Is the Recession a Holiday Gift?

"We assume the recession is a bad thing, but it may actually be a blessing," says Sharashkin, editor of The Ringing Cedars Series (Ringing Cedars Press, June 2008, ISBN: 978-0-9801812-0-3, $15.95). "Why? Because it forces us to re-evaluate the way we live. As a culture, Americans need to slow down, cut our consumption, rediscover our spiritual selves. Most people spend too much money mindlessly, and worse than that, we spend our precious time mindlessly. The recession can inspire us to get mindful about both."

Sharashkin offers the following hints for unearthing the recession's hidden gifts:
Re-evaluate your work life. Are you working too much? Does what you do make you unhappy?
Make a conscious decision to consume less.
Quit spending so much money on the people you care about. Instead, spend time with them.
Take a TV sabbatical. Watching TV saps your time and energy. It overstimulates your senses, making relaxation more difficult—especially close to bedtime. And it's particularly harmful to children, whose minds and value systems are highly impressionable.
Create and nurture a vegetable garden. The Ringing Cedars Series frequently references Russian Dachniks—gardeners who live on small plots of land and spend much of their free time cultivating abundant fresh food gardens that produce the majority of the fruits and vegetables that make up their diets.

"Suffering has a purpose: It signals the need for change," he says. "And it's often the precursor to immense growth. The pain America is feeling from the recession is telling us we must change our unsustainable ways.
"You may think, well, I can't change America, but you can because we're all connected," adds Sharashkin. "You can change your own life. Your family can change theirs. Your neighbor, inspired by how much happier you seem, can change his. Every life touches other lives, which in turn, touch still other lives. And if the recession can facilitate this kind of change, it's a great blessing indeed."