When asked to picture a minimalist, most people imagine someone who lives with hardly any possessions. They picture someone who lives out of a rucksack and can count every last item they own or someone whose house is entirely black and white and echoes for the lack of furniture.
There are two issues with this image. The first is that it distracts from the true purpose of minimalism. The second is that it is polarising. It divides people into minimalists and non-minalists. Some will love the idea and others will hate it.
Minimalism is not about living with as few possessions as possible, instead it is about intentionality. It is about making sure that the objects you allow to take up space in your life either serve a purpose and are regularly used or bring you joy. It is also about ensuring that the people you spend time with and the activities you do serve a purpose or bring you joy. An intentional life ensures that we are doing what we truly want to be doing with our limited time on this earth.This, my friends, is the key to a meaningful life.
I first learnt about minimalism from a podcast by two Americans who call themselves ‘The Minimalists’. They had big jobs and big salaries but they weren’t particularly happy. They stumbled across minimalism and realised just how happy it could make them. They traded in their lives for much simpler ones and they now spend their days sharing that message with others.
As The Minimalists would say, it is not about the getting rid of things; it is about all that remains. Minimalism allows us to focus on the things we love and to feel less stressed by removing the excess. Minimalism also encourages us to feel more gratitude in our lives because we are only surrounded by things we truly value.
The more intentionality we can bring into our lives, the clearer our focus becomes; allowing us to be not only more productive, but also happier.
There are many stories about how minimalism has changed peoples lives. For example, some people have been able to declutter so much that they have been able to downsize and move to a smaller house, therefore being able to change jobs to one that does not pay as well but is much more internally rewarding.
The second issue with this image is that it suggests that you have to take minimalism to a very extreme level if you want to adopt its teaching. Therefore it polarises the movement, dividing people into minimalists and non-minimalists. However, I don’t agree with this. I believe that minimalism is for everyone, because you can choose the severity with which you apply it to your life. You can choose to live with as few items as possible or you can simply declutter your wardrobe and your bookshelf in order to reduce decision fatigue. I prefer to see minimalism as a philosophy, rather than seeing minimalist as a title to aspire too.
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