December 8, 2019
Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. Do you want to be an informed person, rather than seem like one?
In fact, it is not difficult, it is enough to have a general idea of everything that is happening around.
Therefore, in our blog we try to tell in simple words about those words and concepts that we hear and use every day.
Today we will talk about what downshifting is and who a downshifter is, what he sees as the purpose of his life.
Downshifters: who are they?
Each person has his own priorities in life. Some people live for the sake of their family, others try to make a successful career, others have a favorite activity or hobby. Most of the inhabitants of Russia live like squirrels in a wheel, sometimes forgetting about basic things, for example, calling their parents.
Since childhood, we have been taught that it is necessary to have an education, to study well, to graduate from a university in order to have a good job, and much more. After all these goals are achieved, a person becomes a simple consumer who has everything, buys apartments, cars, but cannot devote time to himself, his life. But there are those who could change everything
– such people are called downshifters.
Literally from English, downshifting is translated as “switching a car to a lower speed, as well as slowing down or weakening any process.” Relatively recently, this term began to be applied to humans. It came to mean the human philosophy of “living for oneself”
. Downshifters are very close to this terminology, so this word is used to describe people who at one point decided to abandon their usual way of life and decided to abandon all the benefits of civilization.
Downshifting completely changes people’s worldview, that is, at some point a complete “reboot” occurs, after which people begin to understand that all these goals that they have been striving for all their lives are imposed by society. Also, turning points can occur in the life of every citizen, for example, when deposits are burned, life collapses, all acquired property is burned, and much more. As a result, a person begins to think: “What, exactly, is the meaning of life?” This is how many citizens of our country completely change their lives. As a rule, Russians prefer to move to quiet, remote villages
(in some cases these are villages in Southeast Asian countries).
One of the brightest representatives of downshifting can be called German Sterligov
, who exchanged a successful and happy life in an elite area for livestock farming and moving to a farm.
Also quite a prominent representative of Russian downshifting is Ivan Okhlobystin
. In the 90s, he was a fairly famous film actor, whose credits include such famous films as “DMB.” In 2001, he and his family decided to change their lifestyle and went to Tashkent and became a priest. However, the climate did not suit his wife, and the family was forced to return to Moscow. After 8 years of serving the church, he had to return to films due to the need to feed his large family, because he has 6 children. But in every interview he says that he will return to serving the church, perhaps in the near future.
Features of downshifting in different countries
The popularity of downshifting is growing, its principles are becoming dominant for more and more people on the planet.
In our country there are few such people - only about 1%, and in Australia - about 26%, in the USA - about 30%.
This suggests that the higher the standard of living of the population in a country, the more people stop thinking about material things and redirect the vector of their life aspirations.
The low percentage of downshifters in Russia is understandable. Agree, having an income at (or even below) the subsistence level, it is difficult not to think about making money, especially if there are minor children in the family.
Naturally, all aspirations in such a situation are aimed at ensuring that children are fed, clothed, shod, and educated. And this is money, and not a small amount of money, so parents have to strive for both career growth and the highest possible earnings. There is simply no time to think about yourself and your desires.
Although, it seems to me more that this is due to the harsh pressure of “rabid capitalism” (its bestial grin is especially evident in the States), when people constantly live in fear of losing everything, because it is all taken on credit. Downshifting for them is like breaking out of the shackles of fear.
The fact is that we inherited from the USSR free housing at that time, and in terms of the number of owners we are far ahead of even the European icon countries. There is at least a basis (housing), which in our country is not yet customary to mortgage and remortgage, as in the USA. And there is no animal fear of being a “loser.”
I know a family, they lived in a big city, had their own small business, the income of which was barely enough to live and educate their children. But when the children “flew out” of the family nest, this married couple sold their apartment in the city and bought a house in the village.
Coincidentally, their business collapsed, and at pre-retirement age it is difficult to find a job. So they became downshifters involuntarily: he began breeding rabbits and quails (and he really likes it), she began writing articles to order (and also finds pleasure in this).
They spend their leisure time together: they go for walks with dogs, travel by bicycle and by car, in general, they live “for themselves” and do not regret that everything turned out this way. This is what downshifting looks like in Russian “for the poor.”
In the USA, downshifting means living in a tent on the street of Los Angeles, fighting rats and bandits. This is for the "rich".
Another option is downshifting if you have a means of subsistence. As a rule, in this case, 2 outcomes are possible: the first - the person rested, gained new physical and moral strength, and then returned to the circle of his previous interests.
An example is the famous businessman German Sterligov , who lived with his family for 4 years on a remote farm, and then returned to his previous way of life. The second option is that a person becomes “rooted” in downshifting; he does not want to change his new way of life.
Downshifters from different countries have their own characteristics in terms of achieving the goal of “living for themselves.”
For example, in Australia , downshifters constantly change their place of residence. This lifestyle is reminiscent of the hippie movement of the last century. In the UK , downshifters focus on ecology: they grow organic products and care about the environment.
In Russia, downshifters leave for cheap countries to live (for example, India) or to villages or small towns in their own country.
Recently, there has been a tendency towards the establishment of tribal settlements, where like-minded people move with their families. As a rule, half of them stay, and half return to normal.
How do downshifters live?
This category of people decided to completely abandon “monetary slavery.” Downshifters do not want to “sell” their lives to employers, so they refuse good and highly paid jobs, leave their houses and cars, becoming quite happy without all this. Such people try to live in harmony with the surrounding nature and themselves
. Therefore, most often, downshifters move to countries with mild climates or rural areas and begin to live the life of a country person, devoting themselves to nature, animals and growing organic vegetables and fruits.
Omar Khayyam has an excellent poem that perfectly describes the lifestyle of a downshifter: “He who understands life is no longer in a hurry...”. People of this philosophical school have 5 basic rules that they try to follow:
- Time must be used wisely and efficiently.
- In life there should be a minimum of cash spending and money in general.
- The pace of life slows down.
- You need to enjoy communicating with your family and your children.
- Time should be spent on your self-development and your favorite hobby.
The most important thing here is not to confuse the concepts of simple idleness and downshifting. When a healthy person refuses to work and lives at the expense of his parents in search of his identity
, at the same time, without work experience and a stable income, such a person cannot be called a downshifter.
What is downshifting in simple words?
Downshifting is a voluntary renunciation of a career, high position and income for the opportunity to spend more time on oneself and communicating with family or friends.
Downshifters often say that they reject values imposed by society in order to achieve harmony and happiness. You can understand a millionaire who has achieved everything financially, provided for his family and now wants to live for himself, having a stable income from investments. But there are only a few such people, and there are clearly more downshifters.
Who most often becomes a downshifter?
After conducting various analyses, psychologists have identified three main groups of people who most often decide to become downshifters:
- Parental hostages.
Since childhood, this category of people obeys only their parents, that is, their parents decided for them where the child will study, where he will go to work, etc. In other words, a person does not live his own life, but lives the way his parents want. In the future, having already become adults, such individuals look for equally powerful and authoritarian spouses who will continue to dictate to them how to live. - Chronically tired people. This includes those people who often suffer from psychological and moral stress. People who cannot cope with the pace of life that they have chosen, people who do not see the “light at the end of the tunnel”.
- "Golden Child" This includes the category of people who are accustomed to living in grand style, who are accustomed to basking in luxury and not denying themselves anything. Having reached unprecedented financial heights, they want to live “for themselves,” so they change their usual way of life. Very often you can find former politicians and businessmen among downshifters.
Pros and cons of the downshifting philosophy
Downshifters are independent, free individuals
who decide for themselves what to do with their lives. They choose whether to sleep until lunch or work all night.
Their philosophy has not only a lot of advantages, but also an equally lot of disadvantages that are difficult to ignore:
| Advantages | Flaws |
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Most often, society believes that a downshifter is a parasite and a lazy person
who runs away from problems, but in fact he is a person striving for independence, trying to find his own peace of mind.
Downshifting is a new and multifaceted phenomenon. Not everyone sees downshifting as a way of life forever. For some, a short period of time is enough to gain invaluable life experience and lessons in order to begin moving forward in life.
However, when choosing such a lifestyle, you need to be mentally prepared for the fact that financial difficulties may arise.
and life in abundance will be replaced by a calm and measured existence without luxury and all earthly blessings.
Why is downshifting dangerous?
Let's see what happens to an ordinary person if he decides to become a downshifter:
- Giving up your career will lead to a decrease in income, which means a decrease in the quality of products and services that you can afford. Do you want a new car? No money left. Do you want to go on vacation? No money again.
- Since you give up your career, you will most likely stop growing professionally. This means that in the future it will be more difficult for you to find a job with good pay. You may have to take positions that do not require qualifications, such as working as a janitor or loader.
- Your family is unlikely to be happy with the decrease in standard of living. Passion for downshifting can lead to conflicts and even divorce.
- It will be difficult for you to give your children a decent education, since education in good universities is expensive.
- It will be difficult for you to help your parents. There is no need to explain that quality medical care is expensive, and it is not always possible to get the necessary services for free.
Beautiful pictures from beaches where downshifters surf, relax and live for their own pleasure are nothing more than an illusion. Firstly, to live this way, you need money and you need to earn it somewhere. Secondly, an idle life quickly gets boring.
