Creating A Simple Life

One of the aspects of blogging I love is being inspired by fellow bloggers. One of the blogs I am regularly inspired by is MommyEmu.

Emma (said blogger) recently set up a six week course Creating a Simple Lifestyle run through a facebook group. I signed up in a rash moment – I did not regret it!! The course encouraged us to think about a different aspect of our lives each week. Naturally some weeks were easier than others, for me the most difficult week was focussing on looking after my mind and body by exercising and eating healthily. This remains a work in progress.

The prompts encouraged me to tackle areas I had not quite found the energy for, for instance the first week was decluttering. I set myself the goal of finally listing the pile of belongings I had for ebay with the aim of raising enough cash to replace the ripped curtains in our bedroom, and the broken wicker toy basket in the lounge with a wooden blanket box. This week I achieved this goal – I managed to win 16 metres of new curtain fabric on ebay for £60, and the curtains are now sewn and hung up. The old curtains which were ripped and slightly damp damaged were taken to my local Councils reuse event. They are working in partnership with the Salvation Army regarding textile waste. The broken toy basket has gone, along with the broken toys and I have a beautiful second hand blanket box filled with blankets!

As a result of the course I feel more in charge of our home, it is tidier, cleaner, with less belongings. I also feel more content with life. Like most people I have periods where I feel a little emotional with life. One of the prompts was to write down each evening five parts of the day to be grateful for. This is such a positive way to end the day, giving thanks and feeling appreciative. I find I am often grateful for hugs with my children, my husband, food to eat, and catching up with friends. Such a simple idea can make such a difference.

But back to MommyEmu, In case you haven’t met Emma before I thought I would briefly ask her a few questions.

What initially inspired you to set up your blog?

Initially my blog Mommy Emu was just an online diary for my self to look back on to see how much my family had grown and developed to live a earth friendly, sustainable simplistic lifestyle. I never thought any one would be interested in anything I had to say let alone follow me. 2 years down the line my blog has changed and developed into not only my on line diary but also a place where I can spread the word and support people in their own journey on how simple it is to make a few changes to your life with no extra cost (in fact saving money) to look after our planet and live a prosperous life we are designed to live.

How did you learn and grow from running the creating a simple lifestyle course?

I created the group Creating A Simple Lifestyle group  for one reason, to help and encourage other people that they can live their dreams if they just make a few simple changes to their life and learn to listen to your inner self rather than listening to the outside world to control your destiny. During spending time with the group members I felt it would be good to run a mini simple living course tackling all the things other courses or books don’t. Setting up the course was the easy bit but pushing my self forward to the front line meant I had to step out from my comfort zone (as its easy to hide behind a computer screen)  and each week, sit in front of the camera to record a welcome to this weeks topic video.  But although the first few videos felt uncomfortable as the weeks went on I found them easier and looked forward to making them. Hosting this course has not only made me step out of my comfort zone but it also enabled me to grow as in our simplistic lifestyle through group discussion, embracing other peoples ideas and picking up tips from group members each week.

Are you planning on running it again?

Yes, although slightly different, with new things being added and other things being taken away. I recently took time out of Mommy Emu to spend time mending and recuperating my body as my family started a new chapter in our life. I learnt a lot from taking that time out and these things I am going to introduce into the course where some parts of the course I don’t feel are necessarily important to have as part of the course anymore. I guess its the same as life, as our life grows and moves forward so does the Creating A Simple Life course. I must say all the course material from the last course, people can still access on the group events page. I will be starting the next course on the 5th September 2015 but in the mean time starting on Monday 8th June 2015 I will be running a mini catch up course related to course we have just all completed, with prompt days to make us all think how we can all move forward in our journey to live a simplistic, earth friendly lifestyle.  Watch this space is all I can really say as there are some really exciting things to come!

You recently published an ebook “Creating a simple lifestyle workbook ” Tell us a little about it…

Tell us a little about it… In 2013 I had an accident that left me unable to walk for 6 months and having to under go major surgery on my knee. During my time of recovery, I had time to think about our life style and how our lifestyle was having an effect on our family. Like most people we lived on the roundabout rat race, always chasing our tail and never reaching any of our dreams. I decided during this time from now on our lives had to to change, our lives had to slow down and we had to start living our dreams.  So I closed my business down and started to create a life for my family I thought we should be living. Fast forward a few years to 2015 and our lives are so removed from the rat race that I thought it could ever be. We are living out five of our dreams we never thought was going to be possible, we have so much time in the day to enjoy each other company, explore the world around us, learning from mother earth, our children are learning and experiencing life in new ways all the time and we are enjoying living a FREE life. But don’t think we have jacked in working and earning money, although we enjoy living a simplistic lifestyle the bills still need to be paid. My husband works as a Taxi driver and I work for Mommy Emu running courses in my community and one on one support for families who would also like to jump off the rat race roundabout but despite our jobs we are able to live the life we have always wanted. During one sleepless night I felt heavy heart’d that there are so many people that can become FREE from the rat race the same as we have achieved through a few simple changes, I got up,  wrote loads of notes over a cuppa and dimmed light. By the morning Creating A Simple Life Style ebook was born. This ebook is for everyone who is considering or are just starting out on their journey to a simplistic lifestyle, packed full of tips I have found useful over the last 2 years, (which I wish  someone had told me them when we first started our journey),  packed full of questions for everyone to ask them selves and help them achieve living out their dreams instead of thinking their dreams will never be reality.  This book is not just about declutering your home but runs deeper by looking at your inner soul and make up because living a simple lifestyle starts from your inner core and works outward rather than the other way around. I have designed this ebook like a workbook so people can work through the book at their own pace and has lots of areas where you can take notes and answer questions. This book also runs along side the Creating A Simple Life Facebook community group so we can support each other along side our journey to live a simplistic lifestyle. 

Emma can offer 10 readers a discount offer price on the ebook so you only  pay £6 instead of £10.00.  The discount you need to add at check out is af06ff129e.

This week I am hoping to make up Emma’s bathroom soap recipe, far more fun than curtain making (did I mention that I really do not like curtain making, never mind two pairs each with two and a half widths of fabric???) – do check out her blog🙂