Add up the constant barrage of information most of us are bombarded with and is it any wonder that we can’t sleep, we can’t concentrate, we can’t stick with things, we can’t make a choice, we can’t ever be satisfied? That we turn to shopping, consuming, and eating to make us happy? It’s all too much:

Garbage Television
Books
Magazines
Twitter
Facebook
Google +
Computers
iPads
Tumblr
Kindles
Electronic Billboards
Smartphones
Garbage Movies
Talentless Music
RSS Readers
Breaking News
Etc
Etc
Etc

When does it end? Where does it stop? I’m just as guilty as the next guy to get into that “information consumption” race that goes on every hour of every day. Constantly clicking from one link to another to Twitter to email; AHHHHHHHHH

A long while back I wrote about taking a digital sabbatical once in a while, and I wanted to bring that up again. Today I found myself overwhelmed by all the reading, writing, and commenting I was trying to keep up with for hours on end since 9:30 this morning. After reaching 2:30 without stopping for lunch, I realized what I was doing and finally put the computer to sleep, walked over to my Eames lounger, and took a cat nap.

It was a fantastic 25 minutes.

Let’s face it; nothing that most of us are doing all day is life-savingly important. Let’s start treating it that way if we can. Take a break. Go outside for 10 minutes. Read some fiction. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. (OK, don’t do that) Get on your bike. Pour some coffee.

Do something, anything, other than consuming for a few minutes every once in a while. Pull a reality check on yourself and what you are doing.

Your sanity along with your blood pressure will thank you.

For this episode of Far Out, VICE went to Chilean Patagonia to meet Faustino Barrientos, one of Lake O’Higgins’ most infamous inhabitants. Lake O’Higgins comprises a portion of the border between Chile’s Aysén region and Argentina’s Santa Cruz province. Since 1965, Faustino Barrientos has lived alone on the shores the lake, in a house built from the remains of a shipwrecked fishing vessel. He’s a pastoralist, living mostly off the land and his livestock, with few modern amenities. His nearest neighbors are in Villa O’Higgins, a small community of several hundred people, 25 miles away, accessible only by a two-day horseback ride through rugged mountain animal paths. Every few years, Faustino makes this ride to sell his cattle in town. Check out the video:

Now THAT is simple living.

Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.

-Leonardo da Vinci