Money is a funny beast. From an early age, I learnt that one is supposed to care about money. The adults seemed to want me to learn to save, invest, make safe bets, be financially savvy and choose a career with good prospects for a well-paid job. From these adults, I also learnt that money equals security. So it was not a surprise they were not happy with my decision to study arts. It is not a safe bet, you will struggle, they said. Those ideas must have gone deep in my core because my relationship with money has been anxious ever since I can remember. And I never really gave my creative practice the care and attention it deserved.

I don’t want money to rule my decisions any more. I want to do things differently. I don’t want to keep making safe bets and choosing the job with the steady weekly pay while my creative self shrinks and pains at the back of a dusty drawer. As it turns out, the economic security the adults taught me to pursue only leads to a depressing sense of dissatisfaction. More and more I have been thinking that making choices based on whether they will be ‘good for my career’ just doesn’t make sense anymore. I think the pursuit of money and “career” has done enough damage to our world. Surely there’s a better way to do things?

I want to step out of that false security and ask myself, what do I really want to do? How can I do things differently? Can I be less fearful? How can I share the things I’ve got to give? Are there different ways to make a living other than trying to monetise our gifts? I want to live fully. I want to reconnect with my true self and nourish the soul. I want to attune myself to the rhythms of the Earth and explore, experiment and live a creative life. And to do that I know that I need to simplify my living because I don’t see any other way to make it work. I want to live a life that makes sense to me. That’s why I’m starting this Simple Living Journal. It’ll be an account of the things that I’m experimenting with and what I learn in this ride.