried about creativity, perception of
control over thought content, and optimistic approach to life.
Figure 8. Wellness and Playing/Working
Univariate Bar Chart
2
1.8
Playing and Working
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
.8
.6
.4
.2
0
-.2
Observations
Creativity, soul-satisfaction with activity choices, play, and ability to comfortably
do nothing were items addressed in the domain of Wellness and Playing/Working. Most
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participants had relatively high scores in this domain, although one person had an
outlying score of 1.0.
Figure 9. Wellness and Communicating
Univariate Bar Chart
2
1.8
Communicating
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
.8
.6
.4
.2
0
-.2
Observations
In the domain of Wellness and Communicating, Simple Wellness Study
participants had a narrow range of scores. The range of 1.6 to 1.8 indicated that
participants accorded themselves high levels of listening skills and courtesy when
conversing with others, plus ability to maintain focus when confronting difficult content.
Although the instructions for completing the Wellness Inventory (Travis, 1988)
gracefully excused participants from completing any items or domains they did not wish
to answer, very few items were left unanswered. One participant declined to provide
responses to the 10th domain, Wellness and Sex. The following figure reflects this
omission.
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Figure 10. Wellness and Sex
Univariate Bar Chart
2
1.8
1.6
1.4
Sex
1.2
1
.8
.6
.4
.2
0
-.2
Observations
As shown above, Wellness and Sex had the narrowest range of scores of the entire
instrument for this group of participants, with the exception of the person who noted
discomfort with providing responses to so personal a content area. Scores ranged from
1.7 to 1.8 for questions inquiring about comfort with touching one’s body, relating to
persons of same and opposite sex, ability to maintain egalitarian relationships, and
closeness to others based on love rather than need.
Figure 11. Wellness and Finding Meaning
Univariate Bar Chart
2.25
2
Finding Meaning
1.75
1.5
1.25
1
.75
.5
.25
0
-.25
Observations
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High scores across the board in the domain of Wellness and Finding Meaning
indicated hopeful attitude toward life as well as comfort with considering and discussing
one’s eventual demise. Participants’ responses endorsed goal orientation and belief that
life was meaningful. These scores ranged from 1.7 to 2.0.
Figure 12. Wellness and Transcending
Univariate Bar Chart
2
1.8
1.6
Transcending
1.4
1.2
1
.8
.6
.4
.2
0
-.2
Observations
The 12th and final domain, Wellness and Transcending, asked questions
concerning participants’ willingness and sensitivity to experience of the sacred, as well as
maintaining hope and optimism in the midst of challenging or confusing circumstances.
Three participants scored 1.3 in this arena, with others’ scores ranging up to 1.8.
Summary of Wellness Inventory Data
The Wellness Inventory assessed health in twelve domains: Self-Responsibility
and Love, Breathing, Sensing, Eating, Moving, Feeling, Thinking, Playing and Working,
Communicating, Sex, Finding Meaning, and Transcending. Possible scores ranged from 0
meaning no, rarely up to 2 meaning yes, usually. All the study participants had high
scores in the domains of Self-Responsibility and Love (range 1.6 to 2.0), Finding
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Meaning (range 1.7 to 2.0), and Sex (range 1.7 to 1.8, with the exception of one
participant who declined to respond to the Sex domain). For five of the seven
participants, the lowest score was in the domain of Moving which dealt with choosing
options for exercise, stretching, and grounding oneself in the physical body. The
participants’ Wellness Wheels and an averaged composite were prepared for presentation
at the focus group interview, and can be found in Appendix K.
The following section introduces the focus group interview in which preliminary
data were presented for discussion and refinement.
The Focus Group Interview
The Setting for the Focus Group Meeting
The focus group met on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 in a conference room at the
offices of KCTS, the local public broadcasting station. The setting was the Tree House
Room, a cozy room with murals of mountains and forests painted on the walls, and
furnished with pine log chairs and settees. A glass-topped pine log coffee table in the
center held our papers and lunch.
Participants’ arrivals at the meeting site were congruent with their dedication to
the concept of simplicity. By convening the meeting at the worksite of one participant,
travel was eliminated for that person. Two participants arrived via public transportation,
while the remaining two carpooled in a 2004 gas/electric hybrid Toyota Prius. When the
meeting concluded, participants carpooled the bus-riders to their next destinations.
Five of the seven individually interviewed persons were in attendance, while the
remaining two were unable to participate due to extended travel outside the area. Until
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transportation arrangements were made a few days before the focus group meeting, the
participants did not know the identities of the other participants, except in the cases
where spouses were interviewed. The participants had all met each other at past events
unrelated to this study, and they greeted each other warmly as they took their seats in the
conference room.
As each participant arrived, he/she was given a packet of papers which contained
her/his original Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988) in a Kraft paper envelope for
confidentiality, a blank Wellness Inventory, (3rd Ed) for reference during the discussion,
copies of all participants’ Wellness Wheels (Travis, 1988) and a composite of all the
Wellness Wheel scores, a handout summarizing the findings of the individual interviews
(see Appendix L) and containing the schedule of questions for the focus group interview
(see Appendix G), and a memo regarding upcoming dates of events promulgating the
findings of this research project.
The meeting began with the researcher’s introduction of the study findings from
analyses of the individual interview transcripts. Along with jocular banter between the
participants, lively discussion was interspersed with the researcher’s report of initial
findings. In the course of the discussion, the questions from the focus group interview
schedule were posed.
Participants’ Responses to Researcher’s Presentation
At first, participants listened intently to the researcher’s delivery of preliminary
findings, occasionally asking for clarification and posing questions about the content.
Many of those questions were answered by the researcher at the time they were raised,
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although most of them were addressed in the handout and planned presentation as it
progressed. One participant’s frequent questions and comments seemed like non
sequiturs and prompted teasing from the other participants. When one participant
questioned details of reported responses to the individual interview question regarding
participants’ definitions of health, three people joked about exercising to improve health,
saying, “Get a dog!” “The dog will walk you.” “Don’t get a dog like mine—it drags me!”
Many of the interactions between the group members would have seemed entirely
inappropriate in a group of strangers. Given that the participants were well-acquainted
with each other, the meeting had an atmosphere of a family gathering wherein all
members were esteemed and humored, both in spite of—and because of—their own
individual quirks. Also, although the group members poked fun at themselves and each
other about their passions and activities regarding voluntary simplicity, there was a
pervasive atmosphere of respect for each other. They acknowledged the problematical
aspects of trying to live out their values and weighing short-term and long-term
implications of decisions made. It seemed they were agreeing and demonstrating that
humor is essential, that even the most serious of issues must not be taken too seriously.
The participants’ comments on the researcher’s presentation of preliminary
findings were entirely positive. They praised the selection of the research topic, methods
of the inquiry, organization and reporting of results, and the handout prepared for them.
The selection of the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988) was also endorsed,
especially by one participant who was a personal friend of Dr. Travis’s and knew of his
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VS lifestyle. All of the participants expressed appreciation for considering health and
wellness in conjunction with voluntary simplicity.
Schedule of Focus Group Questions
1. What would you add to the data about the essential elements of voluntary simplicity?
Generosity
The focus group participants compared different icons of the voluntary simplicity
movement. Group members agreed in their criticism of Amy Dacyczyn’s version of
frugality (see background information, following); as one said: “It’s all about saving
money rather than saving the world…” and further elaborated, “I just find that her
philosophy is the opposite of my philosophy about being generous and I don’t think her
spirit is generous at all” (Participant T, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
Another participant added, “We don’t say that enough about simplicity—that it’s about
being generous” (Participant Z, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005). And another
affirmed, “It’s the heart” (Participant X, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
Background: Dacyzyn. In 1982 Amy Dacyczyn, self-described as the Frugal
Zealot, identified a dream of having a large family and living in a nineteenth century New
England farmhouse. Challenged by cultural messages about the need to have two
incomes for a family to be able to realize such a dream, Dacyczyn took on a personal
mission to save money through creative frugality. She wanted to prove that she could
actively save money as a full-time, stay-at-home wife and mother more effectively than
one could earn money as a full-time employee outside the home. During her seventh year
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of cheapskating, Dacyczyn and her husband purchased, for cash, their dream home where
they then resided with their six children (Dacyczyn, 1992).
Dacyczn’s writings explored alternatives to spending money. The focus group
members agreed that her approach could attract those whose paths to voluntary simplicity
were motivated by frugality and debt reduction. The group also criticized her choice to
have so many children (which created a large ecological footprint), her solitary emphasis
on frugality as a means to buy [consume] her desired object(s), and her apparent lack of
humor other than self-deprecation about her place on the far extreme of tightwaddery.
One participant described generosity as a quality which was attractive to him/her
when selecting a spouse:
One of the things I always was attracted to [in my spouse] about is
because she/he always gave money to the buskers, the musicians. He/she
always went and I thought, wow! Buying from Real Change is the other
thing. But giving to the musicians, I always liked that kind of generosity.
There was no point but you just did it. So, yeah, I think it’s a really
interesting discussion to talk about generosity (Participant Z, Personal
Communication, March 22, 2005).
Participants spent the next several minutes honing their descriptions of generosity
as an important feature of the voluntary simplicity movement. Several stated they could
not abide the penny-pinching aspects of some VS guides, and eventually they admitted
that they do not strictly follow the steps of Your Money or Your Life (Dominguez &
Robin, 1992), a seminal work in the VS movement. Your Money or Your Life contains a
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nine-step program of calculating past income, present needs, and future goals to achieve
financial independence, which it defines as “the experience of having enough—and then
some…. Enough for you may be different from enough for your neighbor—but it will be
a figure that is real for you and within your reach (Dominguez & Robin, 1992, p. 57).
One participant commented,
There’s part of me that truly identifies with Vicki [Robin] and Joe
[Dominguez]’s vision and ideas, and there’s part of me that really
rebels…. For people who are really overspending like crazy it’s the
greatest thing in the world to fully take stock of what you’re doing and
calculate everything, but as a person generally the last thing I want to do is
calculate what I spend for things … and I don’t! That has never been
something personally that mattered to me. In fact, I probably fritter away a
certain amount of money. I’m not in debt, but I have no interest in being
financially independent and these kinds of things. I just want to live a life
that’s balanced and fun (Participant T, Personal Communication, March
22, 2005).
That person later stated that careful use of financial resources created the freedom
to treat friends to lunch, a social activity which gave great satisfaction to both the
participant and the friends. Another participant agreed with valuing relationshippromoting activities over precise accounting: “I think it’s a personal thing because if you
do that [account for every cent] … you think more about money and I want to think less
about money” Participant Z, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
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Further discussion revealed a dislike for anal retentive behavior, as a couple of
the participants described to-the-penny bookkeeping. One participant denied ever
balancing her/his checkbook, yet claimed a lifetime history of only one or two bounced
checks. To this, another participant responded,
I’ve never balanced anything. But there’s another thing. I don’t
want to be a part of a program. I don’t want to be part of the program…. I
want to be a part of questioning and thinking but I don’t want a program.
So … as somebody said at [a gathering in the VS community] … you
know the thing about writing things down … they said of course it helps
but you get so sick of writing things down you think I’m not gonna buy
that because I don’t want to write it down on my [record keeping] ….
(Participant Z, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
Discussion continued on making financial choices consistent with values and
priorities, and attitudes toward money. Participant X spoke about significant recent
changes in his/her financial status:
We are hugely in debt [due to extraordinary needs of family
member in crisis]. We are so in debt but it was amazingly freeing. It’s the
most painful thing for me to be in debt and to be in debt a lot at our age.
And so I had to go through this huge … At first I was—we can’t ever go
out to dinner again. We can’t even buy a 25 cent newspaper. I went
through this whole thing of cutting wherever you could. But then I
thought, well, this doesn’t make any difference. This is just making me feel
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stingy and icky and so [I] thought … so I’ve kind of come around to, oh
well, now we spend money. Oh well, we’re way in debt anyway. But
anyway it’s a huge… it’s probably one of the most challenging evolutions
I personally had to go through, was my relationship with money.... I feel
like I’m even a more generous person…. Although we’re not giving away
as much money as we would like to organizations (Participant X, Personal
Communication, March 22, 2005).
The other participants affirmed such decisions to spend scarce money on spiritlifting modest luxuries, even when a strict commitment to budgeting and debt eradication
would have dictated otherwise. Two told stories of role models who similarly endorsed
such paradoxical approaches to money, and the freedom which they found in facing their
fears about security.
One topic eliciting many comments was the identification of persons who had
influenced participants in adopting a voluntary simplicity lifestyle. In the round of
individual interviews, two participants had identified Amy Dacyczyn, author of three
compilation volumes of the now-defunct periodical Tightwad Gazette: Promoting Thrift
as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle (1992), as a person of positive influence. During the
focus group interview, several expressed reservations about endorsing Dacyczyn’s
pathway because of its focus on frugality for its own sake.
Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, local authors of one of the seminal voluntary
simplicity scriptures, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with
Money and Achieving Financial Independence (1992), were also critically discussed. In
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their individual interviews, several participants had identified Dominguez and Robin as
their introduction to voluntary simplicity. Your Money or Your Life’s (1992) nine-step
plan for achieving financial independence began with extensive calculation of one’s
lifetime earnings to date, tracking and writing even the smallest expenditures of money,
and daily examination of whether the day’s disbursements had purchased true value
consonant with the readers’ stated goals. Focus group members acknowledged having
read the book but refusing to comply with its expected documentation. One participant
joked that the chore of writing an accounting for every spent cent was itself a task
arduous enough to prevent all unnecessary purchases.
From this, the topic shifted to other issues of choice, particularly the decision to
adopt a hopeful view of the world.
Decision for Happiness and Optimism
Another issue brought forth in the focus group interview was a propensity among
simplifiers to approach the world from an optimistic perspective. This discussion was
introduced by a participant who referred to earlier conversation regarding attractive
aspects of VS, in which Dorothy Day was identified as a strong influence:
I want to say something about influential people…. Dorothy Day
had a really big impact on me. I was at this gathering the other night and
somebody was talking about her and I had never thought about it that you
never see a picture of her smiling. I have pictures of her and she was under
a lot of stress, and actually I knew people who had worked with her, and
she was a pretty grumpy person. She was depressed a lot and I had thought
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…Whoa! I mean I still consider her a mentor but I hadn’t thought … I
thought well, maybe she didn’t really laugh a lot or have a really good
time or really enjoy life…. But there is something, for instance, being on
the margins. Frankly, we need people on the margins (Participant X,
Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
The other participants agreed they appreciated Dorothy Day’s values and her
tireless efforts on behalf of the poor and marginalized. They unanimously voiced needs to
enjoy life and to convey a sense of joy to others, rather than to present dour
countenances. Optimism was identified as a deliberate and extremely important decision:
You can see … if we look out at this country, we look at the war
[in Iraq], we look at everything that’s going on, we could be depressed all
the time. So, I always think of it as—you live with almost a split screen in
your life. You feel strongly about things but you refuse to be depressed
because, for one thing, I don’t want to live that way and we probably will
not attract anybody to what we’re doing if we’re depressed. So I think
you’re right. They had reason to be depressed, but we have just as much
reason to be depressed now I think. Maybe more, maybe more.… It’s a
psychic dissonance really … it’s kind of a resistance to that [depression]
(Participant Z, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
Humor
Participants talked about humor and demonstrated it as well. Much of the
conversation consisted of chiding each other. When the researcher presented her initial
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findings and commented on the emergence of humor as a value important to all the
participants, one of the participants commented, “That’s [humor is] what we’re doing
here” (Participant T, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005). When discussing
problems related to conveying the messages of simplicity for the broader culture, a selfdescribed agnostic relieved tension by stating, “The good news about it all is that the
rapture will handle it” (Participant T, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005). Four of
the five focus group participants were contributors to, and recipients of, the repartee.
Much of the humor was self-deprecating, as in the case of the participant who described
the group as simple livers, and proceeded to comment on simple lungs, simple spleens,
simple bladders, and then deliberately mangled the names of various community service
projects in which they were involved.
Sometimes the simplifiers found that their humor was misunderstood by others:
I have a brief anecdote about Amy Dacyczyn.… One of the things
I wrote in that got printed in her newsletter when she was putting them out
was … she had mentioned something about using recycled toilet paper. So
I wrote in and I said I don’t quite understand how…. And I got a phone
call from some guy down on Capital Hill, I’m sure he had been puffing a
joint, and he said, “You criticize me about being so stupid!” He didn’t get
it as a joke (Participant U, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
Participant X added, “In a kids’ song, we sing a song about recycled toilet paper,
and invariably someone thinks we’re talking about reusing toilet paper” (Personal
Communication, March 22, 2005).
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Many interactions between the participants revealed their humor and positive
regard for each other. When one participant was able to recall the source of a valued
quotation, another participant, who had spoken of fears about Alzheimer Disease,
responded, “You’re not coming down with Alzheimer's!” A third participant spoke up,
“Oh, yes, he/she is!,” and turning to that first individual, continued, “You’ve always had
it! You’ve never had sex, you’ve always had Alzheimer's!” then looked around the room
saying, “[she/he] has an incredible grasp and memory for details. I have none, never have
either. I was an English major (Participant not identified for reasons of confidentiality,
Personal Communication, March 22, 2005). Given that the group responded to these and
the other asides with smiles and laughter, the researcher perceived all of these
interactions as good-natured and affectionate in tone.
2. What would you add to the data regarding your understanding of health and wellness?
One participant commented on shifting nomenclature for health-related activities.
For example, in the early-to-mid-twentieth century, the word exercise was rarely used:
We worked on the farm 10-12 hours a day seven days a week. And
the New Zealand rugby team which has been world famous for a long
time, most of their players came from the farm so they had to do chores,
not exercise (Participant U, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
Another contributed a related observation:
And also the word diet. People used to talk about a reducing diet
because your diet was everything you ate. But now diet means losing
weight. Everybody’s on a diet. But it used to be called a reducing diet. So
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[it’s] another kind of switch in our mind what we think about in our
culture (Participant Z, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
The researcher offered her opinion that “exercise is one of those inventions of
post-modern America to compensate for what we lost when we moved to the city.” Soon
participants were discussing the nonproductive energy expenditure in exercise: “We have
the environmental thing and the energy thing and so on. Think of all of the waste of
energy in all these health places. The pumping of the iron and so on, all of that could be
harnessed like in a Prius” [a gas/electric hybrid automobile; two participants owned such
vehicles] (Participant U, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005). One person spoke
excitedly about a project in Gaviotas, Colombia (Context Institute, 1995) where the
children’s teeter-totters were designed in such a way as to generate energy. A participant
declared intent to speak with a bicycle-enthusiast spouse about creating a system for
generating home heat by pedaling a bicycle. The group agreed that many healthpromoting activities could be creatively adapted to decrease the energy load on the planet
and create a healthier environment while enhancing the health of the individuals who
engage in the activities.
3. How do voluntarily simple people provide leadership in their communities?
Study participants offered information on foci of their passions. These included
the Take Back Your Time initiative (TimeDay, n.d.), and the Phinney EcoVillage
(PhinneyEcoVillage, n.d.), as well as community consciousness-raising and education
efforts.
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Social Change
The focus group participants agreed that providing community service was a
necessary vehicle for achieving the broader goal of VS, which they identified as social
change. They reiterated their rejection of frugality because it of its perceived rigidity, in
favor of simplicity and a sense of inner freedom which they associated with VS:
[Inner freedom is] a really big thing because it’s where I’m coming
from. There’s a certain … responsibility with that kind of freedom. It’s
also being able to be, in the world, who I am without regards to what other
people think I should be or anything. It’s … that sort of awareness and
freedom to just be who I need to be and know what my purpose is. I was
thinking of the value of the physical, mental and spiritual health for that
purpose (Participant X, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
Other participants added their agreement and expanded on the concept of
responsibility accompanying freedom:
When you talked about using the words be of service, that’s a
difficult one to define because it often leaves out, in most people’s minds,
radical change. That we’re actually trying to change the system is not seen
as service (Participant Z, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
Further explication of the term service brought out the notion of self-sacrifice.
Participants voiced creative tension about a societal perception that self-sacrifice is
sufficient, while the group perceived that service was a necessary component of working
for social change and justice:
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What I got from Dorothy Day was there’s service and there’s
justice and that they’re equally important, and there’s more people about
doing the work of charity than there are about doing the work of breaking
down the oppressive systems that keep people where they’re at. The [VS]
mission is social justice. So I’ve studied a lot and done a lot of reading
about systemic oppression in us White folks and our place as racists, and
so I’m starting to get a whole different sort of way of looking at the world
and critiquing it and being in it from that lens of a White person who has
privilege. And so this is sort of gonna guide me into the next step of who I
am (Participant X, personal communication, March 22, 2005).
Participants spent the next few minutes exploring issues of oppression and
charity. American consumer society was described as an instrument of oppression for
American persons, particularly middle class Americans, in which most of us unwittingly
participate:
I went to some Paolo Freire thing, and it asked us to think of the
times that we have been oppressed and the times that we have oppressed
others, and that everybody has oppressed someone. We’ve always been
oppressed, and that we White people who do have privileges—that blinds
us sometimes to the fact that we are oppressed by the consumer society.
And so I want to get Seattle University to work with me in the Phinney
EcoVillage and Seattle University does a lot of service learning of
working with underprivileged, but I’m saying here is—the middle class
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person [is] oppressed by the consumer society, that students should be
working to change that as well. And so it’s how you define oppression and
that we are oppressed by this consumer society (Participant Z, Personal
Communication, March 22, 2005).
The group coalesced in considering service as a component, but not the end-point,
of the social change mission:
Some people may feel that the people who do the traditional
charity model … that’s the opposite of the people who are doing the
change the system of justice … but usually what I find is that people
gravitate from one to the other. It’s the people are never even interested …
it’s a charity model that never gets justice … (instead of the other way
around, inserted Participant X, followed by Participant Z who added, You
learn that you need justice from participating in the charities) … But you
care in the first place … you try to do something and you find out that
isn’t the most effective way to do it. I think that’s what happens more
often with people, with the people who end up really sticking with it.
Some people come by it just purely by intellectual reasoning to the justice
thing, but I’m not sure those are the ones who stay with it, have the
compassion and the other stuff (Participant T, Personal Communication,
March 22, 2005).
Participant X tied up this particular thread in relating its intersection with the
voluntary simplicity movement:
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[Compassion is] what sustains us for lifelong action, because this
is a lifelong thing. So that’s I think part of the simplicity movement is—
it’s helped sustain me so I don’t burn out. `Cause I know, now that I’m
older, that change takes a long time. It’s not something that happens
overnight (Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
Reviewing the Wellness Inventory and the Wellness Wheels
At this point, the schedule of focus group interview questions called for reviewing
the instrument used for self-assessment of health, and the Wellness Wheels, the visual
representation of Wellness Inventory scores. The handout given to all focus group
participants at the start of the group meeting contained the Wellness Wheels for all of the
study participants.
The group’s attention to the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988) was shortlived. As the researcher attempted to focus attention to the different participants’
Wellness Wheels, the banter between the group members escalated. One participant, after
ascertaining that the individuals’ Wellness Wheels were reported anonymously, claimed
ownership of the Wellness Wheel which declined response to the section titled Wellness
and Sexuality. Much teasing and laughter ensued. Two participants posed questions about
the meanings of the various dimensions as they tried to understand the results, and other
participants injected humorous retorts. Soon the group moved on to other topics, despite
the researcher’s attempt to re-focus on the instrument results.
The researcher acknowledges failure to adequately utilize the instrument results in
the focus group meeting. She attributes this shortcoming to multiple factors, including too
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great a time elapsing from the participants’ completion of the instrument in late October
and early November, 2004, to the delivery of the results at the focus group convened in
March, 2005. After that five month period, participants were no longer familiar with the
instrument, and inadequate time was allocated to refreshing their memories in the group
session. In addition, the Wellness Wheels did not reproduce well using conventional
xerography and thus may have been too difficult to decipher. The researcher notes that
future research efforts will require better timeline planning and adherence, plus improved
preparation for convening a focus group session.
One more consideration about the diminished attention to the Wellness Inventory,
3rd Ed. results was the fact that these data were highly personal and specific. Perhaps the
group members were uncomfortable dealing with such personal information, and more
content to discuss theories, creative examples, and personal passions. The researcher’s
speculation was fueled by the fact that presentation of the next scheduled question
brought immediate focus and active discussion from the group members.
4. What new understandings come to you regarding the meaning and value of physical,
mental and spiritual health?
Group members responded with stories of personal experience with
complementary/alternative systems of healing and their intersections with allopathic
practice:
When I lived and worked on the Navajo Indian reservation the
public health people were actually very conscious of just that. They knew
and they actually had … a great relationship with the traditional shaman,
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the medicine men of the Navajos. And they both knew when to send a
patient to the other one. The medicine men knew when the thing was
something that could be better taken care of … in a hospital with using
antibiotics … and the doctors had come to realize when certain things
were because of psychosomatic causes … and they sent them right to the
tribal healers (Participant T, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
This story was followed by Participant Z, who endorsed a 20-year history of using
homeopathy, described as neither psychological in basis nor arising from germ theory.
Participant Y, who actively listened but rarely spoke during the group interview, offered
these words based on personal experience working in the health care field:
I have seen that model [of homeopathy] work, where you’re
encouraging them to work on a problem … on all fronts.… One patient in
particular [treated] for anxiety and she’s on just a microdose of BuSpar [a
medication used to treat anxiety] and doing just great, but she doesn’t
want to go off it. She probably could but she doesn’t want to…. What we
know about physiology tells me that it shouldn’t be doing anything for her
at that dose, but she’s doing well (Personal Communication, March 22,
2005).
As indicated above, this group of voluntary simplicity practitioners had a high
degree of comfort with seeking complementary/alternative treatment modalities for
health issues. One participant, who was particularly frustrated with allopathy, cited a
local health maintenance organization (HMO) which was well-known for its health
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promotion emphasis. That HMO supported clever media advertising encouraging people
to exercise more, but fell short of addressing the whole person, in this person’s opinion:
“I’m part of their organization let’s say, and they are talking about exercise, the amount
of sleep and so on, and they rarely get to any of the mental, emotional things” (Participant
U, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005). Participant Z offered, “I see what you
mean. We’re not measuring the joie de vivre or energy or feelings of kindness or caring
or … We’re just saying how many prescriptions, how many…” (Personal
Communication, March 22, 2005).
The senior member of the group complained about pejorative assessment
measures in allopathic health care. For example, an experience of memory testing in
which the subject could not remember five nouns became an extremely stressful
situation, and the stress itself decreased short term memory recall. When it was suggested
in that testing situation that the subject had mild Alzheimer Disease, the participant felt
diminished, felt that the testing did not consider other personal attributes such as
intelligence, creativity, emotional integration, and ability to use these assets in problem
solving on small, local, and global scales.
The group agreed in their belief that health was far greater than our current
understandings could define, and new research methods were needed to measure
intangible factors such as joie de vivre or the extent to which “being in a supportive
community, having friendships and relationships is even more important than lifestyle per
se” (Participant T, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005). One obstacle is this:
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Technologies are not going to be able to measure this…. When we
actually measure health we have to measure it this other way; otherwise
nobody’s gonna pay any attention to us. But if you say these people have
not had any prescriptions in the last 20 years … that’s the only language at
this point. And then you can make the other connections” (Participant X,
Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
5. How might this information be used to positively influence the broader
community?
Guilt and fear were cited as commonly used, effective weapons for marketing
goods and services, and for maintaining societal control by our predominant political
system:
You realize things about your feelings about money and what it’s
done to you and your approach. And we really want to be free of the
anxiety about money. They’re really trying to make us … there are these
ads on TV about old people right now.… I just started getting Social
Security and I’m signing up for my retirement, but it’s so hard to figure
things out! If you see those ads on TV, they make you really afraid of
being old. You know, the woman is sitting there and the guy is the
monkey; he comes over and gives her some money because that’s her dead
husband, who is now a monkey grinder, and he says, I’ll bring you some
more money tomorrow. Come back to the bench. Or, the other one when a
couple is sitting on the couch like this [positions self in rigid, upright
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posture] and then the people, the hosts, who live there, are standing behind
them, and they’re going like this [shakes and jiggles the person sitting
adjacent] to the people to get the money to fall out of their pockets, and
then the people get up and leave and they get all the money. It’s all
directed at getting old—are you gonna have what you need? It’s horrible
… (Participant unidentified for the sake of confidentiality, Personal
Communication, March 22, 2005).
The group discussed the power of the media to incite fear or raise questions,
sometimes inadvertently advancing the cause of the voluntary simplicity movement:
Has anybody seen these new commercials that are on [TV] … that
Disney Orlando is putting out? They’re really quite amazing. The first one
is, the guy comes on and he’s all dressed up in a business suit and he says
On behalf of America I want to thank you Americans.… Corporate
America, I’d like to thank all of you for working late at night, working
through your weekends, never seeing your families, and all this stuff. And
thank you very much for remembering that your time is our money.
[Someone] goes to him and says, I want my Vacation.com which is a
Disney website.
Then the second one is, a guy comes on [with] a doctor’s kit and it
says Rx on it. He says, On behalf of the pharmaceutical industry, I’d like
to thank you Americans for stressing yourself out in the workplace and
everything, and because of you our profits have gone through the roof.
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And then he says, Remember: just keep doing what you’re doing and we’ll
make a pill to make [it go away]. And then the third one is these guys …
they’re in front of a funeral home, and there’s a casket in the background,
and the undertaker is saying, On behalf of the undertakers of America,
we’d like to thank you Americans for showing that you have what it takes
to work yourself into the ground. And while you’re working yourselves to
death, remember we’ll be there for you.
It’s about … planning for your vacation time and stuff, but it’s …
really about making a statement about our misplaced priorities. It also
reflects that people are really feeling this way, because they don’t … make
these kind of hugely expensive ads without an awful lot of focus group
stuff telling them that … there’s gonna be a response to it (Participant T,
Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
Participant T went on to say that the Take Back Your Time campaign staff was
receiving a lot of praise for these ads which many simplifiers erroneously believed were
produced in conjunction with that campaign.
Balancing Lives While Working for Change
Next participants talked about their various passions and the need to balance their
activism with their other interests, lest they exhaust their energies and neglect their own
health and wellbeing. They joked about getting their lives out of balance while exhorting
others to balance their lives with simplicity. One person reminded the group that change
takes time, to which one participant took strong exception: “I’ve always objected to
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people … saying it’s gonna take a long time because if we believe that, it will take a long
time. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy” (Participant U, Personal Communication, March 22,
2005).
Promote Hope, Not Fear
In the final thread of this group meeting, the focus group participants shifted their
attention to the most recent manifestation of an energy crisis, with gasoline prices nearing
$3.00 per gallon. Participant U observed, “Having read the newsletter about the oil
disappearing and our power sources, at least predicting from 5-10 years we’ll be out of
oil,” to which another participant countered:
Yeah, but how many times have people predicted all these things?
I have to say I really get very tired of that stuff because I think it just sets
us up. And the more we cry wolf! and the more the wolf doesn’t come to
the door, the result of years and years of us crying wolf is that the
environmental movement is in worse shape than ever. People no longer
believe it…. We don’t have credibility `cause we’ve been saying the
Earth’s gonna fall apart all the time and it doesn’t happen…. We’re
always predicting that calamity is around the bend and … Well, in the `60s
I remember that you were gonna have mass starvation everywhere.…
(Participant T, Personal Communication, March 22, 2005).
The discussion ended with consensus from the group about the need for
presenting positive alternatives in order to encourage change, rather than scaring people
with visions of calamities. Group members concurred with statements of disdain for the
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political forces and media which exert power and control over the populace by indulging
people’s fears. The group reiterated Participant X’s slogan, “Feed your hopes, not your
fears.”
As the meeting broke up, the participants demonstrated their implementation of
the values they voiced. One requested to take home the leftovers from our lunch so that
the food would not go to waste and so that participant could avoid cooking for several
days. Another packaged the detritus for the researcher to sort and recycle later. All were
polled about their next destinations, and carpools were arranged so that those who had
arrived on public transportation could get where they needed to go, in a timely manner.
Summary of Focus Group Meeting
Five of the seven participants met with the researcher for a lunchtime focus group
interview on March 22, 2005. Each participant received a packet of information which
included his/her original Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988), copies of all the
participants’ Wellness Wheels, and a PowerPoint handout containing the researcher’s
preliminary findings from the demographic survey and the individual interviews, as well
as the schedule of focus group interview questions. The researcher delivered an oral
summary of the preliminary findings and asked the focus group interview questions in
order. At the end of the 1.5 hour gathering, the group dispersed via shared transportation.
The focus group reviewed and refined the data from the individual interviews.
They added humor, generosity, and optimism to the list of essential elements of voluntary
simplicity. They rejected frugality which they perceived as anal retentive and endorsed a
looseness or opposite-of-fundamentalism in accounting and ideologies. Health and
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wellness, and dedication to passionate causes, needed to include self-care, balance, and
focus on “quality of life rather than standard of living” (Participant U, Personal
Communication, March 22, 2005). Researching health and wellness was perceived to be
complicated by difficulty in measuring important intangibles such as quality of
relationships, joie de vivre, soul satisfaction, and commitment to social change.
Participants conceded that current conventional techniques were the means by which
these factors could eventually be credibly evaluated in terms that broader society could
appreciate. Also, it was noted that health promotion education and efforts seemed to
target activities, such as physical exertion, which in the past were commonplace and
unremarkable. Participants spoke excitedly about those visionaries who found ways to
use exercise activities to generate power for processes which now consume electricity or
fossil fuel, and praised such projects for their contributions to ecological health.
In identifying ways that persons allied with the voluntary simplicity movement
could exercise leadership in their communities, participants stated that community
service needed to include charity as well as work for social change. Educating the public
about issues of concern to simplifiers needed careful planning to present positive
alternatives to the status quo, rather than risking loss of credibility by utilizing scare
tactics, dire predictions, and playing on fears about security.
In the next section, the data from all of the inquiry modes will be integrated in
addressing the research questions and implications of the study.
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The Research Questions
The main question to be addressed in this study was, What does the practice of
voluntary simplicity mean for the health and well-being of an individual within his/her
community? While the answer to this main question will be discussed in the Chapter 5
analysis, data supporting those conclusions will be reported here under the headers of the
following sub-questions.
Question One: What are the essential understandings of voluntary simplicity as described
by participants who practice voluntary simplicity?
Six intertwining themes emerged as essentials mentioned by every participant:
mindful living; wise use of resources; interdependence between humans, the
environment, and non-human beings; generosity; decision for happiness and optimism;
and humor. None of these six themes accorded dominance over the others.
Theme One: Mindful Living. Participants expressed their willingness to live their
lives in ways that go against the grain of mainstream America. They embraced many
views alternative to dominant American culture and found themselves asking different
questions than those posed by their peers outside of the VS community. They also
demonstrated high degrees of achievement in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Several participants commented that voluntary simplicity has complicated their
lives in that increased awareness about broad implications of lifestyle choices has led
them away from quick decisions based on superficialities. Now they found themselves
questioning what may have seemed obvious, refusing to accept the status quo, and
reasoning through a series of issues before deciding on appropriate action. Considering
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local, national, and global impacts of choices was a recurrent theme in participants’
decision making processes.
One family who valued public transportation and bicycling struggled to make
transportation choices which would support a member with exceptional needs without
polluting unnecessarily. They decided to use the car to transport that person, for the sake
of that family member as well as the bus riders who would potentially be adversely
affected by behavioral outbursts (outbursts which would have polluted the bus riders’
transportation experiences). Similarly, one family preferred bulk purchases at a local food
cooperative in order to avoid wasteful commercial food packaging, but they made
exceptions to entice a constitutionally finicky person to eat a broader range of foods.
One retired person experiencing an unplanned need for more money sought work
which provided modest income, intrinsic value, and flexibility, plus served unmet needs
in the community. Work was chosen that assisted fragile and elderly persons to stay in
their homes rather than move to institutions. It satisfied the participant’s, and the
community’s, needs on many levels. That participant expounded further:
You have to be able to look at yourself and really understand who
you are. In other words, instead of trying to fit yourself into a certain
image or what you think you should do…. That's a thing that I have done
for a long time and finally figured out that what I was trying to do with my
life was probably not the best thing for me. I was doing things that I had
been told would make me happy, and they didn't. You know, having a
good job in the corporate world, earning a certain amount of money, travel
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… all of that stuff. It still didn't do that, didn't make me happy.... It's the
going against the grain thing…. You have to be willing to realize things
about yourself.… It's self discovery!… It's a more introspective, interior
sort of life which is very different than a mediated life where you live
vicariously through the media, watching sports rather than doing things
yourself, or reading the fan magazines to see what the stars are up to rather
than having friends of your own.… I think it was Thoreau or somebody
said the unexamined life is not worth living (Participant W, personal
communication, October 18, 2004).
Another participant spoke eloquently about mindfulness:
To me the core of simplicity is the act of reflecting and then acting
and then going back to reflecting. It's a conscious choice. It's the art of
discerning what's important, what matters, stripping away the stuff that's
not important. So, to me, it's always that act of contemplation. Now, what
people are gonna usually contemplate is, how am I spending my money?
And, in this case, you're thinking of the well-being of people on the planet,
so you bring those together. So you're very conscious about the way you're
spending your money in terms of sustainability for people on the planet.
And it's trying to slow down. But right now the core of it for me is—I
don't think that we can live simply unless we somehow are creating
community (Participant Z, personal communication, October 25, 2004).
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One participant gave a simple but powerful, one-sentence response to the
essentials question: Live simply so that others may simply live (Participant U, personal
communication, October 11, 2004). Yet another participant put it this way:
I thought, first of all, the recognition that everyone is connected
and that everything you do affects everyone else in some way … not just
people but the planet in general. So that is essential, that recognition. And
then a value system that is not rooted in consumerism, where what is most
important is relationships with people. And that consuming is a tool but
it's not the end in itself, and not an attachment. I think that my identity is
not bound up in what I look like or what I own but more my character and
other people's too.… And then the idea of living conscientiously, like
really giving thought to why am I buying this? What that would mean in
my life and how I use my time? I think every aspect of my life, doing it
conscientiously (Participant V, personal communication, October 18,
2004).
Theme Two: Wise Use of Resources. While participants universally voiced a
waste not, want not perspective, their responses centered on three particular areas of
resources: time, consumer goods, and money. Several talked about consuming less to live
more and exploring the concept of enoughness. They were careful to differentiate
between their needs and wants. This is how one verbalized these issues:
At the very core is … trying not to take up more of the earth's
resources than we need, just taking your share and no more. But then around
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that have been other ideas like having a livelihood that is meaningful to you
and that allows you to serve other people and … that doesn't result in your
accumulating a lot more money or things than you really need…. Another
important aspect of it to me is just making wise use of resources. Not wasting
stuff, not wasting energy, reusing old things, because we just can't go on
filling up our landfills with plastic and basically soiling our habitat. And
related to that is the idea of sustainability, having a lifestyle that doesn't
consume more resources than can be replaced in a reasonable amount of time
(Participant Y, personal communication, October 19, 2004).
Time. Every participant mentioned wise use of time as a voluntary simplicity
essential. Four key issues formed a constellation of time considerations. These included
time to develop and nurture family life and other important relationships, time for health
maintenance and renewal, time for contemplation (to enable oneself to ask the
appropriate questions about whatever issues arise), and time for activism and
volunteering. Several participants explicitly voiced their beliefs that their ability to direct
their own time equated to freedom. One participant, who devoted a great deal of energy
to raising public consciousness about time-related choices, said this:
I just think that the big sacrifice that Americans are giving up in a
consumer lifestyle in this country is time. We are pressing ourselves to the
absolute limits with work and sped up, busy, hurried lives, and we are
suffering from that in health because we really don't have the time to
exercise, to eat properly, even to sleep in many cases. Because we're so
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busy, we're working so much. We suffer from it in family life because …
time with the family is the most significant family value without which all
of the other family values don't mean a whole lot. If you don't have time
for the family, then the rest of it is a moot point. Community,
volunteerism, all of those things require time. Time for spirituality is
absolutely essential, or at least whether we call it religion, spirituality,
whatever … but the idea that there is some meaning larger than ourselves.
Civic life, political life, the environment—being a steward of the
environment is all about having the time!—the time to recycle, the time
not to use the throwaways, the time not to go always for the convenient
product. So, to me simplicity is time above all other things, and the good
life is about having time to do what is important.
I feel for many, many Americans there is no choice. They are
forced to work the kinds of hours that they work or if they want a job at
all, if they want to keep their health care. Or, they just do it unconsciously
because they're caught up in this lifestyle of consuming all this stuff, of
getting in debt and needing to work overtime to pay off the debt. This is
the big deal. In four letters, simplicity is time! And that's the most essential
thing to me. That's what freedom is … freedom is time … it's the one
thing that … you have a certain amount of, and if you use it and consume
it and put it into all the wrong things, you miss life (Participant T, personal
communication, October 4, 2004).
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Practicing voluntary simplicity and reducing work and other external time
demands afforded all participants greater time for developing relationships. Child rearing,
elder care, and extended family involvement were among the counter-cultural time values
repeatedly discussed by study participants. Some participants limited or eliminated
television watching in their homes because of its propensity to absorb all available free
time at the expense of the relationships which are most valuable.
Consumer Goods. Study participants demonstrated great creativity in averting
unnecessary purchases. Their repertoires included apparel shopping at garage sales and
thrift stores, growing their own foods, recycling, reusing, and repairing existing
possessions. When purchases were necessary, participants researched, bartered, and
negotiated to obtain the best possible value. Many commented that sustainability,
durability, and reason (rather than frugality) were the keys to good value. Thus a costlier
item could be a greater value than its cheaper counterpart. Also, one’s luxury item could
be another’s essential. One participant frequently packed homemade lunches while
reserving cash to host occasional lunches out with friends; that participant valued soulsatisfying meal-sharing relationships more than frugality.
Money. Study participants regarded money as a tool, a means to an end, rather
than an end in itself. Differentiating between must-haves and nice-to-haves allowed
simplifiers to determine income level sufficient for needs. They used money to facilitate
achieving goals in a manner congruent with values. One stated:
We started to realize things that [had seemed] important weren’t
important. And it’s also important to understand that this is not
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deprivation. It’s not poverty derivation…. If you do this right, the things
that aren’t important to you fall away by themselves. You just stop
spending money on them, or you get rid of those things. If they’re really
important to you, then you keep them in your life, and that becomes part
of what in your life terms they call the concept of enough (Participant W,
Personal Communication, October 18, 2004).
Following many years of debt-free living, one participant encountered
some difficult life circumstances which led to significant indebtedness. After
addressing fears about security, the experience of owing money led to important,
conscious and conscientious decisions regarding values and priorities, which
reinforced deep personal beliefs about social justice and solidarity with the poor:
We live very well off, actually, just by fact of [owning] the house,
considering we’re used to visiting people in jail who have very little, and
have very little potential, very little hope. I feel like we’re actually pretty
rich. The fact that we can make choices about organic food. It’s a luxury
to be able to spend time thinking about the political system…. It’s a luxury
to be able to even think about VS as a middle-class person…. It’s also
about your personal power in terms of … the ability to do, to get things
done on your behalf. So, even if I had a very simple place I would still feel
like I have a lot of personal power (Participant V, Personal
Communication, October 18, 2004.
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Theme Three: Interdependence Between Humans, Environment, and NonHumans. Participants repeatedly spoke of powerful connections that sustained their
energies and satisfied deep needs. Collectively they believed that everything was
connected to, and depended upon, everything else. The notion of interdependence was
expressed through attention to the topics of right livelihood, solidarity with the poor, and
feeling connected to concentric circles of relationships:
I think you have to be willing to make mistakes. And, because
everything is so mediated, we have standards: if you can’t sing like Celine
Dion, you shouldn’t be out there singing. If you can’t play football like—
pick whoever is playing football, I have no clue—but, if you can’t do it
like that, you feel what’s the use? Why should I do that? And there’s so
much satisfaction in doing things yourself that … one of the major things
I’ve gotten out of VS is not only the satisfaction but the knowledge that I
can do a lot of things that I never thought of either doing or that I could
do.… I’ve been running a chipper-spreader lately.… I’ve learned how to
knit. It’s very empowering to be able to make a pair of socks. I know if it
comes down to it I can make some socks. And knowing how to cook…
I’ve always known how to cook, but experimenting with that, canning,
growing my own food. I’ve learned to garden…. It’s a paradox … on the
one hand, you become more self sufficient, but on the other hand, you
reach out to other people as well (Participant W, Personal Communication,
October 18, 2004).
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Right Livelihood. Several participants had retired from professional and
demanding careers; in some cases these careers remodeled into new, nontraditional
pathways. From meteorology to health care reform, from military transportation support
to public health work, from communications executive to handyperson, from academic
program planner to community organizer, the journey into simplification required
stepping outside the norms of middle class American society and questioning all aspects
of what and why: What am I doing here? Who is it serving? What would I rather be
doing instead? Do I really need to work so many hours or in such a setting? What else
could I do? How could I make it happen?
Solidarity with the Poor. Participants’ exposures to disadvantaged persons and
foreign cultures increased their abilities to extrapolate issues challenging the poor and
marginalized all around the world. Whereas many middle-class Americans may not even
notice poor or homeless persons, Simple Wellness Study participants noticed and took
action. One couple purchased a house bigger than their nuclear family needed in order to
participate in the Bed Line, an underground conduit for temporary shelter. Their guests’
stays ranged from overnighters to a two-year residency. One participant had taught in an
impoverished tight-knit ethnic community and contrasted the engagement of the pupils
and their delight over simple Christmas gifts against the boredom of siblings back home
and their Is that all there is? attitudes toward holidays:
I was teaching at a Navajo Indian boarding school in New Mexico,
English as a second language, to 10 year olds who were the same age as
my brother back home in the suburbs. And these kids, the poorest kids in
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America, their families made less than $1,000 a year which … even then
was very little money. And school had very little for them, but these kids
never told me they were bored. They always made up games and things.
They always had something to do. They were incredibly well adjusted kids
at that age. Later they dealt with racism, the poverty situation, alcoholism,
other things, and things changed, but at the age of 10 these were
remarkably well adjusted kids, happy kids. I went back home at Christmas
time, saw my brother with all his … presents piled under the tree which he
opened quickly and said, wow that’s cool! and put aside. There was like a
mountain of things … he had a TV in his room by that time. I was raised
differently, but in that intervening period of time—I was 13 years older
than my brother—my parents changed their child-rearing practices. And a
couple of days later his friends were with him in his room and the toys
were all piled in the corner and they were all saying, Oh God, we’re so
bored, we have nothing to do. And it was very clear to me then, and I
knew it before, that possessions can actually get in the way of the good
life (Participant T, personal communication, October 4, 2004).
Coffee-loving participants avoided indulging unless they were certain their java
was shade-grown by farmers who earned living wages as the fruits of their labor. They
supported Real Change, a local publication written by homeless persons to raise
consciousness about their issues and raise money for housing.
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Feeling Connected. Study participants belonged to multiple levels of
communities. They were involved with their relatives and enjoyed lengthy visits with
children and grandchildren. They interacted with their geographic neighbors and
organized community building activities. They were politically astute, exercised their
rights and perceived obligations to vote, and they donated time and money to the
candidates of their choice. They worked for national and international causes such as the
Sierra Club and Take Back Your Time campaign, and they wrote for publication on the
internet, in magazines and journals, and books. In addition, they made public appearances
to speak on simplicity-related issues, produced and/or appeared in film media to educate
the public, and participated in leadership of numerous organizations directly and
tangentially related to simplicity. One participant discussed an expansion of relationships
as a result of adopting VS and grounding life in the local community:
Another benefit of the VS group was that it … connected us with a
community of people that were directly involved with VS, but through that
we ended up becoming more involved in other aspects of our community
too and now we have people that we can go to if we have need of … last
week [we] borrowed a shredder for [the] garden to shred up stuff from one
of the people that was in the original VS group. I loan my extension ladder
out as a community ladder in the neighborhood.
You know, everybody doesn't have to own all this stuff. If you
begin to share, you not only reduce your expenses, but you also create
friendships and link with people in a different way which is much harder
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to do, I think, in society in general, and particularly when you live in a city
where people tend to drive their cars into the garage at night and you don't
see them out there. Walking the dog, for example, I've met so many
people that live right here in our neighborhood because I'm out there
walking around and people stop and talk. Having a garden in our front
yard, the same thing. We're out there working in our garden, people walk
by and ask us questions, well, what's that growing in this particular bed?
And so it's really extended outward just because we got involved with VS
years ago (Participant X, personal communication, October 18, 2004).
Theme Four: Generosity. Study participants’ histories graphically
demonstrated their strong value for giving of themselves. Lengthy experiences of
intercultural volunteer service, organizing and promoting community-based
education and service programs, plus spending time, energy, and money to
prepare for less lucrative but more satisfying careers in human services were
among the participants’ stories of personal passions. Two participants opened
their homes to shelter homeless individuals; two persons adopted a child to
expand their family without contributing to overpopulation.
One hundred percent of the participants were involved in volunteer work
at the time of the study; this percentage was more than double the 44% national
volunteerism rate reported by Independent Sector (1991, 1995). Additionally,
participants donated money to support causes such as environmental issues,
domestic violence prevention, health care, and social justice.
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Participants voiced their beliefs that true voluntary simplicity required
charity and work for social change. They exemplified generosity of time, talent,
and thought processes in their considerations of sustainability issues, local and
global social justice concerns, and organizing projects to educate the public about
issues of which many Americans are unaware.
In their willingness to participate in the research activities, these seven
individuals displayed other aspects of generosity. Each was willing to make
him/herself available for several hours of interaction, plus perform paperwork for
one to two hours, and share her/his personal stories. Both explicitly and
implicitly, they conveyed their values for supporting education at academic,
community-based, and societal levels.
Theme Five: Decision for Happiness and Optimism. Participants expressed hope
even as they discussed issues which the mainstream would readily describe as depressing.
Simplifiers offered creative solutions to societal problems and committed themselves to
exemplify in their own lives the feasibility of starting with small changes to create large
successes. The very fact of their simple lifestyles conveyed their optimism: they
obviously believed that societal-level change was possible. Their work for peace/antiwar
causes demonstrated belief that annihilation could be averted. Activities for
environmental preservation expressed hope that the planet could sustain a worthwhile
habitat for humankind and other life forms. Work for social and economic justice
alleviated burdens and raised consciousness of others in their families, neighborhoods,
and broader communities. These participants, and many of their comrades in the VS
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movement, demonstrated their prophetic roles in our culture. The researcher found it
quite refreshing to experience such positive self-fulfilling prophecies in the many venues
represented by the study participants.
Theme Six: Humor. Participants strongly endorsed humor and laughter as means
of maintaining and improving health and quality of life for themselves and others, on
scales ranging from local to global. One participant professed deep respect for Quaker
philosophy but declined to become a member of that denomination because of
experiencing Quakers as humorless. Another person, a Certified Laughter Leader who
devoted much time and energy to helping people laugh for their health, talked about
denigrating humor which dominates our culture’s jokes with racism, sexism, ageism, and
other better-than-thou-isms. The Laughter Leader added that what appeals to one may
appall another.
The focus group quickly acknowledged consensus on humor’s vital importance to
living simply. An educator spoke of attraction as a major issue in the voluntary simplicity
movement—that if people do not laugh together and enjoy themselves, others are
unlikely to want to join them. If others do not feel attracted to VS and simplify their lives,
the planet will suffer from our [Americans’] excesses and the ecological destruction will
be exacerbated by other cultures’ emulation of Americans’ consumption levels.
While the researcher observed that participants’ humor was politically correct in
their behaviors and discussions, it was also self-deprecating and sophisticated. While
their interactions with the researcher and each other contained descriptions of very
serious issues, participants seemed inclined to be neither cynical nor self-important about
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these topics. They razzed each other with obvious affection while conveying deep respect
for the passions and convictions which drew their comrades’ time and energies.
2. What is the internal experience that leads to lifestyle change in embracing
voluntary simplicity?
In responding to questions about their identification with voluntary simplicity,
participants told stories of transformational experiences and the influence of VS writers
as well as leaders recognized by broader American society. For about half of the
participants, the first encounter with the term voluntary simplicity put a name on the
lifestyle which the participant was already living. For the others, voluntary simplicity was
a pathway they deliberately investigated to resolve problems or achieve specific goals:
I don’t know if that’s necessarily part of VS, but I think that most
people who adopt a simpler lifestyle also ended up living more frugally,
because they realize that they don’t need to spend a lot of money that they
thought they did before, just by this self-examination process that we’ve
alluded to. And so it does end up making things last or wearing them out
or using them up. Those kinds of slogans—even on the side of a recycling
truck that went by today, it says Reduce, Reuse and Recycle—and we take
that to heart. We try to do all those things, not only for our own benefit but
for the benefit of the greater society and the planet. We do know people
who have sort of done the simplicity thing pretty much for their own
benefit and have really stopped at that point. They either don’t get it or
don’t want to take that next step into the sustainability environmental
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thing. And that’s fine! They’re most likely not consuming as much stuff
just because they’re living simpler anyway….
And then there’s a spiritual aspect to this too that we really never
considered at the very beginning when we started it…. we’ve come to
realize that all the spiritual traditions on earth really talk about helping
others, living lightly on the planet and not consuming [stuff or] being
greedy (Participant W, Personal Communication, October 18, 2004).
One participant was led into lifestyle change through participating in a Simplicity
Circle, a community-based learning group inspired by local author Cecile Andrews and
described in her volume, Circle of Simplicity: Return to the Good Life (1997).
Nearly all of the study participants spoke of transformation through intercultural
experiences. For some, this involved international work in their chosen professions, while
others entered minority cultures in America. One person was involved in a stateside
Peace-Corps-like volunteer opportunity in the Deep South through the American Friends
Service Committee (Quakers). Another taught on an Indian reservation in the Southwest.
Yet another allied with minority students during college and enjoyed being warmly
received in their homes and families; these families demonstrated wealth in relationships
despite fiscal poverty. The Catholic Worker Movement attracted and led two participants
into greater awareness of the issues faced by the poor and disenfranchised, resulting in
decades-long work for peace and justice. The peace movement of the 1960s and 1970s
raised consciousness about America’s impact on other nations in the Vietnam war and the
spread of capitalism. Four participants, describing themselves as having been peaceniks
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or peace activists in their youth, opposed the current Republican administration and
American occupation of Iraq. These four also expressed anger over wealthy nations’
policies which prolong rather than resolve the suffering of the poor and under-class.
A number of participants discussed frugality as practiced of necessity by their
families of origin. Their youthful experiences ranged from depression-era farming in the
Midwest to post-World-War II urban upbringing by a young widowed mother in the days
before women commonly earned wages sufficient to support their families.
Religious teachings also guided the development of values in most of the
participants. One participant who was not adherent to any particular denomination
adopted a practice of sabbath observation in order to afford time dedicated to
contemplation of being in the world and connected to other beings. Another participant
addressed the issue of starting to look at the world in a different way when beginning the
VS journey:
Sometimes there's a perception that … it's an overnight thing, that
you wake up and you say okay, from now on everything is gonna be
simple. It became a whole way of thinking for us … changing the way we
thought about things, and looking more at things in their entirety and how
they were connected with other things, rather than just trying to slap a
band-aid on something…. It's a way of problem-solving. In other words, if
you have a need and you're used to just spending money to solve or meet
that need … it's fairly simple in our culture because … there's mega-stores
for every need out there. But if you're trying to be a little bit more creative
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and maybe not spend money, you have to be creative…. It was like putting
on a different pair of glasses and looking at things in a different way
(Participant V, personal communication, October 18, 2004).
A question about beginning the practice of simplicity elicited chuckles from many
of the participants who claimed they could not cite a point at which they decided to
simplify their lives. Rather, they said that when they heard of voluntary simplicity, they
found the term described the lifestyles they were already living. Their life choices
evolved from their formative experiences, and the experiences most often described were
intercultural, as mentioned above. One participant backed into voluntary simplicity as the
concept which identified what was already embraced:
I never started. I never changed anything. I always lived that way.
I never became a consumer. I was never interested in it so there wasn't any
conscious thing of saying, I'm gonna live simply. There was a conscious
thing long before that of saying, I value my time more than money, that I
just … wouldn't in any way want to be trapped in this kind of thing. So I
didn't go through that process of suddenly saying, I want to do voluntary
simplicity.… I also, far less than many other people, see this as a personal
thing. I see this as very much a political thing (Participant T, personal
communication, October 4, 2004).
Several participants described encountering a series of decisions to change
careers, reduce work hours, or otherwise opt out of the corporate mainstream. One took
early retirement after realizing that corporate life could not fill a heartfelt emptiness;
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recent financial needs have led to part-time self-employment which provided satisfaction
in rendering needed services in the local community. One earned a doctoral degree and
then discovered that the typical academic career path ran counter to the heart’s desire.
Many participants cited formal education as a factor in their simplicity journeys.
One returned to school to retool for a new career more aligned with personal values; the
family was able to adjust to diminished income because of their already-strong
identification with simplicity. Exploring financial planning for graduate school led
another to voluntary simplicity as the vehicle by which that goal became reality:
I was in grad school…. I had been in the corporate world and
fortunately we didn't have a lot of debt. We actually had saved some
money, but we were starting to question [ideas about the good life]…. It's
a process. You just learn more and more as you go along…. We started
with a very narrow focus of our own financial situation and it just
expanded all the way out from the environment to spiritual, including
mental health, physical health, and other things (Participant X, personal
communication, October 18, 2004).
One resounding recurrent theme in the path to simplicity was the questioning of
the usual and conventional. This was evident in the options exercised for leaving the
workplace:
I think everything was gradual…. A lot of people would probably
think [I was] not living simply but it was, for me, the whole possessions
part was irrelevant. For me it's been an issue of time. And so, quitting my
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full-time job … gave me a lot of time. And the other thing we did so that
we could afford to do this … we rent out a top apartment upstairs and a
bottom apartment downstairs. I would have never done that before
because I know I would have thought people would think, oh God, what's
the matter with them? Can't they afford…? It's like this shame that you
don't earn enough money, but it doesn't matter now. People just see it as
oh, wow they're doing something different. But I wouldn't have done it if I
wouldn't have seen other people in the simplicity movement do it…. I
would never have thought of it…. Simplicity had given me a different way
of viewing things (Participant Z, personal communication, October 25,
2004).
Many of the study participants contrasted frugality with simple living’s rejection
of consumerism in favor of a different set of values. One explained it as follows:
In Julia Schor’s book The Overspent American (1998), she talks
about the difference between down-shifters and value-shifters, and she
talks about people that are willing to go so far with this idea of simplifying
and reducing litter, downshifting their lives, but … they get to a certain
point where they would have to really go against the grain of the matrix
society and they don’t go beyond that. Then she talks about value shifters,
the people who really take that next step and say, Oh, wait a minute! I
don’t have to follow that. I can live my own life and live a very fulfilling
and meaningful life without all that stuff, without all that unimportant stuff
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and live a different kind of life. And it costs less, it’s better for the
environment, it’s better for your health…. Somehow we made that leap
and it’s been integrated into our daily lives in such a way that we don’t
think about. How did I ever live like that? (Participant W, personal
communication, October 18, 2004).
Participants also attempted to articulate their journeys away from culturallyprescribed superficialities toward greater authenticity:
What VS has done for me in a sense, is just step into my life and
become an active participant in it rather than seeing a picture out there that
I’m trying to emulate…. If you look at it from that respect, it’s not what
you’re shedding or getting rid of or giving up, it’s what you’re adding to
your life, what you’re enriching your life with (Participant V, personal
communication, October 18, 2004).
In this questioning of the status quo, study participants demonstrated ego
strength or ability to maintain their own integrity and resilience (Edgerton, 1994)
when making choices contrary to popular norm. During the process of stepping
outside the mainstream and the workplace, other broad tenets of American
society, such as consumerism, were considered and reconsidered:
[T]here has to be a willingness to go against the grain of
mainstream society because it's just not the way that most people are
living. I used to tell people you have to steel yourself in a certain way to
say no. I'm just not willing to buy into a lot of this stuff that's coming at me
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every day, that says I am what it says on my business title on my business
card, or I am what I own, or where I live, or what kind of car I drive, and
all those kinds of sort of status related symbols that come to us…. You
have to be able to shield yourself from that stuff that's coming at you
(Participant W, personal communication, October 18, 2004).
3. When people begin to practice voluntary simplicity, what do they hope to gain by it?
The question of self-interest was not in the universe of consideration for many
participants. A few acknowledged their lifestyle changes were partially motivated by
desire to reduce stress, but more convincingly they spoke of being led on a path of the
right thing to do in response to life events and consciousness raising. Learning more
about themselves in relation to human suffering led to greater sharing of family
resources, activism to protest militarism and to advocate justice, volunteering to help
incarcerated and homeless individuals, and providing education in both informal and
formal venues regarding out-of-the mainstream lifestyle options.
Here are the words of one of those who puzzled at this question about
expectations:
What did I hope to gain? … I don't know if that was the way I
would raise the question. I think it was just what I'd hoped to do was live
out my values … in a way first I could pass on to my children. That was
important. Maybe not in the very beginning, because I didn't [yet] have
children, but ultimately that was really important. And to live … in a way
that was congruous to my values, for integrity, [to] walk my talk. Cause I
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never looked at it like oh, I'm gonna be happy if I do that or I'm gonna be
maybe at peace if I do this. My goal wasn't necessarily to be happy, but I
felt like to live in this world with integrity that I needed to be
conscientious about everything I did and at least examine it and know why
I'm doing it. And a lot of it connects to my faith…. This is being a good
Christian from my perspective (Participant V, personal communication,
October 18, 2004).
And another participant expressed this need for congruence with internal value
systems:
I was really becoming concerned about … the problem of
homelessness itself. I hadn't ever really thought about it 'til I moved to
Seattle…. Where I grew up, we just didn't see people living on the streets.
I might just not have been aware of it `cause there was certainly a lot of
poverty where I grew up in [an eastern state], but I didn't see people on the
streets…. I came to realize that a lot of the homeless are families with
young kids. That didn't seem right! Anyway, so the Catholic Worker was
definitely a movement that explicitly espoused VS. And, I think just
having grown up in a household with very liberal politics with my parents,
I've always been aware of the unequal distribution of wealth and resources
in the world and just had never felt that that was right. So that's something
I grew up with, but it wasn't the answer. I was never presented with the
idea of VS as the answer to that problem. Choosing to forgo some material
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things so that there'd be more left over for other people. But that
perspective became clearer to me as I was peripherally involved with the
Catholic Worker (Participant Y, personal communication, October 19,
2004).
Another participant, who never planned out a goal to achieve through simplicity,
described it this way:
I was in college in the late `60s during that whole period of time….
I was part of, at least intellectually, part of the counter culture in terms of
which I already had ideas then about things like voluntary simplicity and
always combined with the idea that this is just about fairness too, and
about the world and about the environment. For me it's never been about
whether or not my personal life will be better or worse. Although I think
that it is better. But it's always been that this is just simply the right thing
to do (Participant T, personal communication, October 4, 2004).
4. How do practitioners of voluntary simplicity define physical, mental, and
spiritual health?
Participants described health in terms of balance and integrity:
I describe health as being physically … feeling well, basically, and
well enough to do the things that are important to you. Also I’d say it has
to do with one’s mental attitude. It’s easier for me to say what I think
helps make us healthy than it is for me to say this is health…. significant
exercise, consciousness and ability to do all those things, getting sufficient
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rest and that requires time. Most importantly, it’s … being in a supportive
community, of having friendships, it’s relationships (Participant T,
personal communication, October 4, 2004).
That same participant continued on to discuss health in a broader sense:
Having a passion or meaning in your life that all those kinds of
things, being connected with people, being connected with a society, those
are absolutely essential things…. The other essential thing to health in
society … the other absolutely key factor, is the degree of equality and
inequality in this society … How healthy countries are depends more on
how egalitarian they are than any other single factor…. because these
egalitarian countries have less pressure to work and consume in order to
keep up with the Joneses, to set the standard of consumption of all those
kinds of things. People work less at that kind of thing and they actually
have more time for relationships, for family life, for all of those kinds of
things (Participant T, personal communication, October 4, 2004).
Several participants spoke about the relational aspects of health, including
Participant Y:
[Wellness] goes beyond just physical health or even mental or
spiritual health…. [it is] the capacity to be fully engaged with the world
around you, and taking advantage of and making use of that ability rather
than just like letting it sit unused. I don’t think one has to be in perfect
physical condition to be considered healthy from my point of view. It as
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much has to do with how one interacts with the world around them so that
you’re contributing to the world and you’re appreciating what’s there and
allowing other people to give back to you. It’s just being fully integrated
in your community (personal communication, October 19, 2004).
One participant who is particularly interested in psychoneuroimmunology
stressed the mind-body connection:
I’m sure I’ve answered this many times to myself. Feeling …
good within myself even in spite of my aches and pains. Not seeing myself
as ill when I am sleepless at night or when I have some of the symptoms
of so-called illnesses, many of which have not been healed by the medical
profession, but by my body healing itself. Being healthy is also being
happy in a deep sense (Participant U, individual interview, October 13,
2004).
Another participant described a retrospective discovery of wellness some months
after leaving the workplace:
After a couple of months of not being in the corporate world, all of
a sudden I just woke up one morning and I just realized that there was this
baggage that I just wasn't carrying around anymore and I just felt a lot
better!… It took a couple of months before I realized that this wasn't just
some long vacation I was on.… I didn't really have to worry about any of
this junk that I was carrying around with my work life. And I just felt a lot
better! (Participant W, personal communication, October 18, 2004).
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5. How do practitioners of voluntary simplicity perceive their physical, mental, and
spiritual health evolving over the course of their lifestyle changing?
The participants in the Simple Wellness Study had been practicing voluntary
simplicity for as few as five to 10 years and as long as more than 25 years. One indicated
that her/his health was about the same now as before beginning the journey. The others
indicated that despite the passage of years, they regarded their health as much better now
than before embracing voluntary simplicity.
One participant reflected on youthful indiscretions and experiences of violence to
contrast these with a more sober lifestyle today, stating that mental health and spiritual
health were especially improved as a result of psychotherapy and conscientiously trying
to integrate inward beliefs with behaviors.
Another participant, the self-described hedonist of the voluntary simplicity
movement, opined:
My health is much better because—I take time. I’m under very
little stress. I always get eight hours of sleep at night. We eat out but not
the way I used to, and I would eat out more if I were guaranteed that I
would get organic ingredients, but I can’t…. So because of the fact that I
have time to sleep, that I don’t rush, that I eliminate almost anything I
don’t like to do … if you’re happy, if you’re cheerful, I think that’s a
really important thing for your health. And it gives me time to walk. I
walk every day. It gives me time to have a social life, which I think is
important to health…. For 20 years I’ve taken no prescriptions…. So
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that’s been my focus: How do you spend your time the way you want to?
And if you’re doing that, you’re almost guaranteed to be healthier
(Participant Z, personal communication, October 25, 2004).
So the Simple Wellness Study participants voiced improved health by virtue of
having time available to eat a balanced diet, get regular exercise, enjoy relationships, and
tend to those personal and communal activities which promote wellness. Those wellness
practices included prayer, meditation, yoga, and other such disciplines, and community
involvement, especially in social justice-related activities.
6. What do practitioners of voluntary simplicity experience in community involvement
and leadership?
The last question asked at each participant’s individual interview addressed issues
of integration, or putting theory into practice. The responses ranged from individual
pursuit of passions, such as the participant who has spent years lobbying leadership of a
trendsetting local health maintenance organization (HMO) to adopt a more holistic model
of health services, to participants’ involvement in family, neighborhood, regional,
national, and even global projects addressing a multitude of concerns.
Social researchers Ray and Anderson (2000) studied these free thinkers and described
them as Cultural Creatives in a volume by that name. Their research found:
The underlying themes express serious ecological and planetary
perspectives, emphasis on relationships and women’s point of view,
commitment to spirituality and psychological development, disaffection
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with the large institutions of modern life, including both left and right in
politics, and rejection of materialism and status display.
Since the 1960s, 26 percent of the adults in the United States—50
million people—have made a comprehensive shift in their worldview,
values, and way of life—their culture, in short. These creative, optimistic
millions are at the leading edge of several kinds of cultural change, deeply
affecting not only their own lives but our larger society as well. We call
them the Cultural Creatives because, innovation by innovation, they are
shaping a new kind of American culture for the twenty-first century (p. 4).
The participants in the Simple Wellness Study, were cultural creatives whose
lifestyles reflected those innovations and values in their reframing the issues of our
society (p. 128), promoting sustainability, working to stem the tide of time poverty (p.
77), and supporting alternative health care, ecological considerations (p. 217) and social
justice (p. 221).
One participant initiated a self-designed campaign of influence. By carrying an
insulated commuter mug to church meetings, this person gradually influenced the faith
community to eschew Styrofoam cups in favor of multi-use mugs. This victory was
accomplished with little verbiage and a great deal of exemplary but subtle modeling. Said
this participant, “It's just simple things. That's what I think. People think you need to do
earth shaking things and I would say no, it's just simple things we need to do and simple
things add up” (Participant V, personal communication, October 18, 2004).
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Some participants adopted walking, bicycle riding, and use of public
transportation as their primary means of transportation. Walking made them more visible
to neighbors and encouraged relationship building with people encountered during their
strolls. Bicycle-riding for short trips within the neighborhood as well as cross-town
journeys, on bicycles outfitted with child seats or panniers for hauling whatever cargo,
demonstrated self-sufficiency, fossil-fuel conservation, commitment to personal fitness,
shared family activities, and ability to travel, literally and figuratively, outside the
mainstream. Riding public transportation conserved fossil fuels, reduced commuting
stress, reduced isolation, and enhanced relationship building within neighborhoods. These
alternative transports served as silent but powerful personal statements in public arenas.
Participant Y, who was quite introverted, accepted an offer for public speaking to
communicate what was being demonstrated in lifestyle by bicycling to work.
Several study participants became involved in neighborhood and city-wide efforts
to raise public awareness about voluntary simplicity. These ranged from one-on-one
encounters of informing and coaching, sharing with neighbors the produce from their
gardens, gathering for discussion of salient topics at Conversation Café events, to
Simplicity Circle membership (Andrews, 1997), to offering neighborhood-based classes
on simplicity, to public lectures, appearing on panels, appearing in films, serving on the
New Roadmap Foundation’s speakers’ bureau, and providing time and energy for a vast
variety of volunteer efforts. They served as prophetic voices for sanity and sustainability
in the proverbial wildernesses of consumerism and popular culture.
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The majority of the study participants have published journal articles, book
chapters, and/or entire books on simplicity-related topics. Most study participants
appeared in Public Broadcast System (PBS) nationally broadcast productions cleverly
titled, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic (de Graaf & Boe, 1997) and Escape from
Affluenza (de Graaf & Boe, 1998). They taught informally and formally in their writing,
and church-based events, as well as community college and university courses on
consumerism, simplicity, social justice, sustainability, and development of humor without
denigration of others.
The study participants have supported their comrades’ efforts for social change.
Many were particularly active in the Take Back Your Time campaign, including one who
spearheaded the international initiative for Take Back Your Time Day (celebrated October
24, the day which represents completion of a European work year compared with the
United States’ typical fifty-week work year) and with tongue-in-cheek describes it as the
Take All My Time Campaign (Participant T, personal communication, March 22, 2005).
This participant and many others have experienced the phenomenon of lifestyle
simplification leading to multiple layers of increasing complexity in mindful living.
Study participants were actively engaged in leading quietly by example and using
multiple media to advocate for simplification and countering pop culture messages of
consumerism. Sometimes that leadership required outspoken advocacy to confront
distortions of the simplicity message, as stated by one participant:
[The] voluntary simplicity movement … is often accused of being
an upper middle class elitist kind of thing. Now there are plenty of upper
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middle class elitists who consider themselves practitioners of voluntary
simplicity, but I think the movement, to the extent that it’s organized, is
very conscious of that, very concerned with equity. Most of the people that
I know who are doing voluntary simplicity are not rich folks … they’re
average people. They’re not necessarily poor folks, but they’re middlemiddle class people who’ve made a kind of conscious choice to try to
consume less and work less and do those things, but they’re average folks.
This idea that we’ve all got trust funds or something … it’s just
nonsense.… I’ve read books in which the sense was that a magazine like
Real Simple represents the voluntary simplicity movement. Well, it’s just
nonsense! I mean that’s just a total co-optation by people who make
money. There isn’t anybody I know in the voluntary simplicity movement
who thinks that a magazine like this is in any way representative of what
we stand for. The first 30 pages of most issues I’ve seen are just ads for
luxury products. And I call the magazine Real Cynical. And I think that
that’s what it’s about … to the extent that they can paint the voluntary
simplicity movement as just a bunch of rich people who want to live in
style and in the hammock and have these expensive items but cut their
clutter and things like that—we have to fight that all the time. We have to
say, That’s not what we’re about. We’re about justice. We’re about time.
We’re about fairness. We’re about health. We’re about peace. We’re
about these kinds of things. We’re about international solidarity with poor
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countries in the world. We’re about the idea that we live simply so others
can simply live. That’s what we’re about (Participant T, personal
communication, October 4, 2004).
The Overall Question
The over-riding question to be answered by the Simple Wellness Study was: What
does the practice of voluntary simplicity mean for the health and wellbeing of an
individual within his/her community? The shortest answer to this question is
connectedness. Participants described multiple pathways and levels of connecting or
relating with people, animals, and the natural environment, versus connecting with
material things. Humor, generosity, and decisions for happiness/optimism were described
as essential to voluntary simplicity; these were utilized as vehicles for creating and
enhancing connectedness. This connectedness or loving interaction was universally
identified as the key to physical, mental, and spiritual health. The consumerist doctrine of
mainstream American society with its values of Bigger! Faster! Better! and litanies of
Buy! Buy! Buy! and Shop ‘til You Drop! (Popcorn & Marigold, 1997) were associated
with feelings of emptiness (or absence of feelings in general), as voiced by this
participant:
People tend to feel isolated in our culture. They live in a house or
an apartment, they go to work, they come home and then they're just there.
They're in this little box and then they watch another box, they watch
TV.… They're like one box relating to another. The ideal consumer
society is [one] in which everyone in the culture buys at least one—if not
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two or three—of everything. And so, if you start becoming interdependent
and connecting with people, you find that you don't need all these things
not only from a practical standpoint but also from a psychological
standpoint.… Are you gonna fill [your life] with relationships with people,
with experiences, or are you going to fill it with things? (Participant X,
personal communication, October 18, 2004).
Summary
This chapter has presented the findings from the sequential data collection
activities. The data revealed that participants were active participants in maintaining and
improving their health and wellbeing, and in promoting the wellbeing of their
communities. Participants placed high value on mindful living, wise use of resources,
interdependent relationships, maintaining a sense of humor, generosity, and adopting a
happy, hopeful approach to life. They expressed concern for the wellbeing of their
neighborhoods and broader communities, the health of the natural environment, and
socioeconomic justice for the poor.
Chapter five will provide further discussion of the findings which answer the
overarching research question which deals with the well being of voluntary simplicity
practitioners within their communities. Applications of this knowledge are suggested
along with recommendations for further study.
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CHAPTER 5
DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This final chapter of this dissertation briefly restates the research problem and
reviews the methods used in conducting the Simple Wellness Study research activities.
Following this prefatory information, the major sections of this chapter discuss the
findings and consider their implications. Suggestions for public policy and
recommendations for future research complete the chapter.
Statement of the Problem
The purpose of the study was to explore voluntary simplicity and lifestyle change
in the context of physical, mental, and spiritual health. At the time of this writing, fewer
than two dozen extant dissertations examined the phenomena of voluntary lifestyle
change to simplicity. None developed a relationship between the practice of voluntary
simplicity and health or wellness. Although a few sources from popular literature did
address issues of stress reduction and improved health as goals of lifestyle change, the
majority of works on voluntary simplicity discussed issues of frugality, debt reduction,
and the value of time (Burch, 2000; Callenbach, 2000; Celente, 1997; Chauvin, 2002; De
Graaf & Boe, 1997, 1998; De Graaf, Wann & Naylor, 2001; Doherty, 1997; Dominguez,
1990; Dominguez & Robin, 1992; Elgin, 1982, 1993, 2000; Frazier, 1985; Gould, 1997;
Grigsby, 2000; Harwood Group, 1995; Hobday, 1998; Kopaczewski, 1999; Lockwood,
2000; Luhrs, 1997; Moeller, 1996; Mullaney, 2001; Nolen, 1994; Pierce, 2000, 2003;
Princen, Maniates, & Conca, 2002; Ray & Anderson, 2000; Schor, 1998, 1999, 2002,
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2003a, 2003b; Shi, 1985; Spina, 1998; Swenson, 1992; Taylor, 2003a, 2003b; Urbanska
& Nearing, 2004; Whybrow, 2005).
Multiple problems existed within the healthcare delivery system in the United
States of America, and there was no consensus on appropriate remedies. Many people
have commented that the allopathic medicine in the USA was a sick care rather than a
health care system (Kohatsu, 2002; O’Connor, 2001; Shames, 1993). Extensive medical
and nursing literature addressed disease states, but little scholarly writing from these
disciplines considered health outside of the context of disease.
Health promotion, a multidisciplinary ethos to protect health and prevent disease
and accidents, considered health on a continuum from “high-level wellness to depletion
of health (death)” (Edelman & Fain, p. 9). Health promotion text authors Edelman and
Fain characterized high-level wellness to include satisfaction with one’s life, a perception
of wellbeing, as well as quality of life, and described a Eudaimonistic model of health
with extremes from exuberant sense of wellbeing at one end of the continuum to debility
and enervation of illness at the other end (p. 10).
Health promotion theorist Pender (1996) offered a model which included diverse
facets of people’s beliefs and perceptions regarding personal responsibility for health and
ability to take actions to improve health in the arenas of nutrition, physical activity, stress
management and emotional maturity, familial and social relationships, and spiritual
development. In addition, Pender’s model considered issues which modify health such as
socioeconomic status, genetics, and the environment, as well as internal and external
factors which would lead a person to change behaviors.
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This study investigated the practice of voluntary simplicity and its implications
for the health and wellbeing of a simplifier within his or her community. Study data
indicated that Simple Wellness Study participants organized their lives around exuberant
wellbeing, and attempted to live exemplary lives which would inspire others to make
changes for positive impact on personal, community, societal and global health of
humans, non-humans, and the planet.
Review of the Methodology
As described in Chapter Three, the Simple Wellness Study collected data via
multiple means. The first of these was a demographic survey which included items
pertaining to healthcare access and services utilization, dietary and exercise habits,
education, employment, volunteerism, length of involvement with voluntary simplicity,
age, family/living status, religious affiliation, ethnicity, and financial status. Each
prospective participant was mailed the demographic survey along with a letter of
invitation to participate, a form for consenting to participate in the study, and a selfaddressed, stamped envelope for returning the survey and signed consent form. Of the 11
persons invited to participate, nine responded and seven agreed to take part in the Simple
Wellness Study. Prospective participants were then contacted by telephone for scheduling
interviews.
The second round of data collection was accomplished through audio-taped inperson interviews with seven Seattleites who practiced voluntary simplicity. Six of the
seven participants were interviewed in their respective homes. The interviews took one to
two hours each. At the completion of his/her respective interview, the participant was
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given the Wellness Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988) to complete and return to the
researcher in a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
The third data set was obtained through scoring each participant’s Wellness
Inventory, 3rd Ed. (Travis, 1988), a self-assessment instrument which addressed 12
different aspects of health. The results were calculated and entered into a visual
representation, a Wellness Wheel, for each participant. In accordance with the research
plan, the Wellness Wheels for all participants were reproduced, along with a composite
Wellness Wheel for the group.
After analyzing the data from the demographic survey, the thematic material from
the individual interviews, and the Wellness Wheels of the participants, handout materials
were prepared to report back the data for the study participants. The preliminary data
were presented to the participants in a focus group interview attended by five of the seven
initial interviewees. The focus group interview was also audio-taped and transcribed for
further analysis.
The Overall Issues Addressed by this Study
The Internal Journey Leading to Lifestyle Change
For many participants, viewing the world through eyes of compassion and
awareness was the cause and the result of choosing simple. For some participants, there
was little lifestyle change involved; they came of age in simpler, less technologicallyoriented times and chose not to embrace the escalating baseline standard of living to
which mainstream America subscribed in the latter half of the twentieth century. Others
arrived at a point where they decided to divert from the paths of American popular
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culture and downsize or simplify at whatever lifestyle level felt most comfortable
physically and psychically. None lived a lifestyle which would be considered luxurious
by middle-class American standards, although each claimed to have enough possessions.
To arrive at this point, some purged their calendars of commitments and their closets of
stuff. Yet, each participant reported enjoying luxury of time to invest in important causes.
Contentment, soul-satisfaction, and eagerness to serve humankind were expressed
by all, including those whose current life circumstances involved meeting challenging
needs of loved ones. Every participant identified integrity, aligning one’s actions and
choices with one’s values, as a prime motivator. Thus families who devoted significant
resources to particularly needy members as well as to their broader communities,
continued actively working toward the greater good despite the stresses and uncertainties
that accompanied walking their talk (Participant X, Personal Communication, October
18, 2004).
One common denominator of the voluntarily simplified lives of these participants
was the shift from frugality to generosity. In their stories, simplicity was not about penny
pinching. Rather it seemed to be more about recognizing enoughness and extracting
maximum happiness from it. Happiness was derived from the care and feeding of
relationships, and not the stuff of tyrannical cultural dictates. Possessions were valued for
their utility and sentimental value (e.g., grandmother’s table, serviceably cute but notmost-fashionable clothing from the local thrift store, the Vitamix super-blender used to
mix nutritious fruit smoothies, food purchased at the local food cooperative or obtained
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from Community Supported Agriculture programs). Consciousness raising about natural
foods, shared meals, and local production was strong in this group.
Voluntary Simplicity and Wellness of an Individual Within His/Her Community
Wellness of Individual.
When Simple Wellness Study participants were asked to define health, every
person used the word balance, elaborating on personal responsibility for fitness, nutrition,
and stress management. One person gave a three-word answer: “balance, wholeness,
integrity” (Participant U, Personal Communication, October 13, 2004). Each person also
spoke of relationships as crucial to health. With the exception of the one who said simply,
“I never get sick” (Participant T, Personal Communication, October 4, 2004) every
participant stated a belief that his/her health was better now, despite the years, than was
the case when beginning the simplicity journey. Participants described living comfortably
in their bodies:
My health is good in the sense that I don’t know when it’s been
that I was sick…. I just don’t get sick. I’m not in great shape…. I’m doing
too many things so I don’t get enough proper exercise…. I can’t say that
I’m in great health in the sense of being terrifically physically fit. I’m not
nearly as fit as I was 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and I understand that’s a
problem. But I’m not unhealthy, because I always feel good (Participant T,
personal communication, October 4, 2004).
One participant, quoted on page 200, spoke of personal responsibility for
wellness, and its being as much a state of mind as a state of body. Another person
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reflected on having a dog which has positively impacted physical and mental health,
having discontinued a health club membership in favor of riding a bicycle for
transportation, recreation, and socializing. Most of the participants described health in
holistic terms; two specifically spoke of using one’s abilities to achieve one’s whole
potential. Vital inner life, adequate sleep, healthful nutrition, and involvement in
community life were also frequently mentioned. Time was identified as a strong
contributor to health and wellness—feeling unrushed and therefore less stressed, being
able to cook meals from scratch and thus enjoying optimal nutrition, allocating time for
exercise rather than just knowing one should exercise, cultivating spiritual practices such
as meditation and yoga, and being able to dialog with oneself on a deep level.
In the Simple Wellness Study, participants demonstrated beliefs in personal
responsibility for their physical, mental, and spiritual health. They sought health services
from a variety of healers/providers to enhance, support, or restore their health/wellness.
They repeatedly voiced their beliefs that health comes from within, was not defined by
disease states (and may not even be modified by disease), and others could assist or offer
agency to an individual’s wellness. Although participants discussed how illness and disease could be consequential from one’s choices, such as in nutrition, physical activity,
and exposure to stress, none of the participants expressed a belief that a person should be
blamed for illness. Stress was recognized as both a source of, and response to, life
choices (Swenson, 1992).
Responsible for Own Health and Wellness. Practicing voluntary simplicity has
allowed participants to look within themselves for health and consider ways they could
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215
maintain and improve their health. They did not expect physicians or others to make them
well (Pierce, 2000). Rather, they sought medical assistance when they needed just that:
assistance. None expected a health care provider to be a font of all wisdom like the
Marcus Welby, MD character of television fame (Turow, n.d.).
Each participant had health insurance and affordable access to his/her respective
primary care provider, but rates of utilization were relatively low for persons in their age
groups. Most made fewer than two health care visits during the previous year. Several
had visited non-allopathic health care providers, including an acupuncturist, chiropractor,
homeopath, massage therapist, naturopath, and osteopath. Even those who made the most
health care visits reported fewer than five visits in the previous year. More than half of
the group members had visited their dentists. None had been hospitalized. Only three
took daily prescription medications, and these had only one or two medications apiece.
Four took vitamins or mineral supplements on a daily basis.
Four participants contended with diagnoses of chronic illnesses which were not
debilitating but seemed to provide a nuisance factor to their lives. They approached these
issues creatively, as in the case of the person with asthma who played a musical wind
instrument daily to enhance respiratory capability.
Nutrition was recognized by all participants as a very important factor in their
wellness. Most grew at least some of their fruits and/or vegetables, despite the fact that
all had urban residences. They indicated preferences for organic foods and limitation of
meats in their diets. Many had vegetarian tendencies and sought out foods with high
nutritional values. Soda pop and junk foods were anathema to this group. They eschewed
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fast foods, preferring to cook at home or, better yet, to share meals with neighbors and
friends. Two of the participants weighed above the norm for their respective heights;
none was morbidly obese (Ritchie, 2002).
Exercise and physical motion were mentioned as important to all. With the
exception of one person with impaired mobility, they all exercised three or more times
per week. They credited their simplified lifestyles as allowing for this focused exercise.
They also walked or bicycled whenever possible. Holistic disciplines such as yoga and
meditation were practiced by several participants.
Many of the participants were members of faith communities and/or regularly
engaged in spiritual practices. Concern for nature and ecological restoration were akin to
spiritual issues for these simplifiers. Several had undergone psychotherapy or spiritual
direction to assist them in personal growth. All read extensively and committed energies
to being educated about issues affecting political systems and third world peoples.
Freedom From Many Health Risks. None of the participants was a tobacco user
or engaged in other substance abuse. Participants seemed to be free of most of the
behavioral compulsions in which Americans frequently indulge, such as eating disorders,
gambling, shopping for recreation (also known as retail therapy), playing computer
games, or surfing the internet excessively. In the researcher’s opinion, their homes were
modest, comfortable, and tastefully furnished, though not extravagant. These dwellings
were uncluttered and had atmospheres of order, flexibility, and peace.
By virtue of their lifestyle habits, participants seemed to be unlikely to suffer
some types of accidents which caused harm to Americans in general. They were unlikely
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217
to trip over clutter in their homes, because they did not over-accumulate stuff. Their
modest homes and relative lack of fancy electronic toys made them less likely targets for
burglaries than residents of opulent neighborhoods. They were at lower risk of
automobile collisions because they drove fewer miles and did not commit themselves to
high-stress commutes. Because they had reduced stressors in their lives, they did not
drive aggressively and therefore did not indulge in road rage. They knew and were
known by their neighbors, moved house infrequently, and thus were less likely to be
victims of crimes in their neighborhoods. They were free from the risks of harm due to
substance abuse or polypharmacy. They were unaffected by many food-borne illness
potentials since they were very selective about their food intake and its preparation. In
addition, they were free of many of the health issues which plague persons of low
education or low socioeconomic status. They were disinterested in status and selfeducated about wellness.
Richness in Health Enhancers. Simple Wellness Study participants enjoyed
wellness as viewed from many perspectives. They were able to devote time to healthful
pursuits and took pleasure in doing so. They were especially wealthy in terms of social
capital. They developed egalitarian marriages, cultivated nurturing relationships within
their families, belonged to clubs and/or community groups, performed volunteer work,
and had passion for their respective causes. They prized connectedness and consideration
of others’ needs. They treated their bodies respectfully and tried to accord themselves
sufficient sleep and rest.
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Summary of Wellness of Individuals
The seven participants in the Simple Wellness Study viewed health from holistic
perspectives. They regarded themselves as the primary determiners of their own health,
and made health-enhancing activities part of their daily lives. They experienced few
episodes of illness requiring medical care and used few prescription medications. They
all had health insurance coverage, for which most paid monthly premiums; several paid
additionally for services of complementary care providers to maintain and improve their
health. They had reduced risk for numerous common lifestyle threats to health. They
focused on keeping their lives in balance. Each scored highly in terms of a folk
prescription for wellness: something to do, someone to love, and something to look
forward to (anonymous).
Wellness in the Community
By virtue of their own commitments to wellness, persons who practiced voluntary
simplicity exuded potential for tremendous positive influence on the health of their
various communities. Firstly, they served as exemplars of vibrant health and viable
lifestyle alternatives. Others who were open to making new choices and decisions for
their own health could be inspired and informed by observing these participants. For
example, neighbors who admired participants’ edible gardens or witnessed their walking
to bus lines or end destinations could emulate the gardening and walking to improve their
own diets and health.
Participants’ walks through their neighborhoods increased prospects for
encounters with their neighbors and opportunities for dialog and increased social capital.
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When neighbors were acquainted and involved with each other, all had increased safety
in their homes and on the streets. Property crimes were likely to decrease, and
perpetrators were more likely to be observed and apprehended. People who strolled their
neighborhoods were more likely to notice and act appropriately on changes. For example,
observation that an elderly neighbor had not opened curtains that day would likely
prompt an in-person or telephone inquiry to assess well being and obtain services if
needed. Similarly, an overgrown lawn or strewn trash would be another indicator of
something out-of-order and prompt friendly investigation. Children would be tended and
cared for by their neighbors in case of injury or accident, taken in for shelter if they
arrived home to find parents not present, and generally embraced by the network of
neighbors demonstrating interest in their well being.
The neighborhood presence of persons living healthful lives and having time
available for spontaneous choices had the potential to recreate the informal social safety
nets which existed throughout America before children were bussed to schools outside
their neighborhoods and before mothers entered the work force en masse.
Ecological Well Being. Participants’ gardens contributed directly and indirectly to
the health of their communities. Every square foot of soil gardened eliminated a potential
square foot of nonporous groundcover which would have otherwise increased propensity
for groundwater contamination and flooding. Organic gardening reduced pesticide
contamination. Composting kept garden trimmings out of landfills, improved the soil, and
avoided use of chemical fertilizers. Trees provided fruit, shade, and carbon dioxide,
thereby reducing need for purchase of pesticide-laden fruits trucked in long distance (and
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saving fuel), decreasing cooling and air-conditioning costs, and improving air quality. In
addition, these gardens improved the esthetic qualities of their respective neighborhoods
(Roseland, 1998).
People who walked their neighborhoods were also more likely to invest time and
energy in beautification projects such as litter prevention and removal, tree planting, and
advocacy for safe sidewalks.
Healthcare Resources Preservation. Communities must have certain systems in
place to provide for the health and wellbeing of their residents. In addition to public
utilities and sanitation, medical facilities, pharmacies, hospital beds and
emergency/trauma services must be available. Because of their health promotion
activities and taking responsibility for their own health status, persons living voluntarily
simple lifestyles had decreased need for frequent primary care services, dispensation of
prescription medications, hospitalization, and emergency department visits. They were
unlikely to seek medical care at inappropriately high service levels. For example, a
person lacking health insurance might be forced to make an emergency department visit
for services more appropriately delivered in the primary care setting, and incurring
tertiary costs much higher than would be incurred at the primary care level. A person
lacking healthful habits, frugal attitudes, or a relationship with a primary care provider
might seek emergency level care when a lower level of service, or even simple self-care,
would suffice. Thus, a smoker with a bad cold might present to an emergency care setting
demanding radiographs to rule out pneumonia, when smoking cessation and symptomatic
relief for an upper respiratory infection would be the appropriate interventions, or a
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221
person with a mild ankle injury might insist upon emergent computed tomography (CT)
or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) when a primary care provider would assess that
ice, elevation, and elastic bandaging were the treatments of choice.
Persons who practiced voluntary simplicity maintained a cost consciousness
which led to cogent questioning about necessary medical care and appropriate levels of
intervention. They were unlikely to seek medical attention for secondary gain or social
needs, because those social needs were met in other venues. Thus their per capita costs of
health care services were lower on a societal level as well as a personal level. Further
contributing to their low rates of health services access costs was their low incidence of
lifestyle-related diseases and their high levels of attunement to their own bodily rhythms
and needs.
Meeting Needs of the Local Community. Every participant in the Simple Wellness
Study was committed to volunteer work and community service. Arenas of paid and
unpaid service provision included chaplaincy, community education, homeless advocacy,
environmental activism, health care, parent education, prison ministry, public education
via media, and social justice. In addition to direct services, participants invested
themselves in raising the consciousness of the public regarding living wages for Third
World producers of products used by affluent First World citizens, sustainable
manufacturing, product obsolescence and lifestream, and political factors which
contribute to injustices at home and abroad. They were involved in political campaigning,
exercising their voting rights, and encouraging others to participate in civic life.
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222
Participants exemplified freedom from the chemical addictions and behavioral
compulsions which were huge drains on community resources in terms of increased
health care costs, decreased productivity, lost potential, dysfunctional family survival
mechanisms, increased debt load, and human misery. Participants’ lifestyles were not
wasteful in fuel costs of heating overly large residences, consuming excessive calories,
purchasing and maintaining large fashionable wardrobes or shoe collections, or collecting
accumulations of possessions. Rather, they made choices which reflected their concerns
for the community at large so that others, like them, could enjoy sufficiency.
Summary of Wellness of Communities
Participants in the Simple Wellness Study exemplified community-oriented
values which enhanced the lives of others through their various volunteer and paid
service work. By virtue of their personal self-care activities, they required little care
provision from the medical and social service systems. Their attempts to live lightly on
the earth resulted in dedicated recycling and composting which decreased landfill
accumulation. Their composting and organic gardening contributed sustainable, aesthetic
greenery which decreased pesticide load and air pollution, and improved neighborhood
beauty. Because of their efforts to model sustainable culture and educate others, they
inspired others to adopt similarly sustainable practices. They worked to inform others of
the short-term and long-term temporal implications, and the local-to-global effects, of the
decisions made and actions taken by the government and citizenry. They participated in
political life to improve the life circumstances of people in the United States and abroad.
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Summary of Wellness
The practice of voluntary simplicity has broad implications for health and
wellbeing of individuals and for their communities as well. Study participants
exemplified high levels of wellness in a culture which celebrated excesses and lacked
icons of balance and satisfaction.
This author believes that voluntary simplicity offers viable alternatives to the
cultural norms which threaten the wellbeing of individuals, families, and our society.
Encouraging simplification and the resulting stress reduction can allow time for improved
nutrition, exercise, and wellness, and potentially decrease illness, suffering, health care
system costs, and cumulative ill effects of unnecessary medications.
Policy Issues
As a result of this study, this author makes the following recommendations for
public policy:
1. Community education about lifestyle alternatives such as voluntary simplicity
can equip families to make choices which will reduce stressors and enhance
the physical, mental, and spiritual health of families and their individual
members.
2. Community and health-care-provider emphases on lifestyle choices to
enhance health and wellbeing, such as whole foods and regular exercise can
significantly improve quality of life for individuals and communities, as well
as decrease direct and indirect costs of health care service utilization.
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Recommendations for Further Study
To further investigate VS, this author would propose longitudinal research
examining the initial health and wellbeing of individuals embarking on Simplicity Circle
participation and then following their wellness and lifestyle satisfaction over time.
Conducting such research with a control group of persons not making voluntary
simplicity lifestyle changes could yield dramatic results addressing the financial and
other resource cost differences between the two lifestyle groups.
Practical Applications
The researcher currently works as a nurse practitioner providing primary care to
children in a rural Washington county which faces significant challenges to the health of
its population. One-third of the local population speaks no English; most of these are
Spanish speakers from Mexico, but it is believed that five to 10% speak Central
American indigenous languages and have minimal comprehension of English and
Spanish. A sizable portion of the population is functionally illiterate. Multiple barriers
impair ability to access what services exist for these immigrants.
The average age of a first-time mother is 16. Most patients served by this
pediatric clinic have Medicaid or are uninsured. Pediatric clinical populations include
disproportionately high numbers of youths with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) requiring medication, obesity, and pervasive dental caries. Many of the
children’s parents also suffer these diseases but have no resources for care, which
increases the risk factors for the children. Domestic violence occurs disproportionately
more frequently in this county than in the more populous counties of the state, but few
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resources currently exist to assist families in crisis. Unfortunately, the health issues listed
above increase risk of domestic violence.
One of the major local employers is Wal-Mart which provides few employmentrelated benefits, such as health insurance, for its part-time workers. The store is open 24
hours a day, and many young mothers work second or third shift in order to earn money
for their families, with questionable gains in their families’ net incomes. The rotating
work schedules and low income produced by retail work further stress the families of
these workers.
As a result of conducting this study, the researcher is committed to renewed
problem solving efforts to benefit the health of the children and all members of the
community. The researcher is inspired by the problem-solving practices and passions of
the simplifiers who took part in this study. Plans are already underway to work with the
schools in redesigning their nutrition programs (because such a high percentage of
students qualifies for free meals, children in the district’s elementary schools receive free
breakfast and lunch at their respective schools) for the schools. Also, the researcher is
negotiating to create a monthly multidisciplinary obesity clinic to serve the population
most at risk. The researcher has consulted with a dental hygienist in private practice as an
independent practitioner regarding grant-writing and personnel selection to offer in-house
preventive dental services.
In any pediatric practice, the children are the primary patients. However, nursing
values the entire family as client. The researcher perceives her role as supporting,
coaching, and educating parents in their very important and challenging tasks as parents.
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Because of the additional risks to family functioning which may be experienced by a
young family when parents are overly stressed, the researcher has already begun talking
with parents about the findings of this study, especially encouraging parents to re-think
their dual-income commitments when viable alternatives exist.
In addition, the researcher is committed to improving the health of the broader
community in this locale. She is participating in a coalition of academic and social
service professionals for drug prevention in a multi-county rural area, and assisting the
fund-raising and consciousness-raising efforts to establish a local domestic violence
shelter. The researcher has joined with other community members in laying groundwork
for developing a child advocacy center to serve children and families affected by sexual
assault and trauma in this rural county. She has joined the local volunteer fire department
as an emergency medical technician (EMT) as a means of gaining deeper entry into the
community and investigating community needs from varying perspectives. The
researcher also provides formal and informal lectures on health-related issues for
students, parents, and other health services consumers, in the hopes of reducing risks to
the health of the people.
Summary
This chapter has provided extensive discussion of voluntary simplicity practice
and the values held by a group of persons who have made such lifestyle choices. In
contrast to the individualism honored by dominant American culture, the participants in
this study have verbalized and exemplified community-oriented values. Embracing
communitarian values and more healthful lifestyle choices together can improve physical,
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227
mental, and spiritual health, as well as decrease financial costs and human misery
promoted by our consumerist culture. Lifestyle simplification has the potential to
improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and families, as well as local and global
communities. The researcher welcomes and utilizes the opportunity to apply these
findings in her work with pediatric patients and their parents.
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Appendix A
Seattle University Human Subjects Research Review Form
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SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Educational Leadership Program
HUMAN SUBJECTS RESEARCH REVIEW FORM
Dissertation Student: MaryAnne C. Murray
Title: Simple Wellness: Perceptions of Health in Persons who Practice Voluntary
Simplicity
Dept./School: Education
Home Phone: (253) 548-0163
E-mail Address: [email protected]
Project Title: Simple Wellness Study
SU Faculty Dissertation Chair: John J. Gardiner, PhD
Project Starting Date: April 13, 2004
Projected Termination Date: December 31, 2004
Grant Title: Not Applicable
Funding Agency: Not Applicable
I.
ABSTRACT: Describe briefly a) the purpose(s) of the research, (b) how human
subjects will participate or be part of the research (Attach a copy of all relevant
consent forms to this Human Subjects Review Form), (c) the nature of the data to
be collected, (d) how the data will be obtained, and (e), how anonymity or
confidentiality will be maintained (including how data will be stored).
(A) The purpose of this research is to investigate what the practice of voluntary
simplicity means for the health and wellbeing of an individual and for the
community in which that individual lives. The study will be documented in a
dissertation to complete the requirements for a doctoral degree in educational
leadership at Seattle University.
(B) Human subjects will participate in this study by:
(1) completing a single-page (2-sided) survey providing demographic
information regarding socioeconomic status and consumption of
healthcare services;
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230
Human Subjects Research Review
Page two
(2) granting individual, in-depth interviews conducted according to an
interview guide of open-ended questions in which they are asked to
describe their motivations and experiences of lifestyle simplification, their
perceptions of change in physical, mental and spiritual health over the
course of lifestyle changes, and their community and leadership;
(3) completion of a self-guided and self-scored assessment of wellness; and
(4) participation in a focus group during which will be presented the thematic
material gleaned from the individual interviews, as well as the findings of
the wellness assessments
(C) The data to be collected are participants’ personal reflections on their
motivations and goals in seeking a simpler lifestyle, their retrospective
assessments of health status, their impressions of physical, mental and spiritual
health and how their health in these dimensions may have changed over the time
of lifestyle simplification, and their experience in community involvement and
leadership. Additional data, obtained via a survey instrument, includes
demographics and utilization of health care services.
(D) The qualitative data are collected via interviews and a focus group which will
be audiotaped and transcribed. The quantitative data are collected via a
demographic survey and a wellness assessment instrument.
(E) Participants’ confidentiality will be maintained via:
(1) Assignment of a numeric identifier to each interview and focus group
audiotape and its respective transcripts. The key to the numeric identifiers
will be kept in the researcher’s electronically locked personal digital
assistant.
(2) Data transcription in Microsoft Word software and analysis with QSR
N6 qualitative analysis software on the researcher’s personal desktop
computer, and redundant storage on a JumpDrive removable disk medium
which the researcher carries on her person. These files will contain no
identifying headers other than the numeric codes.
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Human Subjects Research Review
Page three
(3) Numeric identifiers on each data collection instrument kept in the
researcher’s files. For each participant’s wellness assessment, the data are
recorded on a graphic representation of life balance in twelve dimensions.
At the focus group, each participant will receive an anonymous set of the
resulting graphics for all the study participants. The original of each
wellness assessment instrument will be returned to its respective
participant.
(4) The narrative description of the results will include alteration of some
details such that a reader would be unable to attribute statements or data to
specific participants, even when the reader might be familiar with all of
these individuals.
II.
HUMAN SUBJECTS: Are any subjects under 18 years of age?
No
Are any subjects confined in a correctional or detention facility?
No
Is pregnancy a prerequisite for serving as a subject?
No
Are fetuses in utero subjects in this research?
No
Are all subjects presumed to be legally competent?
Yes
Are confidential records (medical, academic, etc.) used which
Require appropriate written consent?
Are subjects directly or indirectly identifiable from data
(responses, information, specimens)?
No
Yes
Is material obtained at autopsy used in the research?
No
Is consent required from an organization or institution?
No
Dissertation Student Signature:__________________________
Date:_____________
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232
Appendix B
Seattle University Notification of IRB Approval
Simple Wellness
[email protected]
233
Printed: Saturday, June 11, 2005 5:29 PM
From :
Arredondo Rucinski, Daisy <[email protected]>
Sent :
Wednesday, April 7, 2004 12:04 PM
To :
"MaryAnne Murray" <[email protected]>
CC :
"Gardiner, John" <[email protected]>, "Maniago, Wileen" <[email protected]>
Subject :
RE: Human Subjects Research Review
MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: from mail1.seattleu.edu ([66.194.72.18]) by mc10-f28.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.6824);
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Hi Mary Anne,
I am sorry not to have been able to respond sooner to your human subjects review forms. I have
now reviewed them and will approved your research as described without further review as soon
as I receive a signed page attesting to your assertions on page three of the emailed form.You
may print off a copy of that page and sign it and either mail or fax it to me at the College of
Education fax number (206.296.2053). Thanks and good luck with your research.
Daisy
Daisy Arredondo Rucinski, Ph.D.
Director of Educational Leadership (EDLR)
Seattle University
900 Broadway, 412 Loyola Hall
Seattle, WA 98122
Office: 206.296.2105
email: [email protected]
EDLR Admin Asst: Wileen Maniago, 206.296.6170
email: [email protected]
Simple Wellness
234
---------From: MaryAnne Murray
Sent: Wednesday, April 7, 2004 11:33 AM
To: Arredondo Rucinski, Daisy
Subject:
Human Subjects Research Review
Dear Daisy:
Welcome to spring quarter! You're probably in the thick of things
already. I do hope you had a good break, such as it was. I know
you worked through part of it....
The purpose of this email is to follow up on my submission of
forms for
Human Subjects Research Review. I sent you forms via email, and
then sent an updated set via USnailMail which you should have
received early last week.
I believe that for my proposed research project, departmental
review is
sufficient. You confirmed for me that you are the person who is
responsible for departmental review in the School of Education.
I am aware that the full Human Subjects Research Review Committee
meets next week on April 13, and won't meet again until mid-May.
If in fact my papers need to go to the full committee, I want to
follow up on that in time for the April 13 meeting.
Can you render me a quick opinion, please?:
1. Does my proposed research pose minimal risk to human
participants
such that departmental review is sufficient?
2. If SoE review is sufficient, when do you believe you will
be able to review my papers and render an approval or recommend
corrections?
I look forward to your reply. Thanks, as always, for your
consideration.
Sincerely,
MaryAnne Murray, EdD2B
[email protected]
Printed: Saturday, June 11, 2005 5:32 PM
Simple Wellness
From :
Arredondo Rucinski, Daisy <[email protected]>
Sent :
Wednesday, April 7, 2004 4:35 PM
To :
"MaryAnne Murray" <[email protected]>
Subject :
RE: Human Subjects Research Review
235
MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: from mail1.seattleu.edu ([66.194.72.18]) by mc12-f5.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.6824); Wed, 7
Apr 2004 16:36:17 -0700
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X-OriginalArrivalTime: 07 Apr 2004 23:36:17.0686 (UTC) FILETIME=[1FA99B60:01C41CF9]
got it and approved it -- thanks,
DAR
Daisy Arredondo Rucinski, Ph.D.
Director of Educational Leadership (EDLR)
Seattle University
900 Broadway, 412 Loyola Hall
Seattle, WA 98122
Office: 206.296.2105
email: [email protected]
EDLR Admin Asst: Wileen Maniago, 206.296.6170
email: [email protected]
---------From: MaryAnne Murray
Sent: Wednesday, April 7, 2004 4:07 PM
To: Arredondo Rucinski, Daisy
Subject:
Human Subjects Research Review
Dear Daisy:
I have printed the entire form and FAXed it to you at (206) 296-2053
along with a cover letter. It should have arrived at about 2:40 this
afternoon. Please advise me if you have not received it.
Thank you so very much for your prompt attention to this matter. The
reduction in my level of anxiety is sufficient to redeem a very
difficult
work day. I pray great blessings upon you for this!
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236
Sincerely,
MaryAnne Murray, EdD2B
Appendix C
Consent for Research Participation
Simple Wellness
237
Consent for Research Participation
Simple Wellness Study
I have been invited to participate in a research project to be conducted by MaryAnne C.
Murray in the collection of data for her doctoral dissertation at Seattle University. The
purpose of this study is to examine the experience of living a voluntarily simplified
lifestyle and consider its effects on my physical, mental and spiritual health. Six to ten
people will be interviewed for this study. The design and goals of this study have been
approved by the School of Education and the Office of Research Review at Seattle
University.
I understand that the data collection will include, but not be limited to:
1. Completion of a demographic questionnaire to provide background information on
the study participants.
2. An individual face-to-face interview with MaryAnne C. Murray. This interview will
be audio-tape recorded and transcribed for data analysis using computer software.
3. Completion of a pencil-and-paper instrument to assess health.
4. Participation in a focus group consisting of all the participants of the study. The focus
group will be convened in 2004.
I understand that the costs of the research will be assumed by MaryAnne C. Murray and
that I will neither be charged nor paid for my participation. Further, I understand that
MaryAnne C. Murray is not funded by an outside source for this research. Ms. Murray
anticipates no financial gain from conducting this study.
The products of this research project will be (1) a dissertation for the completion of Ms.
Murray’s doctoral degree in Educational Leadership, (2) articles for publication in
popular magazines or research journals and (3) at least one public presentation at a local,
regional or national conference on Voluntary Simplicity and/or Health.
Because this project which will identify common themes in its participants’ personal
processes of lifestyle change, these writings and presentation(s) may include personal
data about me which could potentially be identifiable to persons who know me or who
know of me. My name will not be used in the reporting, and details of my stories will be
changed to ensure my anonymity.
Data obtained through this study will be stored electronically in files which are identified
by number rather than my name. The data key will be stored in an electronically locked
file separate from the researcher’s computer.
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Simple Wellness Study
Consent for Research Participation
Page Two
Participating in this research project may potentially benefit me as follows: The penciland-paper instrument for assessing health presents a very holistic way of evaluating and
considering one’s health status. This, and the focus group discussion which will follow,
may lead me to new understandings about my health and lifestyle choices.
Participating in this research may potentially cost me as follows: The individual
interview and the focus group interview will require three to five hours of my time. The
demographic survey and the health assessment instrument can be completed in less than
an hour. Compilation and reporting of the study data could include narrative vignettes
from my stories which those who know me might possibly attribute to me. Every effort
will be made to alter details to disguise my identity in such narratives.
I understand that I have the right to withdraw from this project at any time without
adverse consequences to me. If I have questions about this research project or its
procedures, I can contact Ms. Murray’s advisor at Seattle University, John Gardiner,
PhD, at (206) 296-6171.
My signature below indicates that I agree to participate voluntarily in this research
project and that my questions have been answered to my satisfaction.
Name___________________________________________________________________
Address_________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Telephone (Home)________________________
(Work)________________________
Signature________________________________
Date__________________________
MaryAnne C. Murray
11711 – 10th Avenue East
Tacoma, Washington 98445-8060
(253) 548-0163
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Appendix D
Solicitation Letter for Participants
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11711 – 10th Avenue East
Tacoma, Washington 98445-8060
Month, Day, 2004
Name
Street Address
City, State Zip
Dear (name):
The purpose of this letter is to invite your participation in a research project to study
voluntary simplicity and the health of people who simplify their lives. Your involvement
is sought because of your public acknowledgement of practicing voluntary simplicity.
The purpose of the study is to examine the process of simplification and its influence on
physical, mental and spiritual health of persons who practice voluntary simplicity. Many
of the books and articles on the topic of voluntary simplicity note stress reduction and
health-related issues among the prime motivators for people who choose to practice
voluntary simplicity. I want to find out more about how the journey of simplification and
health interact. This study will culminate in a dissertation for my doctoral degree in
education (EdD) at Seattle University. To date there have been fewer than three dozen
dissertations dealing with the topic of voluntary simplicity, so I believe simplicity is a
phenomenon ripe for further study.
If you choose to participate in the study, this is what I will need from you:
1. Completion of a survey (enclosed) providing demographic context of responses.
2. A face-to-face interview in which I will ask you questions about:
a. how you came to the decision to simplify your life
b. what your process of simplification has entailed
c. what you think about your physical, mental and spiritual health
d. how your physical, mental and spiritual health have changed since you decided to
simplify
e. your involvement in your community
This interview should take about one to two hours. I will need to audio-tape the
interview and transcribe the tape so that I can compare your story with the stories of
other participants.
3. Your completion of a pencil-and-paper instrument for assessing the state of your
health. This instrument will be given to you at the end of the interview.
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241
4. Your participation in a focus group with other study participants, to review and
discuss the data gleaned from the interviews and my field notes. In this group
session, each group member will have a set of the anonymous instrument results from
all of the participants.
When I write my dissertation, I will not identify you by name. Because of the possibility
that others who know you, or who know about you, might be able to discern your identity
in my reporting of your story, I will change details in my report to maintain your
anonymity.
I am eager to begin the interviewing process immediately. Therefore, I will telephone
you within the next week to arrange an interview at your convenience, or you may
telephone me at (253) 548-0163. I hope you will participate in my study, and I thank you
for your consideration.
Sincerely,
(signed)
MaryAnne C. Murray
Doctoral Candidate,
Seattle University
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Appendix E
Simple Wellness Study Participant Data
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The purpose of this survey is to collect background data from study Participants so that
interview time can be spent on the few, focused questions which require more thoughtful
responses. Please check the appropriate boxes:
Healthcare access and services:
Do you have health insurance?
! No ! Yes.
If yes, is your health insurance provided by an employer? ! No ! Yes
If you purchase your own health insurance, what is your monthly premium per person?
! Under $250
! $250-$399
! $400-$549
! More than $550
Have you established a relationship with a primary care provider (PCP)? ! No ! Yes
Who is your PCP?
! Physician (MD) ! Osteopath (DO) ! Naturopath (ND)
! Nurse Practitioner (ARNP) ! Physician Assistant (PA)
! Other (please specify) ______________________________
How many PCP and/or specialist visits have you made in the last year (past 12 months)?
! 0-2
! 3-5
! 6-10
! 11 or more
What other providers have you seen during the past year?:
! Acupuncturist
! Chiropractor
! Dentist
! Herbalist
! Hypnotherapist
! Massage Therapist ! Psychotherapist
! Other (please specify)__________________________________________________
Are you diagnosed with any chronic conditions, such as arthritis, asthma, heart disease
etc.? Please identify_______________________________________________________
Have you undergone any surgery in the past twelve months?
! No ! Yes
Have you been hospitalized overnight in the past twelve months? ! No ! Yes
Do you take any prescription medications on a daily basis?
! No ! Yes
If yes, number of daily medications? ! 1-2
! 3-5
! 6 or more
Do you take any vitamins or minerals on a daily basis?
! No ! Yes
What are your dietary habits? Do you consume…
Red meat? ! No ! Yes Pork? ! No ! Yes
Chicken? ! No ! Yes
Eggs?
! No ! Yes Cheese? ! No ! Yes
Cow’s milk? ! No ! Yes
Do you limit your meat consumption to organic/hormone free?
! No ! Yes
Do you try to limit your fruit/vegetable consumption to organic? ! No ! Yes
Do you grow your own fruits? ! No ! Yes
Vegetables? ! No ! Yes
Do you exercise regularly?
! No ! Yes
If yes, number of weekly episodes of exercise lasting 15 minutes or more?
! 1-2
! 3-4
! 5 or more
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Education: please indicate your highest level of formal education
! Not completed high school
! High School Graduate
! Associates Degree
! Bachelors Degree
! Masters Degree
! Doctoral Degree
Employment status
! Full time employment
! Unemployed (seeking work)
! Part-time employment (hours per week_______)
! Retired
Volunteer status: How many hours per month do you do volunteer (unpaid) work?
! None ! 0-5
! 5-10
! 10-15
! 15-20
! More than 20
For what kinds of organizations do you volunteer?
! Political
! Religious ! Education ! Peace/Antiwar
! Healthcare
! Other (please specify)______________________________________
How long have you been involved in the voluntary simplicity movement?
! less than 5 years
! 5 – 10 years
! 11 to 15 years
! 16 -20 years
! 21 to 25 years
! more than 25 years
What is your age?
! Under 35 years
! 35–49 years
! 50-65 years
! Over 65 years
What is your family/living status?
! Live alone ! Live with partner/spouse only
! Live with minor children only
! Live with partner/spouse and children
! Live communally with unrelated others
! Other (please specify)___________________________________________________
What is your religious affiliation?
! Atheist
! Agnostic ! Buddhist ! Catholic ! Hindu
! Jewish
! Muslim
! Protestant ! Other (please specify_____________________)
Are you currently a member of a church, mosque or synagogue? ! No ! Yes
Number of times you attend services in a month:
! 1-2
! 3 or more
How many times do you pray during an average week?
! 1-2
! 3 or more
What is your race/ethnic group? _____________________________________________
What is your approximate annual household income before taxes?
! Under $10,000
! $10,000 to $19,999
! $20,000 to $34,999
! $35,000 to $49,999
! $50,000 to $64,999
! $65,000 to $79,999
! $80,000 to $94,999
! Over $95,000
What are your income sources? Check all that apply:
! Stocks/Bonds ! Real Estate Investments ! Savings ! Trust Funds ! Royalties
! Salary/wages ! Other (please specify)__________________________
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Appendix F
Schedule of Individual Interview Questions
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Schedule of Individual Participant Interview Questions
1. How did you come to identify with voluntary simplicity?
2. When you started on the journey of simplification, what did you hope/expect to gain
from it?
3. How did you go about the process of simplifying?
4. What, in your opinion, are the essential elements of voluntary simplicity?
5. How would you describe health?
6. Please tell me about your health before you began the process of simplification.
7. How would you compare your health then versus now?
8. What does your involvement with voluntary simplicity have to do with education and
leadership in your community?
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Appendix G
Schedule of Focus Group Questions
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Schedule of Focus Group Interview Questions
First, the moderator will present thematic material gleaned from analyses of individual,
in-depth interviews. Then the following questions will be posed:
1. What would you add to the data about the essential elements of voluntary simplicity?
2. What would you add to the data regarding your understanding of health and wellness?
3. How do voluntarily simple people provide leadership in their communities?
After presentation of the Wellness Inventory (3rd Ed.) and the anonymous Wellness
Inventory Wheels of all the group members:
4. What new understandings come to you regarding the meaning and value of physical,
mental and spiritual health?
5. How might this information be used to positively influence the broader community?
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Appendix H
Simple Wellness Study Research Questions
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Simple Wellness Study
Research Questions
____________________
Research Questions
Pages 11 & 88
____________________
Individual Interview
Schedule Appendix F
____________________
Group Interview
Schedule Appendix G
1. What are the
essential
understandings of
voluntary simplicity
as described by
participants who
practice voluntary
simplicity?
1. How did you come
to identify with
voluntary
simplicity?
(Addresses Research
Question #2.)
1. What would you add
to the data about the
essential elements of
voluntary
simplicity?
(Addresses Research
Question #1.)
2. What is the internal
experience that leads
to lifestyle change in
embracing voluntary
simplicity?
2. When you started on
the journey of
simplification, what
did you hope/expect
to gain from it?
(Addresses Research
Question #3.)
2. What would you add
to the data regarding
your understanding
of health and
wellness?
(Addresses Research
Question #4.)
3. When people begin
to practice voluntary
simplicity, what do
they expect to gain
from it?
3. How did you go
about the process of
simplifying?
(Addresses Research
Question #2.)
3. How do people
practicing voluntary
simplicity provide
leadership in their
communities?
(Addresses Research
Question #6.)
4. How do practitioners
of voluntary
simplicity define
physical, mental and
spiritual health?
4. What, in your
opinion, are the
essential elements of
voluntary
simplicity?
(Addresses Research
Question #1.)
The remaining three
group interview
questions were asked
after presentation of the
Wellness Inventory and
Wellness Wheels.
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____________________
Research Questions
Pages 11 & 88
____________________
Individual Interview
Schedule Appendix F
____________________
Group Interview
Schedule Appendix G
5. How do practitioners
of voluntary
simplicity perceive
their physical,
mental and spiritual
health evolving over
the course of their
lifestyle changing?
5. How would you
describe health?
(Addresses Research
Question #4.)
4. What would you add
to the data about the
essential elements of
voluntary
simplicity?
(Addresses Research
Question #1.)
6. What do
practitioners of
voluntary simplicity
experience in
community
involvement and
leadership?
6. Please tell me about
your health before
you began the
process of
simplification.
(Addresses Research
Question #5.)
5. What would you add
to the data regarding
your understanding
of health and
wellness?
(Addresses Research
Question #4.)
7. How would you
compare your health
then versus now?
(Addresses Research
Question #5.
6. How do people
practicing voluntary
simplicity provide
leadership in their
communities?
(Addresses Research
Question #6.)
8. What does your
involvement with
voluntary simplicity
have to do with
education and
leadership in your
community?
(Addresses Research
Question #6.)
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Appendix I
Wellness Associates, Inc. Permission Letter
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253
Wellness Associates, Inc
Box 8422
Asheville, NC 28814
828-251-5594
[email protected]
www.thewellspring.com
October 29, 2003
Dear Ms. Murray:
The purpose of this letter is to respond to your request for permission to use materials
from the Wellness Inventory and the Wellness Workbook (2nd Edition) in your research
and dissertation.
For the Wellness Inventory, I understand you wish to use photocopies of the research
participants’ Wellness Wheels. Each participant will complete a new, purchased Wellness
Inventory. From these instruments, each participant’s Wellness Wheel will be
photocopied for each member of the Focus Group consisting of the research participants.
This will allow the Focus Group to consider similarities and differences among the
Wellness Wheels of the group members. Also, those Wellness Wheels will be included in
the appendices of your dissertation.
With regard to the Wellness Workbook (2nd Edition), you have requested authorization to
reproduce graphic representations of the Wellness Energy System, found on pages xxiii
through xxx, for non-commercial use with students.
I hereby grant permission for you to use the above-mentioned documents as you have
requested in the manner described herein.
Sincerely,
John W. Travis, MD
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Appendix I
Wellness Inventory
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Appendix K
Wellness Wheels of Simple Wellness Participants
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275
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Appendix L
Handout for Participants at Focus Group Interview
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