Is a simple life, a happy life?

Almost one month ago I wrote this blogpost: Is money making you rich? Today I'm going to talk a little bit more about this topic.

When I was scrolling through Facebook the other day I saw this quote passing by. The quote immediatly had my full attention. Is it really so that a simple life and lifestyle ensure a happy life? Or are there other things that can make your life happier? I thought about this and immediatly remembered my blogpost about Bob Marley. For me money isn't making me rich. Other things are. 

But now we aren't talking about money, we are talking about life. Just living the simple lifestyle. What is a simple lifestyle? For everyone it has a different meaning. For some it can be living your life to the fullest and not having much material things. For others it can mean something different. Maybe that you life a relaxed life and don't worry to much about a lot of things.

I'm going to tell you something about what I realised a couple of years ago. In 2017 I had the great opportunity to go to The Gambia. The Gambia is a small country in Africa in between Senegal. For me it was my first time going somewhere without my parents and outside Europe. I remember that just like it was yesterday. On the 4th of February 2017 I stepped in a plane with a lot of luggage. After 7 hours, almost 8 hours of flying I could touch the Gambian ground. It was so different then Belgium or even Europe. I went to The Gambia for my international internship. At that time I was still studying to become a teacher. So after the long flight I went to the Gambian guestfamily. I could stay ther during my internship, which lasted 3 months. During this 3 months I learned living with a minimal of material things. I hadn't any electricity at the family"s house nor did I had running water. There was a well in the backyard (which constisted only sand). Every morning I needed to fetch water from the well. Even to flush the toilet I needed to use this water. I didn't needed that much ther. It was always warm and the only shoes I wore were slippers. I had the time of my life over there. It's something I miss. In the Gambia time doesn't also excist for a lot of people. When it doesn't happen today it will tomorrow. It's something in our society that's hard to understand and to do. I find this a bit sad. Why do we always have a lot of stress? When I was staying in The Gambia I didn't had stress at all. I lived day by day. Even teaching was different then in Belgium. You don't have a lot of things over there. So you needed to help yourself with the things you have. This is an experience I will never forget. 

Here are some pictures to imagine how it was over there. Under the pictures I'm talking more about a simple life.

Enough now about The Gambia. I just wanted to show you that even if there they are smiling and living their life. They find it always fun and they life a happy life. This let me realize that in Belgium everything needs to go so fast. It's like only time excists and we need to have a big house and a lot of needs. But do we really need them? Isn't it much better to life day by day and that we don't need a lot of material things. Just the basics. For me this is a happy life. Having the things you really need and be happy every day. And the most important thing of all that we don't have a lot of stress because we need to do a lot of things in time. Living day by day brings a lot of less stress. Every day is different and during the day a lot of things can change. 

Friday I had some experience like that. I went to the supermarket to do my weekly shopping and when I wanted to go home I had a flat tire. I had already things in my mind that I wanted to do and suddenly for me everything collapsed like a house of card. So I called to someone special for me and he immediatly fixed my flat tire. Luckily I had a spare tire. You see I couldn't plan that this would happen but luckily for me I still have my car and nothing else happened. And the things I had planned turned out great. I still could do them after all. So if I take day by day I wouldn't be so upset if something goes wrong. 

The moral of this story is that I find a simple life the best life. I know I need to learn some things but I changed already a lot because of my experience. Maybe a simple life isn't something for you. But trying can never hurt anyone. Really try it and you will see it's much better to live like this. Oh, and let me know down here if you find a simple life better or if you have tried it. 

Toinon