What Lifestyle Makes You Happy?

Lifestyle is the attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and behavioral orientations of individuals, group, or society. The word was first introduced by Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler in his famous book, The Case of Miss R. With the implied meaning of “the basic nature of human beings as established at birth”. Since then, the meaning of the word has evolved to include a variety of concepts which include the following:

There are various definitions of lifestyle, yet each definition is very specific to a given situation or individual. Even within a given lifestyle there can be tremendous variation depending upon the values and perspectives of those who view it. Some people believe that the word lifestyle can be limited to the choices we make in a daily basis. It also includes all the choices we make concerning the education, careers, social relationships, cultural activities, and even within the home.

A lifestyle is influenced by the physical environment as well as by the people who live in it. There is a great deal of difference between a rural environment and one in the urban environment. In a rural setting, the people are surrounded by nature, they have abundant resources at their disposal, and they spend their leisure time in community with others. In the urban metropolis, the lifestyle is sedentary, the people spend most of their time at work or with co-workers, they have little or no interaction with nature and often spend money on tangible factors such as consumer goods that do not contribute to their lifestyle at all.

What separates a rural from an urban lifestyle? One of the major factors that separate rural from urban lifestyles is “lifestyle capital”, or the accumulated tangible factors that a person has made themselves by living a certain way for a long period of time. Living a lifestyle of great prosperity starts with gathering these tangible factors and developing a culture of self-sufficiency. This culture includes the use of state-of-the-art gadgets, good quality goods, access to advanced education and other “culture enhancement.”

The difference between a rural environment and an urban environment is the lifestyle of those in each. The people in the rural environment acquire their sense of culture and self-sufficiency through generations of family assistance. Whereas, the people in the urban metropolis acquire their sense of culture and self-sufficiency through technological advancements and the invention of things such as the television and the computer. Both lifestyles, however, share one core trait: both groups have a strong desire for more leisure time and a stronger sense of community and social responsibility.

The lifestyle of the urban artisan is also influenced by the daily lives of his or her neighbors. Urbanites have a strong desire to own more things and to consume things that are better and cheaper than the things they had before. They also want to contribute to the maintenance of the planet. Both lifestyles are similar: both encourage people to take responsibility for their own life and to participate actively in the preservation of the world. So, whether you choose to live in a suburban sprawl or a mountain hideaway, a vegan lifestyle or a minimalist lifestyle, you will be contributing to the continuing well-being of the planet by choosing to lead a responsible lifestyle.