After watching a documentary on minimalism, I realized I resonate with minimalism much more than I originally though. Having to take care of a lot of things takes so much of my mental energy, and when I’m on vacation I feel so much lighter having less things on me.

I’m sharing my thoughts on this frame of mind because I think its a great reality check and could help anyone that is overly attached to physical possessions and things in general. You can watch the full Minimalism Documentary on Youtube so you have no excuse not to go watch it!

Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus call themselves the Minimalists and they are the creative minds behind this film. The duo found themselves approaching 30 with everything they thought they wanted consisting of six figure careers, large houses and cars to show off, without the happiness they thought it would bring them…sound familiar?

What is Minimalism?

The duo decided to change their lives by adopting the minimalism lifestyle, which they sum up as:

“Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favor of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom.”

Woman in a field with tall grass, looking up to the sky and smiling with her eyes shut

Simply put, its the practice of ridding yourself of any physical possessions you don’t need in order to free up space, mental energy and time for things that will actually make you HAPPY. And that’s the goal behind everyone’s motivations, whether they know it or not.

We live in a society that tells us we should strive to have a lot of money and that we need x,y & z to be successful. This ideology has caused so many people to go in the complete wrong direction in life and focus on the wrong things, leading to midlife crisis’s and where did my life go moments!!

When you really think about all those things you’ve accumulated, how many of them actually add value to your life beyond the initial rush of purchasing? (A similar rush to the one you could get from laughing with a friend or doing a favorite hobby for $0 instead)!

Benefits of Minimalism

I could go on and on about the benefits of minimalist living but lets outline a few:

  • More time to be spent doing things that make you feel fulfilled
  • Expanded mental energy from not having to deal with so many things, expenses, and clutter
  • Increased amount of space and openness
  • Easier travel
  • Freedom!!!!

Corner of a room that feels light and airy, with a desk and chair, fern, map on the wall, and white canopy. White walls and wood floors

 

How to Practice Minimalism & Reap the Benefits of Minimalism

Now if this all makes sense to you, I bet you want to know what you can do to make this happen! I’ve typed up some minimalist tips for you:

    1. Define why you want to practice minimalism and set your rules, which will guide how you’ll implement this frame of mind into your life
    2. The first step to downsizing your stuff is to discard duplicates and things you know you don’t need. This is the easy part!
    3. Clean off and declutter one area of your house. This will feel good and give you motivation to keep going!
    4. Dress with less!!!
    5. Continue ridding yourself of things you don’t need and practice the one in one out rule during the process to make sure you aren’t accumulating more as you go
    6. Go paperless for bills and anything you can!
    7. Unsubscribe from emails and text opt-ins that tell you about any type of product sales. You most likely don’t need all those clothes and having reminders about stuff you can buy isn’t helpful
    8. Practice traveling lighter during your next trip. Maybe pack ⅓ less than you usually do. You’ll find you’re fine without those things and it feels good to not have all that (literal) baggage
    9. Every time you go to buy something think about if it will actually provide you happiness and if you need it. If not, save your money for something better!

Personally I’ve been practicing certain aspects of minimalism for most of my life just because I’ve always valued experiences over things. I definitely didn’t realize there was a name for it! I hate wasting things and have never been one to buy things I don’t absolutely think I’ll use. I tend to stick to a few staple outfits and am embarrassed to say I’m definitely an outfit repeater ;). The majority of my paycheck has always gone to whatever fun times I can get my hands on- concerts, events, etc., instead of buying more things. I’m working towards becoming a digital nomad and one day would love to live on a boat and sail the world, so its comforting to know I already have the right values in place to be comfortable in that lifestyle!

For more info go visit the Minimalists’ website. You can also check out Joshua Becker who is another famous minimalist.

I hope this provided you guys with inspiration to focus less on things and more on experiences and what truly matters. If anything maybe you’ll think twice before buying that pair of shoes you know you won’t wear 🙂

 

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Lauren Edmondson
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