http://dotcowboy.com a life worth living simply! Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:39:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en On this site, I embrace a 400-word limit (unless it doesn’t make sense). It forces me to be concise, to focus on smaller topics, to choose the important, to be creative. Yes: constraints force us to be creative. Often, constraints, limitations, are seen as a negative, but to me they’re a feature. ... http://mnmlist.com/constraints/ While there are many pharmaceuticals available to induce sleep, there are centuries-old traditional techniques that can get you your zzz’s naturally. http://health.yahoo.com/experts/drmao/24717/sleep-solutions-from-chinese-masters/ Today I deleted 1,031 friends from Facebook. It was liberating. As I talked about before, having a ton of friends on social networks is a major pull on your attention, and results in superficial relationships anyway. I prefer deeper relationships when possible. Facebook hasn’t worked well for me as a social network ... http://mnmlist.com/facebook-friends/ Now that I’ve learned to look at things with the lens of simplicity, I can see others making mistakes I’ve made in the past. I want to gently say to them — and to my past self — “Stop making things so complicated!” I’m not going to criticize how other people do ... http://mnmlist.com/stop-making-it-complicated/ There’s a famous Zen story that goes: A monk told Joshu, “I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.” Joshu asked, “Have you eaten your rice porridge? The monk replied, “I have eaten.” Joshu said, “Then you had better wash your bowl.” At that moment the monk was enlightened. I’m not going to try to ... http://mnmlist.com/wash-your-bowl/ A couple days ago I wrote about alternatives to buying new things, and someone replied on Twitter: “I want to have the money to buy new things!” Or something like that (I’m too lazy to go back and find the tweet). This echoes a pretty common sentiment: many people don’t want to ... http://mnmlist.com/the-lust-for-stuff/ This is a test entry. Pls ignore. Just testing: list list item another one http://mnmlist.com/testing/ “You can rest when you’re dead.” This is a saying that really resonates with our modern culture, where we are pressured to work hard and then play hard. There is no way around it: If you don’t rest regularly, you’ll be dead a lot sooner. Here are 5 ways to ... http://health.yahoo.com/experts/drmao/24608/5-ways-to-avoid-burn-outs/ This post will strike a nerve with some readers, as many minimalists or aspiring minimalists are die-hard carnivores. They love their meat and don’t want to hear anything against it. Well, hear me out, please. If you could read to the end of the post before disagreeing, blasting me, or dismissing ... http://mnmlist.com/the-minimalism-of-veganism/ We all have desires – it’s part of the human condition. We want to be loved, to have friends, to experience joy, to have security. But a desire for things is not as natural as we’re often led to believe. Sure, we all have desires for things: nice cars, nice clothes, nice ... http://mnmlist.com/letting-go-of-desires/