Minimalism doesn’t mean that you should have 100 things or 50 things (red: limited items). Rather have things that you actually need not want. - What is Minimalism to me and how we can benefit from that
Not sure how many of you ever read my footer but as I mentioned, I consider myself a minimalist. I’ve been that way since I started the journey back in 2017. It all started just because of a youtube video and how its algorithm led me to get into this lifestyle we call minimalism. The lifestyle just fits into my life, goal, and everything at that time. I was going into 20 and all I ever thought about was traveling and living nomadically. So, it made much more sense when I needed and wanted fewer items. But what about now? What has changed?
On this occasion, I try to answer all of the minimalism prompts because to me, they all somehow connected.Here's the prompts #KISS - Blogging Ideas 7
When I first started, it was all messy. I was busy with college and I had so many things to attend. The idea of minimalism slipped out of my mind for a while.So, cleaning up wasn’t achievable until a week after I committed into the lifestyle. I managed to donate some of my clothes, downsized my prized possession (red: cute mugs), and began cleaning up. Overtime, I got way too obsessive about it until I was down to only 200 items in my apartment.
I was also traveling a lot at the time and only survived on a backpack as my essentials were food, shelter, clothes, internet, my medication, laptop, that was it. Everything else was secondary.. As I find more benefits and how it helped me with many things in my life at the time,
I even expanded into digital minimalism. I have written this benefits before and even until today, it still resonates,
[x] Spending less time choosing my clothes.
[x] Going early to any occasion.
[x] Getting a more quality relationship.
[x] Focus on my health.
[x] Less time to do house chores.
[x] More time to read books.
[x] Get rid of my scarcity mindset.
[x] Saving up more money.
[x] Having lesser distraction.
[x] More focused.
[x] Proper sleeping time.
From how minimalism has helped me getting my shit together
So, my life was completely transformed from someone who once kept losing her glasses and always complains of not having the time to do laundry and things. To someone who has too much freedom and never loses the glasses. With lesser items, so many things are easier to manage.
There’s one intriguing feeling about it all,overtime you start feeling detached from your possession. Even now, if I lose it all in one night, I would be fine. That kind of feeling is what I felt after being a minimalist for 5 years.
As I was independent, living alone, and away from my toxic families . It was all under control. But as I visited home for the first time after 2 years, I got irritated.
I was not growing up in a minimalist house. My family was a hoarder. They love things and like many other people, it’s a way to show off wealth. I got frustrated and angry the moment I stepped into the house. “ Can we throw this out?” I kept telling my mom to throw so many things that time. I ranted how it was bad when we accumulated things that we didn’t even use anymore. But, that’s where I started learning that I can not force the lifestyle I have to others.
I didn’t even get rid of some of my items with memories until two years ago.
But when I let go of things with memories, good or bad. It was again, freeing. It made me never look into the past and besides, since I literally grew up writing it all on the blockchain, I could always peek into the moment of my life at some point in the past in the chain.
I think when we attempt to copy others it’s only going to make us accumulate things instead of downsizing. So, it’s counterproductive. There are many ways to be a minimalist. All you need is to stick to the essence of it and that’s about it.
I know, at some point everyone jumps into the minimalist bandwagon. And it became a trendy thing, I recall circa 2019. While it’s very tempting to look the part, I told myself that it’s okay if I don’t have the “marker” or minimalism or the aesthetics of it.
When you commit to change your life and embark on a new journey, it seems tough at first. But overtime, it gets easier and suddenly time passes. I didn’t even realize it’s already 5 years.So, just take it easy, one thing at a time don’t stress it out because it won’t last.
If I were going back in time, I would have told the younger me that it’s okay not to be perfect. I am not in competition with anyone to have the least things. And I should not expect anyone to understand my new lifestyle right away.
When you become a minimalist, sometimes people don’t know that and you should never expect anyone to know that. One case is that, during your birthday or some nice occasion, they would buy you things even when you told them that it’s okay not to. So just gladly accept it even if that probably bothers you(it did for me). The rest of the advice also resonates with the struggles that I experienced.
Even after years of that, these days I still have some struggles. As I grew older it seemed that I needed more things to survive. Not to mention, at some point, I will talk about hobbies and minimalism. I kept thinking about that and how having hobbies is nice but also how to tackle the challenge of accumulating things due to a hobby.
One last thing, if you tried minimalism and you think it’s not for you, just drop it. Maybe it really isn’t for you. In the end, it’s all about the journey and not the perfection or trying to fit in.
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| Mac is a jack of all trades. A typical introvert in love with literature, books, technology and philosophy. She is also so into nootropics, productivity, minimalist lifestyle, cybersecurity, and languages. Other than that, she is passionate about cooking and traveling. In her free time, she enjoys learning various things. If you like her content, don't hesitate to upvote, leave a comment or a feedback. A re-blog is also appreciated. |