Simple Wellness - Root Systems Institute
Transcription
Simple Wellness - Root Systems Institute
Simple Wellness 1 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. Simple Wellness i 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 Simple Wellness ii 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. Simple Wellness iii 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 Simple Wellness 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 iv Simple Wellness 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 v Simple Wellness vi TABLES Table Page 1. Old and New Paradigms of Medicine................................................................. 44 2. Wellness Instrument Dimensions ....................................................................... 74 Simple Wellness vii 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 Simple Wellness 1 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 Simple Wellness 2 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). Simple Wellness 3 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. Simple Wellness 4 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 Simple Wellness 5 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 Simple Wellness 6 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 Simple Wellness 7 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. Simple Wellness 8 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 Simple Wellness 9 “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. Simple Wellness 10 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 Simple Wellness 11 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? Simple Wellness 12 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 Simple Wellness 13 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. Simple Wellness 14 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. Simple Wellness 15 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. Simple Wellness 16 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 Simple Wellness 17 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 Simple Wellness 18 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. Simple Wellness 19 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). Simple Wellness 20 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. Simple Wellness 21 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. Simple Wellness 22 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. Simple Wellness 23 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 Simple Wellness 24 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 Simple Wellness 25 (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 Simple Wellness 26 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. Simple Wellness 27 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). Simple Wellness 28 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 Simple Wellness 29 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 Simple Wellness 30 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. Simple Wellness 31 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 Simple Wellness 32 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 Simple Wellness 33 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. Simple Wellness 34 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 Simple Wellness 35 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 Simple Wellness 36 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 Simple Wellness 37 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. Simple Wellness 38 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 Simple Wellness 39 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 Simple Wellness 40 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 Simple Wellness 41 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. Simple Wellness 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 42 Simple Wellness 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 43 Simple Wellness 44 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. Simple Wellness 45 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. Simple Wellness 46 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 Simple Wellness 47 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 Simple Wellness 48 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- Simple Wellness 49 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, Simple Wellness 50 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 Simple Wellness 51 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. Simple Wellness 52 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 Simple Wellness 53 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 Simple Wellness 54 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, Simple Wellness 55 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 Simple Wellness 56 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 Simple Wellness 57 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: Simple Wellness 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 58 Simple Wellness 59 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 Simple Wellness 60 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). Simple Wellness 61 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 Simple Wellness 62 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 Simple Wellness 63 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 Simple Wellness 64 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, Simple Wellness 65 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 Simple Wellness 66 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 Simple Wellness 67 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. Simple Wellness 68 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 Simple Wellness 69 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) Simple Wellness 70 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 Simple Wellness 71 (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 Simple Wellness 72 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 Simple Wellness 73 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 Simple Wellness 74 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 Simple Wellness 75 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. Simple Wellness 76 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). Simple Wellness 77 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 Simple Wellness 78 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, Simple Wellness 79 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. Simple Wellness 80 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 Simple Wellness 81 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. Simple Wellness 82 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. Simple Wellness 83 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 Simple Wellness 84 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; Simple Wellness 85 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, Simple Wellness 86 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’ Simple Wellness 87 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 Simple Wellness 88 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? Simple Wellness 89 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, Simple Wellness 90 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: Simple Wellness 91 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 Simple Wellness 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. 92 Simple Wellness 93 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. Simple Wellness 94 (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 Simple Wellness 95 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 Simple Wellness 96 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 Simple Wellness 97 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. Simple Wellness 98 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 Simple Wellness 99 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). Simple Wellness 100 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 Simple Wellness 101 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. Simple Wellness 102 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 Simple Wellness 103 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 Simple Wellness 104 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, Simple Wellness 105 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. Simple Wellness 106 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. Simple Wellness 107 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. Simple Wellness 108 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 Simple Wellness 109 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 Simple Wellness 110 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 Simple Wellness 111 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. Simple Wellness 112 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 Simple Wellness 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 113 Simple Wellness 114 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). Simple Wellness 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 115 Simple Wellness 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 116 Simple Wellness 117 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 Simple Wellness 118 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 Simple Wellness 119 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). Simple Wellness 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 120 Simple Wellness 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 121 Simple Wellness 122 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: Simple Wellness 123 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 Simple Wellness 124 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 Simple Wellness 125 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). Simple Wellness 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 126 Simple Wellness 127 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, Simple Wellness 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). 128 Simple Wellness 129 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: Simple Wellness 130 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 Simple Wellness 131 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). Simple Wellness 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 132 Simple Wellness 133 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 Simple Wellness 134 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 Simple Wellness 135 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 Simple Wellness 136 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 Simple Wellness 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). 137 Simple Wellness 138 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 Simple Wellness 139 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 Simple Wellness 140 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 Simple Wellness 141 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 Simple Wellness 142 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. Simple Wellness 143 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 Simple Wellness 144 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. Simple Wellness 145 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 Simple Wellness 146 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 Simple Wellness 147 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 Simple Wellness 148 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, Simple Wellness 149 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 Simple Wellness 150 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 Simple Wellness 151 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 Simple Wellness 152 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). Simple Wellness 153 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 Simple Wellness 154 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 Simple Wellness 155 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 Simple Wellness 156 …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 Simple Wellness 157 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). Simple Wellness 158 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 Simple Wellness 159 [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. Simple Wellness 160 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: Simple Wellness 161 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 Simple Wellness 162 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: Simple Wellness 163 [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 Simple Wellness 164 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, Simple Wellness 165 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 Simple Wellness 166 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: Simple Wellness 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 167 Simple Wellness 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. 168 Simple Wellness 169 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 Simple Wellness 170 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 Simple Wellness 171 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 Simple Wellness 172 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. Simple Wellness 173 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 Simple Wellness 174 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 Simple Wellness … 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). 175 Simple Wellness 176 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 Simple Wellness 177 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 Simple Wellness 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). 178 Simple Wellness 179 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 Simple Wellness 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. 180 Simple Wellness 181 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). Simple Wellness 182 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 Simple Wellness 183 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. Simple Wellness 184 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 Simple Wellness 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. 185 Simple Wellness 186 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 Simple Wellness 187 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 Simple Wellness 188 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 Simple Wellness 189 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 Simple Wellness 190 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 Simple Wellness 191 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; Simple Wellness 192 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 Simple Wellness 193 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 Simple Wellness 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 194 Simple Wellness 195 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 Simple Wellness 196 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 Simple Wellness 197 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 Simple Wellness 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 198 Simple Wellness 199 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). Simple Wellness 200 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 Simple Wellness 201 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 Simple Wellness 202 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). Simple Wellness 203 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. Simple Wellness 204 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 Simple Wellness 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 205 Simple Wellness 206 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 Simple Wellness 207 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. Simple Wellness 208 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, Simple Wellness 209 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. Simple Wellness 210 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 Simple Wellness 211 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 Simple Wellness 212 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 Simple Wellness 213 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 Simple Wellness 214 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 Simple Wellness 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 Simple Wellness 216 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 Simple Wellness 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. Simple Wellness 218 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. Simple Wellness 219 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 Simple Wellness 220 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 Simple Wellness 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. Simple Wellness 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. Simple Wellness 223 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. Simple Wellness 224 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 Simple Wellness 225 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. Simple Wellness 226 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, Simple Wellness 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. Simple Wellness 228 Appendix A Seattle University Human Subjects Research Review Form Simple Wellness 229 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; Simple Wellness 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. Simple Wellness 231 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:_____________ Simple Wellness 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); Wed, 7 Apr 2004 12:04:16 -0700 X-Message-Info: JGTYoYF78jGN1SDcvmKvzxZMZjMAU4RK x-mimeole: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5.6944.0 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: Human Subjects Research Review Thread-Index: AcQcztt2FHAbtY83TJCEYUJK2oQHhgAAzFGC Return-Path: [email protected] X-OriginalArrivalTime: 07 Apr 2004 19:04:17.0484 (UTC) FILETIME=[201068C0:01C41CD3] 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 X-Message-Info: JGTYoYF78jHb4JUtosKPqvMyzXQsUtz2 x-mimeole: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5.6944.0 Content-class: urn:content-classes:message X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: Human Subjects Research Review Thread-Index: AcQc+CZqitnUafXNTFOMG8GfALZyQwAAJ72S Return-Path: [email protected] 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! Simple Wellness 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. Simple Wellness 238 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 Simple Wellness 239 Appendix D Solicitation Letter for Participants Simple Wellness 240 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. Simple Wellness 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 Simple Wellness 242 Appendix E Simple Wellness Study Participant Data Simple Wellness 243 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 Simple Wellness 244 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)__________________________ Simple Wellness 245 Appendix F Schedule of Individual Interview Questions Simple Wellness 246 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? Simple Wellness 247 Appendix G Schedule of Focus Group Questions Simple Wellness 248 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? Simple Wellness 249 Appendix H Simple Wellness Study Research Questions Simple Wellness 250 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. Simple Wellness 251 ____________________ 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.) Simple Wellness 252 Appendix I Wellness Associates, Inc. Permission Letter Simple Wellness 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 Simple Wellness 254 Appendix I Wellness Inventory Simple Wellness 255 Simple Wellness 256 Simple Wellness 257 Simple Wellness 258 Simple Wellness 259 Simple Wellness 260 Simple Wellness 261 Simple Wellness 262 Simple Wellness 263 Simple Wellness 264 Simple Wellness 265 Simple Wellness 266 Simple Wellness 267 Appendix K Wellness Wheels of Simple Wellness Participants Simple Wellness 268 Simple Wellness 269 Simple Wellness 270 Simple Wellness 271 Simple Wellness 272 Simple Wellness 273 Simple Wellness 274 Simple Wellness Composite of all participants’ Wellness Wheels 275 Simple Wellness 276 Appendix L Handout for Participants at Focus Group Interview Simple Wellness 277 Simple Wellness 278 Simple Wellness 279 Simple Wellness 280 Simple Wellness 281 Simple Wellness 282 REFERENCES Abanobi, O. (1986). Content validity in the assessment of health status. Health Values, 10(4), 37-40. Adams, T., Bezner, J., Drabbs, M., Zambarano, R., & Steinhardt, M. (2000). 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