S2.E1: Detachment - with Daniel Britton
For the very first time, Kayla interviews her husband Daniel in episode 1 of Season 2. Together they talk about what it's like to live in a tiny house and the experience of detaching from most of the "stuff" they owned. Kayla challenges listeners to focus on what they value most in life rather than on material things.
Kayla Rain (3s):
I'm just the girl next door, who believes that the purpose of life is to enjoy, create and have fun. I believe that as humans, we can have anything we want and things are always working out for us. Experience has taught me that the path to getting everything begins with ease. If you believe in miracles and happily ever after, or even if you just want to, then this is the podcast for you. Hi there. I'm your host, Kayla rein, and welcome back to attract it with ease. It's been about nine months since I recorded a podcast episode and released a podcast episode.
Kayla Rain (49s):
And this is episode one of season two. I have to say that I am so excited to be back with you all. And I have so many fun things in store for this season today. I have an awesome, exciting guest with me, someone I am so excited to be recording with. And that's my husband, Daniel. I have talked about him on prior podcasts episodes from season one. And this is the first time I've had Daniel record with me. In fact, it's actually the first time that Dan has seen me record. So welcome to the podcast. Stan.
Daniel Britton (1m 25s):
Thanks. Excited.
Kayla Rain (1m 28s):
Happy to have you here. So if this is your first time listening in, I start every episode with gratitude. And the reason that I do that is this is a law of attraction podcast. Everything that we talk about is in relation to the law of attraction in some way or another, but we start every episode talking about things that we're grateful for, because it's just kind of the magic that makes it all happen. First of all, it shifts our thoughts, which shifts our energy. Actually, the more that we appreciate the things that we have now, the more that we attract more things to appreciate. I like to say the better it gets, the better it gets. So Dan, I asked you to come prepared with three things that you're grateful for.
Kayla Rain (2m 12s):
And why can you share with our listeners what those things are?
Daniel Britton (2m 16s):
You mean other than the glass of wine that you poured me before we started recording?
Kayla Rain (2m 20s):
Well, the truth is you poured the wine
Daniel Britton (2m 23s):
Good point. Yeah, actually I have a little list here. The three things that I came up with the first one is a healthy relationship. Something that I have not had as much in the past. And you know, to me, healthy relationship is one that includes open communication, unconditional love, and support. And ever since I met you and we started this amazing journey that we've been on for a little over six years going on seven I've. I felt that, and I still feel that to this day, even living in a 160 square feet with you for three years.
Kayla Rain (3m 8s):
So I have to say, it's not fair to make me cry. On the first episode of season two,
Daniel Britton (3m 16s):
I feel like our vows all over again. Second one for me is a good career. You know, years ago I came out of the oil field and started to pursue a passion of mine in photography and loved it, but struggled. And you know, it was, it was feast or famine a lot of times. And so since being here in Reno where we live now, you know, I've found a stable job with a good company that, you know, allows me to still access and, you know, pursue my creativity. And, you know, it gives me an opportunity to kind of stretch my skills and so many different ways with all of the past history that I have and the skills that I have.
Daniel Britton (4m 3s):
And so, you know, that's been something that's been a pretty big change for ever since we started dating over the last couple of years, having that stability.
Kayla Rain (4m 13s):
I love that
Daniel Britton (4m 15s):
My third one, which you know, is kind of one that may seem a little silly, but you know, I'm grateful for my ability to, to visualize the life I want with you, with my wife. You know, we constantly dream about, you know, the perfect home and the perfect place and the, what that life leads us, you know, to, and, you know, I feel like even though we live in, you know, this small space, we still have the ability to, to dream and, you know, just not let the day-to-day of life get in the way of, you know, our ultimate goals and dreams.
Daniel Britton (4m 57s):
And, you know, I feel like a lot of people, I mean, you know, I'm guilty of it to just get caught up in the mix and then you just go day in and day out and you don't, you know, keep, you, don't keep focusing on, you know, what you, what you ultimately want. And, you know, I feel like we are always talking about that, you know, the perfect piece of property, the perfect house that we could see on that property.
Kayla Rain (5m 22s):
Yeah. Well, I have to say that I love all three things that you're grateful for and I need to rewrite mine because mine seems so much more superficial than that. So thank you for sharing. The first thing that I have on my list today is, and I might've even said this at some point on season one, but today was a hot one. Finally, finally, the weather's changing, but I am grateful for an ice cold beverage on a hot day. I spent much of the day today on a nature walk and was outdoors because the weather was beautiful and it was, it was so nice, so nice to get out into the sunshine, but it was also nice to come home and, and be able to enjoy a nice cold beverage.
Kayla Rain (6m 12s):
So I'm so grateful that that's something that we have. I know that there's other countries that maybe don't even know what that's like, maybe ice isn't even a thing in some places. So I'm grateful for that. Number two, you and I haven't even shared this with you yet, Dan, but on my nature walk today, I saw us form. That's probably not what it's called, but a swarm of turtles, what's it, what's a plethora of turtles called
Daniel Britton (6m 38s):
I would think a gathering.
Kayla Rain (6m 42s):
They were definitely gathering. There were so many turtles and I was so just pleasantly surprised to run into these hurdles, which definitely did not want me to get very close to them, but I took some pictures and they were so cute. I saw birds, I saw ducks, but the turtles just made my day. I am so grateful for the wildlife that surrounds us and the ability to, to live peacefully with them. And the number three, I am so grateful that my passport came in time for our vacation. Next month.
Daniel Britton (7m 16s):
That's critical.
Kayla Rain (7m 18s):
I am my passport expired and I needed to change it to my new last name. Because those of you that remember from season one last, I recorded Dan and I were just engaged. And the last episode of season one, I talked about all the things that were working out for me in regards to the wedding plans. Well, we did it, we tied the knot. We eloped in Yosemite. It was a very private, beautiful, intimate ceremony. And we had a wonderful honeymoon and now we're ready for another vacation. It's several months later and, and we're ready. And I'm so grateful that the pandemic has kind of calmed to the point that we can finally leave the country.
Kayla Rain (7m 59s):
And I'm so grateful. My passport arrived at in time.
Daniel Britton (8m 2s):
Yeah, no, I I'm grateful for that too. Cause I would've hated to take that vacation alone.
Kayla Rain (8m 7s):
Ha So today I want to talk about something that I think you will easily be able to reflect on. In fact, you alluded to it quite a bit in just your gratitude. We're going to talk quite a bit about what it's like to live tiny, but I promise that it does relate to the law of attraction. And let me kind of explain what I mean by that. I've recently been reading a book called think like a monk it's by Jay Shetty. And I'm only about a third of the way into the book, but at the very beginning he has you reflect on what your personal values are. So I've really spent some time trying to determine what are my values.
Kayla Rain (8m 49s):
And it's funny because you kind of think, you know, what your values are until somebody asks you to list them.
Daniel Britton (8m 54s):
That's true.
Kayla Rain (8m 55s):
And then
Daniel Britton (8m 56s):
For me,
Kayla Rain (8m 57s):
I asked you, I said, what are your values? And you did not know. And I didn't know initially either, but I've tried to start developing lists and I keep adding to it. But I'm just mentioning some of the things on my list. One of my values is family. One is freedom. One is nature. I value service. What
Daniel Britton (9m 20s):
I said, those are all good. Sorry.
Kayla Rain (9m 21s):
Well, they can, whether they're good or not, it doesn't really matter. They're my values. So what you think doesn't really matter, but I value growth and peace. And I don't know if I said compassion, but those are some of the things that I came up with my values. And what I thought was interesting is after you reflect on your values, Jay Shetty, the author of think like a monk, has you kind of start looking at how much of your free time and how much of your free money or I don't mean free money, but expendable income is more what I'm trying to say, how much of that is spent on your values versus on things that you don't value.
Kayla Rain (10m 10s):
And so when I really started thinking about that, I realized that not a single one of my values has anything to do with tangible physical items. But a lot of my money in a lot of the world spends their money on material things, whether it's clothes or makeup or cars or houses or all of those things, those items that we tend to spend our income on. And often our time on probably don't make our values list. What do you think about that?
Daniel Britton (10m 42s):
No, I think that's true. I mean, I think, I think when you say the term values, most people, you know, reflect too. Like what are your family values? You know, like not necessarily what you value as a person, you know, like I value my car because it gets me to, and from work, you know, that sort of thing.
Kayla Rain (11m 3s):
Well, I would say you appreciate it, but when you, when you talk about what do you really value in life? I don't know that car makes it to the list. And I really doubt that it does for anyone, if you really were asked to list like your top 10 values, I don't think your car would be on there for anyone and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there's somebody out there who's like raising their hand, like, no, that's me. But I really think at the end of the day, what's really important to us are the relationships we have and the kind of people that we are and how we're able to give back. And when we look around at the things that we appreciate, I think it is nature and beauty for so many of us.
Kayla Rain (11m 43s):
And so it's funny that we tend to spend so much money on physical, tangible things. And so this conversation kind of leads me into our lifestyle, which you alluded to a couple of times for those that aren't aware of Dan and I live tiny dandy. You want to explain to our listeners what I mean by we live tiny.
Daniel Britton (12m 3s):
We live tiny on a whole separate level than most people we live in Hank. That's what we've named our tiny house. It is a 1990 military truck, five ton. <inaudible> on the back of it is a cabin of sorts if you will. That is, I like to describe it as the average walking closet Size, the size of a walk-in closet for, you know, the average home that is being built these days, but it is 160 square feet. It is very quaint, very compact.
Daniel Britton (12m 43s):
And at times being six foot four is very awkward to climb in and out of bed to go into the closet, to grab my clothes, to just go into the bathroom. So it is very tiny. It is tinier than most people than most people have the care to live nor the dream. And not only that, what's, what's kind of ironic about our tiny house is it's tiny on a giant truck.
Kayla Rain (13m 14s):
That's true. So let me ask you, why did you decide to go tiny?
Daniel Britton (13m 22s):
When we first started talking about when we first started dating maybe six months and year into it, we started talking about what we wanted out of life. And for me, I had been in the, you know, corporate, somewhat corporate, I guess the oil field isn't so corporate, but in that corporate world where I just literally chased a paycheck, whatever I could do to make as much money as I humanly possibly could. And I realized looking like at the end of that season in my life, I realized that like I was not doing anything that fulfilled me and it wasn't, you know, fulfilling.
Daniel Britton (14m 3s):
Yes, it was great to be able to take care of the people that I cared about and you know, have money. But I re I also realized that money isn't everything, and that's not fulfilling. Some people might disagree with that, but for me, I wanted to pursue something that really, you know, was more fulfilling for me and I, you know, chose photography and in doing so, you know, my goal was to not only fulfill myself, but also, you know, have less to be able to do more. And that was one of the things that I remember, you know, when we started talking about going tiny, that, that we were in like such in sync with, you know, is we didn't care about all, we, you know, our first house that we got together was much too large and, you know, huge.
Daniel Britton (15m 2s):
And we didn't, we didn't need all that space. And we had double the furniture and, you know, as we started getting rid of things and then, you know, we eventually moved to Sedona. It was like, yeah, we don't need nearly, like, you just realize how much you, how much crap you just accumulate.
Kayla Rain (15m 19s):
Yeah. I think every time a person moves, they realize how much stuff they own. It's so easy to not really feel the weight of the things that you own until you physically have to move it because we have a tendency to put it in drawers and in closets and behind drawers and packed away in the garage. And we don't actually really know how much we own and tell we move it to another location. And especially if that location is smaller than the first one, trying to find a space for everything is, is where I think people recognize, oh my gosh, I have way too much stuff. Yeah. So when we first started talking about going tiny, we talked about a lot of different options. We really considered buying a school bus and converting it.
Kayla Rain (16m 2s):
We talked about potentially buying an ambulance and converting it. We talked about all the non-traditional ways that we could go tiny. And at the time we were looking at potentially a life on the road in all of those conversations until right before we moved into Hank, I don't think we had any idea that we would go as small as we have. Would you agree?
Daniel Britton (16m 26s):
No, I would totally agree. I mean, you know, we bought, we bought the vintage teardrop trailer that we renovated yeah. There. And you know, that was going to be more of kind of a weekend or, you know, adventure. But when we finished that, we were like, holy crap, this is really small. The interior of it was the size of a full size bed. It was, you know, not large at all. And although quaint and very cool to pull behind the Jeep, not practical for life on the road, excuse me. So that's why, you know, we pursued other options and we didn't, you know, we're not traditional in the sense. And so yes, the trailer build tiny houses are, are amazing.
Daniel Britton (17m 7s):
And we've fallen in love with many designs, you know, of that, but we wanted to be different. And so that's what, you know, made us kind of look in that direction. And then we stumbled on Hank.
Kayla Rain (17m 20s):
Yeah. That was actually a pretty amazing opportunity that landed in our laps. And I think it was one that we just knew we had to take advantage of, you know, when we hiked have a by falls, when we hiked in and out of there together, I don't even remember what year that was probably like 2016 or 2017. I think that's when I truly realized because we'd been talking about going tiny for so long, but I think living out of a backpack for days and being in just the most beautiful scenic place in maybe the whole country to go through that experience and realize how little I needed to be happy.
Kayla Rain (18m 5s):
I think that was probably the defining moment for me, where I was like, okay, I really don't need stuff to get by. And we've had so many amazing experiences and vacations together in the Jeep with the rooftop tent and we've gone exploring, and we've gone, you know, on road trips for a week at a time. And, you know, we've had whatever we could pack in the Jeep, but just some food and some clothes and a camp stove and some water. And, and just to essentially a roof over our head and that roof being a tent was enough to satisfy us and enough for us to be able to live a happy life. And I think that's really where we would decided moving into 160 square feet.
Kayla Rain (18m 50s):
Maybe wasn't as crazy as most people think. So let me ask you now that you live in Hank, what's it like,
Daniel Britton (19m 0s):
You know, I mean, it's challenging for sure. It has its challenges winter time, you know, obviously is more difficult than summertime because we don't have the outdoors, but honestly, I, I really enjoy it. Like I, I like the fact that, you know, it takes 10 minutes depending on the amount of dishes that we have to clean up.
Kayla Rain (19m 25s):
That's because I do most of the dishes that he says that he does a lot around the outside.
Daniel Britton (19m 31s):
Well, that's fair, but you know, like my, I just coming home to our, you know, tiny little house, you know, I just, I love it. Like I, yes, having, having more space would be amazing, but like one thing that I've really appreciated is, or learned is to appreciate what you have. And that's something that I feel like we have been able to do. You know, like, I mean, if you look back at like 20, 20, you know, when everything, the world's shut down and we're in 160 square feet, fortunately the weather was fairly nice.
Daniel Britton (20m 13s):
We could spend some of that time outside, but you know, we like, we didn't go anywhere for quite a while.
Kayla Rain (20m 20s):
You couldn't go anywhere.
Daniel Britton (20m 21s):
Exactly. And I think, I think that, you know, that's a Testament to not only our desires being aligned in our relationship, in a place where it is, where we could do that without wanting to murder each other.
Kayla Rain (20m 38s):
Well, just so our listeners have an idea of what it's like to live in 160 square feet, the first place that Dan and I got together, because initially when we moved in together, I moved in with him and finished out his lease on the place he was living, but we ended up renting a house together. And I think it was around 2,400 square feet. Does that sound right?
Daniel Britton (21m 1s):
2200, I believe. Yeah.
Kayla Rain (21m 2s):
Okay. So it was over 2000 square feet. And as Dan mentioned, we had double of everything because I had a house that I moved out of and he had a large apartment that he moved out of. And so we had two large sectionals and more than two televisions and two beds to EV to everything. And so even just condensing to one and deciding which items to keep was, was a big challenge for us to compromise, especially when you're in a new relationship and you're hoping it's going to work out cause you're moving in together, but it's kind of like, you don't want to get rid of everything necessarily in case it doesn't work out, but we kind of navigated our way through that and filled a 2000 square foot home.
Kayla Rain (21m 47s):
And then after we had lived there for some time, we moved to Sedona and in Sedona we moved into, I think it was 1100 square feet. So it was half of the space from before. And so we'd already kind of gotten rid of about half of our stuff and just moving in together and then moving to Sedona. We had to kind of cut it in half again in order to just be able to fit everything.
Daniel Britton (22m 15s):
Absolutely. I mean, I, I remember distinctly giving away a trailer full of stuff and a pickup bed full of stuff that was going to be of no use to us and had been in storage for the last year as it was.
Kayla Rain (22m 32s):
Yep. And then even as we settled into our place in Sedona, it was a two bedroom, two bath, and we found that the second bedroom, like never got used unless we had a guest over, it just, it wasn't even used. We didn't use it for anything. In fact, until we were moving out of there, we didn't even really use it for storage. It was just empty space. So we found real quickly how much less space we needed than what we had been living with prior in our lives. So leaving Sedona and moving to the Reno Tahoe area where we are now is when we made the decision to finally transition to living tiny. So Dan tell our listeners how much of the 1100 square feet that we were living in, what percentage of our stuff do you think we tossed or, or donated or sold or got rid of?
Daniel Britton (23m 26s):
When we left Sedona? I would say we got rid of about 80% of what we owned simply because it was not going to fit in our moving truck,
Kayla Rain (23m 41s):
Not just the moving track. It wasn't, we weren't as concerned about the moving trucks,
Daniel Britton (23m 45s):
But that was, I mean, we were trying, that was the challenging thing, trying to figure out the size moving truck that would work. But we did get down to the point to where loading day, I was giving stuff away to my friends who were helping me load because I was like, oh, well I guess this won't fit. So, okay, Hey, come and get this, you know, grill, come and get whatever, you know? And so, but we, yeah, we got rid of about 80% of what we own. We decided to keep some of the home decor, some of the crystals, you know, some of the things that we knew, we were going to go super tiny, but we knew we would eventually want a little bit bigger place. And so, you know, it was, it was kind of a, we didn't want to get rid of literally everything we owned because there was some sentimental value and, you know, some things that were important to us,
Kayla Rain (24m 38s):
Right. So we do have a storage unit, but the majority of the storage unit houses tools, camping gear, sporting equipment, and my ever-growing radon collection,
Daniel Britton (24m 52s):
Which takes up 80% of
Kayla Rain (24m 54s):
That's. That's not true. So just to reiterate, we first got rid of half of our stuff. When we moved in together, then we have to, again, when we moved to Sedona and then we got rid of 80% to move tiny. Correct.
Daniel Britton (25m 9s):
That's correct.
Kayla Rain (25m 10s):
So let me ask you this question, thinking back on all of the stuff that you used to have that you got rid of in one former of another or another, do you have any regrets?
Daniel Britton (25m 25s):
Oh, I don't. I don't think so. I mean, I, you know, we've gotten rid of a lot of stuff, you know, I, I love my parents dearly, but I learned over the years as a child, watching them, never want to get rid of stuff. Now, fortunately, they've gotten better, but I it's easy as a, as a child to take on the habits that your parents have. And, you know, I would just hold on to things cause like, oh, I could use this one day. I'd like, I've got a use for this. That I get that from my dad.
Daniel Britton (26m 5s):
My dad is always like, oh, I could definitely use this. There's going to be something down the road. And truthfully, like in our relationship, even, you know, there's been times when I'm like, see, I told you, I held onto this. You said I was crazy, but now I can use it. And it it's fitting the bill for this project that I have. But I think all in all, I don't think that there's really anything that I've gotten rid of that, that I really truly regret.
Kayla Rain (26m 34s):
Okay. That's good. That's good. So now let me ask you this, as you were transitioning to tiny living and you were getting rid of 80% of the 50% and the 50% of light you're used to own, what was that like? What did it feel like? And did you have like a range of emotions about it?
Daniel Britton (27m 2s):
You know, I think, I think the, it was freeing. It was definitely freeing. You had a slightly different experience, which I want you to talk about in a minute. But I think the, the interesting thing that I really like got down to when I, when I really started, like, okay, now it's time. We have to get rid of stuff. It's two weeks away and there's still a half a garage full of stuff is I started realizing that I had to put, I had to stop putting value on things. I had to stop saying, oh, well this costs this much. And so I have to get this much for it, because if I'm choosing this life, if I'm choosing this, this freedom that I want to be from the restraint of things and you know, those, you know, those items, I, you know, I realized I it's going to go to a different home.
Daniel Britton (27m 57s):
Somebody else is going to appreciate it. You know, that, that story one man's trash is another man's treasure is true. And not that it was my trash, but
Kayla Rain (28m 6s):
A lot of it was trash.
Daniel Britton (28m 9s):
It was useful things, useful things. But at the end of the day, I, I had to separate myself from, from an attachment and, you know, it was initially I was excited. I was like, I was super excited. Cause I was like, you know what, we're going to get this super cool, tiny house. We're going to make a life of it. We're going to do something new and something different. And so it was just, you know, I, once I got over that hill of like stop putting value on things and realizing that the value that I'm going to gain from getting rid of this stuff is going to create that much more opportunity for me to experience life and to, you know, to travel into, you know, adventure, which is something, you know, we've always done.
Kayla Rain (29m 3s):
Yeah. Well, you said an interesting thing. You said that you needed to basically get rid of the attachment to your things, which is funny because the title of this episode is detachment. And the reason that I picked that is, again, going back to the book, think like a monk, Jay Shetty talks about how to find true happiness. You have to understand that nothing in life is permanent. Nothing lasts, everything will end. At some point, even our life will end. At some point, our relationships will end. At some point, everything we own will only be with us for a period of time. And yet we tend to become so attached to our stuff.
Kayla Rain (29m 45s):
Now you said that I had a different experience and he wanted me to talk about that. I think I mentioned it on a prior podcast at some point, I don't know which one, but I had a really hard time getting rid of things. Not because I was attached to my things as much as, as I realized how much I owned. It was like uncovering the weight I was carrying around. And when your getting rid of things, it's not just a matter of throwing stuff out when you're moving tiny, obviously, unless you just decide to throw everything that you own away, which we were not going to do, you literally are picking up each item that you own and deciding its value.
Kayla Rain (30m 25s):
And I don't mean monetarily, but I mean, what does it mean to you? Is it worth keeping, does it make the list when you're living in 160 square feet? How many items can you have and which are the top priority. And that weighed a lot on me besides the fact that we had spent so much time downsizing, as we had talked about going tiny, I had started cleaning out closets. I'd started cleaning out drawers. I was selling things online. I was donating things and I did it multiple times. And when, like you said, we were coming down to the wire and it was the last couple months or last couple of weeks, really going through like every little drawer and every little cupboard and even looking at like every single dish and deciding do I need this?
Kayla Rain (31m 13s):
Can I fit this? You know, it was, it weighed a lot on me. And I had, I had a couple of panic attacks. Like literally it was, it caused a lot of anxiety for me. It was so hard for me. And again, it wasn't because I was attached to the things or it was hard for me to let it go. I just realized the position. I'd gotten myself in all these years and all the things that I owned that I didn't care about. So let me ask you now, now that you're living in a 160 square feet, and yes, we do have a storage unit with some other items, but thinking about what you kept and thinking about what we've acquired since we've moved in here, because we have we've purchased, we've bought things we've acquired since we've been here.
Kayla Rain (31m 56s):
But thinking about all of those things, what percentage of what you have now, what percentage of the 20% that you kept, do you feel like you could do without?
Daniel Britton (32m 8s):
Ooh, that's a, that's a good question. You know, I think the interesting thing about that question is there's obviously there's stuff in storage that we are acquiring to plan for our larger place. Like, you know, we, we do want to eventually live in a little bit larger place and I say a little bit like a couple hundred square feet more, maybe, you know, a few hundred, we've talked about that, but still less than a thousand square feet. And we would be plenty happy, man. The percentage of things that I think I could get rid of now.
Kayla Rain (32m 44s):
Well, I've just thought about like, I've put on weight since I've moved here. So I kept clothes, but now don't fit me that I could stand to get rid of there's shoes I've bought. And I would say there's shoes. I could toss that I don't wear anymore, or don't wear as much things like that. If you just kind of mentally think about what's in the house and what's around, what percentage of what you currently have, do you think you could be okay with getting rid of if you had to?
Daniel Britton (33m 18s):
I think that, I think that number would be actually pretty large. I mean, you know, all in all, you know, there are things that we would keep because it matches the lifestyle that we both desire. But I think, you know, it's easy to acquire things. You know, you got me a girl for Christmas. Is that something that I absolutely have to have? No, like I could deal without a grill, you know, there's so I would, I would say probably if I had to pick a number, you know, 30 to 50% of what we have right now, you know, I could probably stand to live without, I mean, there's been a large amount of stuff that we have in storage that we haven't accessed in, you know, some time.
Daniel Britton (34m 2s):
And so there's certainly stuff there that I could stand to live without, you know, but again, that dreamer side of me, you know, I, I dream of, you know, all that camping we're going to do, which we, we will,
Kayla Rain (34m 18s):
We will,
Daniel Britton (34m 19s):
But you know, like those are the things like I have, I still have all my climbing gear because I love that life, that canyoneering and adventuring. And so, you know, do I have to have it? No, I could probably find a home for it and give it away. You know? So I, I think there's things I could live without for sure.
Kayla Rain (34m 37s):
Well, the good news is this is not an intervention. I'm not asking you to get rid of anything, but I am, you know, conscious of the fact that although I think we live quite comfortably with what we have, that we truly could still live a quite wonderful, blessed life with probably half of what we currently own. You know, it really is just the necessities. And again, I'm not looking to, to downsize half again, but it just kind of puts things into perspective and going back to how we S how we spend our money and how we spend our time and what percentage of that is spent on the things that we actually value.
Kayla Rain (35m 20s):
So I just have a couple more questions for you since we've been talking about how much we currently own, tell me one or two of your favorite things that you've kept.
Daniel Britton (35m 30s):
Ooh, that I've kept since we moved here or just that I've kept in general.
Kayla Rain (35m 35s):
It just, I guess in general, like what are some of your, the things that you really love and appreciate that you are surrounded with are tiny space,
Daniel Britton (35m 45s):
You know, I think, and I know that you have, you don't have the same appreciation, but tools, tools are very useful for me. I work on my own Jeep. I just put a lift on my Jeep by myself. Well, with the help of a friend, you know, just the other day, two days ago. So tools are, you know, something that is, I'm a, I'm a handy guy. I like to try to do things around the house. Maybe not this house as much, just because we know I see yours. I see no, don't bring it up. Don't bring it up. This is things we're appreciating. But I think, I think tools are definitely something that I appreciate, you know, I say day in and day out, but often because I do access, you know, I think, I think, you know, one of the other things that I am grateful for is, you know, being able to stay connected to, you know, the, the everything going on.
Daniel Britton (36m 49s):
And so having access to power for our tiny house, you know, wifi, you know, those are some things that I think are valuable. You're looking at restraint.
Kayla Rain (37m 1s):
You can just kind of took the question in a weird direction. I was talking about the things that you surround yourself on the nose. It's all around us. It does surround us. It's it's not real tangible, but I do like that your, your mind went to gratitude. So I'll give you a bonus point for that. Okay. So what would you say is one of your favorite things about living tiny?
Daniel Britton (37m 31s):
Hmm, that's a, that's a really good question. No, I think, I think one of my favorite things is that we can't afford to do other things we can afford to because our, our cost of living is considerably less than the average home, especially when we consider we're living in Reno, Nevada, which is the next California. And, you know, we have the ability that we can, you know, take vacations that we can go on. We can adventures, you know, we haven't been on one in quite some time, but now that the weather's nice, we're, I've got the Jeep rebuilt
Kayla Rain (38m 14s):
Where we're making
Daniel Britton (38m 15s):
Plans, we're making plans. But, you know, I think, I think having, you know, the ability for us to, you know, do things for ourselves, we both support, you know, if you see something and you want it and you like it, and it's something that you, that you value, then you treat yourself and, you know, whether that's a nice dinner and, you know, date night
Kayla Rain (38m 39s):
Or Mercedes,
Daniel Britton (38m 40s):
A Mercedes that's true. That is, that's true. Maybe not everybody's first go to, but
Kayla Rain (38m 47s):
I'm talking about in 1999, Mercedes, by the way, but a Mercedes nonetheless.
Daniel Britton (38m 52s):
Yeah. But I think, I think, you know, one of the things that I value the most about living tiny is that we don't have a lot of overhead, you know, we were able to afford a nice life and, you know, I think that's, I think that's kind of cool.
Kayla Rain (39m 11s):
Yeah, it is really cool. What would you say is one thing that owning less stuff has taught you,
4 (39m 21s):
Just
Daniel Britton (39m 22s):
How little you actually need. Like, I mean, it's
Kayla Rain (39m 25s):
A little I need or how little you need for both.
Daniel Britton (39m 30s):
I think, I think the, I think most people can't really like fathom the fact that they don't need certain things in their life and for each person that's different, you know, but like, there's, I don't know, like is a, is a big spacious living room with the big pullout couch. Something that someone needs. No. Is it nice? Yeah. But can you get by without it absolutely. Like, we've been comfortable there's, you know, you have to get ingenious about, you know, the space when you live tiny, but like, there are things that looking like we've asked, we've had this conversation with other people, like other couples when we've entertained or we've gone out to dinner and talked about our life or, you know, whatever it is.
Daniel Britton (40m 26s):
And we, you know, say, Hey, you know, could you do this? And most people are like, oh no, like, no, absolutely not. We couldn't, you know, but I think that's, I think that says something about you and I, as people and that our, you know, our goals and dreams and vision is aligned is that like, you don't need what you think you need. Can you get away with three pairs of shoes? That's all I've worn for. Like the last, you know, couple of weeks, it's three pairs of shoes. I just alternate them each and every day, like I have more pairs of shoes, but then I start thinking like, why am I keeping these? I should just get rid of them, you know? And like, it's like, that's, that's some of the realizations you have when you live tiny.
Daniel Britton (41m 10s):
Like, I have clothes in storage that, you know, or like shirts that I'm like, Ooh, this is going to be good, but do I need them? No, I, and I, and I often like edit my, or audit myself and try to go through and go, oh, I'd like, just two weeks ago, I cleared a bag out of storage. I'm like, I don't need these clothes. They don't fit me anymore. Thanks to COVID. But you know, now, you know, it's just realizing how little you actually need to be happy.
Kayla Rain (41m 38s):
Okay. Last question about living tiny. If you had it to do all over again, would you still do it
Daniel Britton (41m 46s):
A hundred percent? No. No. I like, you know, would, would there be some factors that I would try to change maybe like, just, you know, like where are we where we are parked? I love it, Matt. You know, our friend where we're parked is, is amazing, but I would love to, you know, which we will, we've, we've talked about it, but I would love to live, you know, have more space for us, you know, more space, which is just time and, you know, like working to manifest that.
Kayla Rain (42m 22s):
Yeah. And what he means by more spaces is land. Essentially. We want our own land. We want something to call our own more outdoor space and eventually we want to build a bigger, tiny house. And yeah, I agree. I would do it all over again too. I love that. So we've talked a lot about living tiny and we've talked a lot about how well we have adjusted to having less stuff. What do you think this conversation has to do with the law of attraction?
Daniel Britton (42m 53s):
Well, I mean, I think first and foremost, one that a year into us dating, we started having this conversation and look at like where we were four years later,
Kayla Rain (43m 5s):
We manifested
Daniel Britton (43m 6s):
That we did 100%. We did like, and I mean, how many, how many YouTube, countless YouTube videos did we watch just dreaming and visualizing all of the different options that were out there from containers to buses, to trailers, to ambulances, to sprinter vans, like, you know, we dreamt about what we would do with each of those applications and then, you know, Hank presented itself and it was unconventional and not what we had originally envisioned, but led us to the same end point, the same life that we wanted.
Daniel Britton (43m 46s):
Did we visualize, you know, being on the road? Yes, absolutely. We did. But life changes, you know, you roll with the punches and, you know, from getting in and priorities changing, you know, when we moved here to Reno to get closer to lake Tahoe and to family and, you know, our priorities changed. And so we just kind of rolled with it. But I think at the end of the day, like it just shows how, how aligned we were in, in our vision. And like we were able to, you know, bring that to fruition.
Kayla Rain (44m 19s):
Absolutely. Yeah. You said so much more than I thought you would. I agree. That definitely is exactly the law of attraction in action. I think the conversation is important for our listeners because I think sometimes the things that we have or the things that we feel that we need or the things that we feel like we're lacking the way we compare ourselves to other, especially I'm on social media and the, the way that the world makes us think that we're not enough, or we don't have enough or even the way that we value success. I think it causes unhappiness.
Kayla Rain (44m 59s):
And I think just by recognizing that things don't make you happy that right there is a lesson in the law of attraction in and of itself. You know, I wrote down a quote, I'm going to read real quick that I have saved in my phone that I think is awesome. It says, we need to rebrand what we're saying. Success looks like it's not the stuff. The bags, the shoes, the cars, et cetera. Success has got to be linked to happiness, to purpose and waking up every day with a genuine smile. And to me, that is what the law of attraction is about. Sometimes we find ourselves in a rut or we find ourselves feeling bad or feeling sorry for ourselves.
Kayla Rain (45m 44s):
And it's usually because we're focusing on the wrong things. And those things are either comparing ourselves to others or feeling like we aren't as successful as we'd like to be, or we're not where we would want to be in life. And so many of those thoughts are related to physical, tangible things, but that really isn't what determines our value as a person. And like I said, and we started talking about this conversation. It really has nothing to do with the things that we really value in most cases. So every podcast episode that I have, I end with an action item for our listeners, because I think it's important to have a conversation about things that we can do to improve our lives or to help bring about the things that we're trying to manifest.
Kayla Rain (46m 32s):
But it's not really fair to just talk about it. Conceptually, if we don't start talking about, well, how do we do that? How do we implement the change? So I do have an action item for our listeners today. And that action item actually comes from the book, think like a monk and not action. Item is not what you think it is. It's not going to be to go through your closets and get rid of things. It's not going to be downsizing. Actually, that action item is for you to take some time and list out your personal values, to try and determine what your personal values are. And you don't have to set a number on it. It doesn't have to be 10, it could be three, it could be five. It can be whatever you really value in life.
Kayla Rain (47m 13s):
But once you come up with that list and like me, it can be a changing list. It doesn't have to be set in stone. You can continue to add to it as you recognize other things that you value, but take a week. And every time you go to spend some discretionary income, meaning you're going to spend money that isn't allocated towards your bills, ask yourself the question, which of my values does this align with, because I think that you'll realize that we have a tendency to spend money on things that really aren't important. And if it's not aligned with your values, it doesn't mean that you can't buy it.
Kayla Rain (47m 55s):
But just having that awareness to stop and think, and to try and consciously do that every time you spend money, I think will help us recognize how much energy and money and time we're spending on the things that don't really matter to us instead of the things that do matter to us. What do you think about that?
Daniel Britton (48m 15s):
No, I, I fully agree. You know, just thinking back and I don't remember the full context, but one of the best Superbowl commercials that was out for the super bowl was I can't remember the actor's name, but he was walking through talking about, do you think one day you're going to regret not having all the stuff and buying that car and buying this and buying that. And it was this whole, like, you know, kind of tongue in cheek joke about it. But I thought it was interesting because truthfully, like that's, we're such consumers, we're programmed to be consumers that you just buy the stuff because society tells us or, you know, you think you need to, but, you know, I think, I think stopping before you necessarily, or before you just consume or before you just buy and asking that question is really valuable because you might act doesn't, like you said, it doesn't mean you can't buy.
Daniel Britton (49m 12s):
It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you buying it, but does it align with your values? Does it align with your goals and your dreams and you know, the things that you truly value out of life? And, you know, I think, I think that's, you know, huge if people just slow down and think about it,
Kayla Rain (49m 31s):
I like that. Well, I'm going to wrap things up and let our listeners know about a giveaway that I have for season two. In season one, I did a weekly giveaway where if listeners would leave a review of the podcast, they would be entered into a drawing for a theme bracelet where they could choose a theme word for the year and have it custom made on a bracelet season two, same kind of contest. I call it a contest. I guess it's not really a contest, but same kind of offer. But rather than a theme bracelet this year, I have actually custom created manifestation journals.
Kayla Rain (50m 14s):
And Dan you've seen these, but our listeners you'll be able to see what they look like on the website, attract it with ease.com. But these manifestation journals are not just a lined journal, not just for you to just write your thoughts. They were made with intention. They have separate pages for 50 different things that you'd like to try and manifest into your life. You write out why and what, and when, and basically all the details of what you'd like to manifest. And then you list out the things that you can personally work on to start trying to do what you can with what you have from where you are to start bringing those things about.
Kayla Rain (50m 58s):
But then the second half that makes this journal real different than any other manifestation journal I've ever seen is it's kind of designed like a scrapbook where once you actually achieve your manifestation, you can list down the date, write some thoughts and then even insert a photo that helps you remember that experience and kind of what it felt like to achieve that. So I have a limited number of these journals. Like I said, they were accustomed designed by me. And if you leave a review on the podcast, you'll be entered into a weekly drawing to win. One of these journals. I'll ship them for free to the U S or Canada.
Kayla Rain (51m 38s):
If you're a winner, if you're listening from another country and you're interested in our winner, reach out to me@helloatattractitwithease.com and we'll work out the shipping. So I'm excited, but please let me know what you think of our content and leave me a review. I'd love to hear from you. And again, subscribe and I look forward to talking with you next week, Dan, thanks for being a listener and a participant today. Do you have any final thoughts?
Daniel Britton (52m 8s):
No, thanks for having me. It's actually been a lot less nerve-wracking than I thought it might be being on the wife's podcast, but when you live in a 160 square feet, there's no place for me to hide. So
Kayla Rain (52m 20s):
That's true.
Daniel Britton (52m 21s):
No, it's been really great. And I thank you for having me.
Kayla Rain (52m 24s):
Thank you. I'll talk with you soon. Have a great night.
