Downshift Musings

I believe it was sometime in mid 2012 when a co-worker introduced me to Leo Babauta and his blog Zen Habits. I was a big iGoogle user and had my Firefox homepage set to my iGoogle portal with all of my widgets, including the RSS feed reader Google Reader. I think Zen Habits was the first blog I ever subscribed to and Leo really influenced a lot of the directions my life has taken since then. My favorite post is still Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life.

I now use Feedly and have quite a few blogs I love to follow:

• Zen Habits – The start of the journey.
• Slow Your Home – I love Brooke McAlary’s blog, especially the older posts before she switched to the podcast format. It is thanks to Brooke that I was introduced to Down To Earth.
• Be More With Less – Courtney Carver is very inspiring, especially for decluttering and living with less.
• Always Well Within – Sandra Pawula always illuminates the spiritual healing and peace that I am seeking in my quest for simplicity.
• Mark’s Daily Apple – I think the Primal lifestyle addresses a lot of the aspects of modern life that make us unhealthy and unhappy. Plus, Mark’s Weekend Link Love posts are always great reading.
• Down To Earth – Rhonda Hetzel’s absolutely lovely blog that has encouraged me to enjoy and take pride in homemaking.
• Green Living Ideas – A more commercial site, but still some good ideas.

Books:

• Practically Green: Your Guide to Ecofriendly Decision-Making by Micaela Preston – I got this e-book for free on my Nook e-reader but it really struck a chord with me.
• Down To Earth: A Guide to Simple Living by Rhonda Hetzel – A coffee-table-beautiful book full of inspiration and practical guidance.

For Green Cleaning and Other DIY Recipes:

• Don’t Mess With Mama -Tracey Black presents lots of DIY recipes and tutorials for cleansers and beauty products using essential oils.
• Clean Mama – Becky offers some good DIY green cleaners and lots of other home keeping advice.

For Blogging Encouragement:

• Just a Girl and Her Blog – Just the inspiration and firm nudge that I needed to get my blog created and start writing.