Downshifting is a social behavior or trend in which individuals live simpler lives to escape from what critics call the rat race of obsessive materialism and to reduce the “stress, overtime, and psychological expense that may accompany it”. It emphasizes finding an improved balance between leisure and work and focusing life goals on personal fulfilment and building relationships instead of the all-consuming pursuit of economic success. The term also refers to the act of reducing the gear of a motor vehicle while driving a manual transmission. Downshifting, as a concept, shares many characteristics with simple living, but is distinguished, as an alternative form by its focus on moderate change and concentration on an individual comfort level, a gradual approach. In the 1990s this new form of simple living began appearing in the mainstream media and has continually grown in popularity among populations living in industrial societies, especially the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia.

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