It Was Easier to Live Simply Until It Wasn’t

Australia was somewhere I’d never been, but my stepmother Mary was Australian and for my graduation present my parents took me on a trip there. My Dad was conducting the Sydney Symphony and Mary was excited to see her family. I was tagging along until I met Mary’s nephew, Anthony, whom I promptly fell in love with.

Once that happened, I had to live in Australia and I had to be with Anthony. But the intensity of my passion for Anthony was short-lived. In Australia I had started developing my dance career. I was busy choreographing for dance companies around the country and I absolutely loved it. One of those jobs happened to be in Byron Bay. A small coastal town close to the border of Queensland. I went up there to work, was blown away by the beauty of the beaches and the vistas and decided then and there that this was my new home. Damn the consequences.

And it happened. I soon found myself a new boyfriend, this one much crunchier (a lovely man who ate brown rice and vegetables and built his own house) and settled in like a pea in a pod.

Until I met Yoga and my beautiful teacher Louisa Sear. Then Yoga was all I could think about, dance went out the window. Louisa had just found a property with her then partner and invited me to buy in. It was a multiple occupancy, and they were looking for shareholders. I had a small inheritance and after sitting on the property one day, surrounded by bees and butterflies I intuitively knew I had to live there.

There I was in my early twenties, building a seven-sided house, on a pristine property with views of hills and wild rain forest, banging nails into the planks of my own outhouse and setting up rainwater and solar power. By then I’d met another nice somebody, who eventually became my husband. But leaving all the personal tales aside, suffice it to say living on and off the land in my twenties in a community of likeminded souls has stayed with me for life. It’s something it seems every millennial aspires to. I see it every day in my Instagram feed. That back to nature simplicity.

We’ve just finished watching “The Testament of Anne-Lee.” What a film! It beautifully illustrated how the Shaker movement and their religious beliefs encouraged a simple, pious lifestyle. The emphasis on working with one’s hands, building things as a community, dancing, and worshipping together was shown to inspire both wellness and wholeness. I was particularly moved by the scenes where the community danced together; it made me reflect on how shared rituals can foster a sense of belonging and peace.

In the movie they described the body as a tabernacle. I thought that was such an elegant word. And yet what appears fixed and contained, is not. The body on its own doesn’t know. The body has no sense of itself but we living in the body experiencing the whole array of creation are unlimited. Consciousness, who we are, is not confined to the body.

Still, we are identified with our bodies and because of that we experience the gamut when it comes to physical, mental and emotional states. We feel pain, our body reacts to things and out of habit we do too.

Our habits are a blessing and a burden. Habits enable us to maintain the body while some habits harm the body. We learn habits as children, strengthen our habits through education and form new habits through societal influence.

Now habits are pushed onto us by media conglomerates. We are marketed to and forced into ideas we never knew we had. This is especially prevalent now as I learn about the scent industry and the harm that artificial fragrance and perfumes can cause. Nearly 30% of the population are sensitive to fragrance. That’s not a small number. Fragrance eco warriors are sharing that fragrance is the new second hand smoke. I believe it.

It feels like we are moving into the era of the grand detox. Learning that chemicals are not the saviour we thought they were. Chemicals have their place for sure. Especially when it comes to life saving drugs. But surely the body and our genetics can’t survive forever in the chemical soup we are constantly bathing in.

Searching through hashtags for people going low tox and fragrance free I am discovering two things.

1. Sunshine, nature, healthy whole foods, simple cleaning products are aspirational. 2. Transitioning back to simplicity is expensive.

And when I approach hosts about making the switch to low tox and fragrance free cleaning products or switching to cotton sheets and non-stick pans, it feels edgy. How many of us are struggling right now to afford these things when plastic, Teflon and OMO are so cheap.

In my twenties it didn’t take effort to live simply. It was easy because my life wasn’t cluttered with options. When I lived and studied in India, a place which is by no means chemical free, I learned that the body is precious. That the life we have been given is the opportunity to discover the nature of who we are.

I truly believe that where we are in space matters and how we live and look after ourselves matters. It’s why I became so interested in Yoga and health and wellbeing in my twenties and why I continue to live with that ethos even as the world tries to influence my outlook. As I continue the search for fellow fragrance-free advocates who also have gorgeous home spaces in Australia I’ll keep pondering these thoughts.

If you’re in Australia and you know someone with a beautiful, genuinely fragrance-free home or holiday rental, I’d love to hear from them. I’m building the listings right now and every property we add makes this more useful for the people who need it most. Send them to lowtoxstays.com or simply share this post. Word of mouth from people who already get it is exactly how this starts.