A Daily Theme?! For the Whole Week?!

Minimalism is certainly often discussed around here. One thing this community has made abundantly clear to us is that each one of us has a unique understanding of it. So, to broaden that understanding, we are returning to the MINIMALIST Daily Themes... with a twist.

Instead of narrowing it down to one single day, we are generously expanding each theme across an entire week, to give you more time to tell us all about your practice and how the respective theme fits into your minimalist lifestyle.

What We Want

We are ONLY looking for authentic minimalism.

We want to know how the weekly theme impacts or relates to your minimalist experience, so let's talk a bit about how we define minimalism.

Minimalism started as an artistic movement in the 1950s and '60s. Through it, creators sought to strip their art of needless frills and bows and boil it down to the very essence.

That's what minimalism, as a life practice, is. Removing the unnecessary, so you can cultivate more conscious, at-the-essence living. It's a bid for freedom. It's a means of escaping our overwhelming materialist society, keeping consumerist anxieties at bay, of simplifying our material existence so we can focus more on the core.

What We DON'T Want

While the blockchain is an excellent place to meet new people and learn from one another, we do have some rules on what we DON'T define as minimalism:

• Minimalism is not the same thing as poverty/privation. While we empathise profoundly with all situations and try to help fellow Hiveans as we can, such posts will probably fit better elsewhere.
  
  
• Minimalism is not about religion. While we support everyone's right to a religious practice of choice, this is not the place for talking about how you shun possessions in the name of Jesus or helping your church. We do NOT welcome zealots or preachers of any creed.
  
  
• Minimalism is about enriching the HUMAN experience. As such, we hold a very hard policy on the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Any AI-enhanced posts, from pictures to articles written by AI, will be muted.
  
  
• Finally, we are looking for personal accounts. If the weekly theme is mindfulness, we want your definition and your relationship with mindfulness. We do not want generic posts defining mindfulness or explaining it in general, bland terms. We want to know what it means for you.

Now that the fine print's out of the way, let's talk about the theme itself.

Week 4: Freedom Friday

As we were saying above, at its core, minimalism implies a relentless pursuit of freedom. Too often, it's misunderstood as the reductive "owning 100 items or less". But minimalism, to us, means ridding yourself of what's keeping you shackled.

To quote a cult classic, "The things you own end up owning you". So yes, minimalism can mean freeing yourself from material possessions that you realise aren't necessary for a happy, satisfactory existence.

What activities and practices are helping you feel freer at the moment? What's your low-key minimalist trick for hanging loose?

Or if freedom isn't forthcoming at the moment, why not? Which specific area of your life is currently in an overly cluttered state and needs you to break a toxic or plain unhealthy chain?

Participation Guidelines

We are (as you can probably tell) a pretty live-and-let-live community around here. However, we do have a couple of minor rules to promote healthy engagement.

Also, please observe our updated community rules.

_{The photos belong to millycf1976 and were both manipulated using Canva}