Minimalism 101

Happy Sunday ya'll!

As promised today's post is light hearted and informational. Today I am discussing something is that very important to me: minimalism. Now a lot of people ask me what minimalism is. Hence I am writing this post. The main focus of this post is to inform you on minimalism as well as give a crash course on how to go minimalist.

Without getting too technical, minimalism is when a person owns nothing but the objects they use. Keep in mind a lot of minimalists are digital nomads. That is their work is online which allows them to move from place to place. This means a person could live in Europe for three months then come over to the United States for a bit without hassle. For example a person might own four outfits, seven pairs of underwear, a computer, and a bike that they travel on. Another person might only have a blank apartment with not that many decorations, a mattress with sheets and a blanket,  and a kitchen that has multi-faceted utilities.  This may explain why artists and musicians don't own many physical items, even when they become successful.

Nevertheless, this lifestyle looks different on many people. For me I only own four boxes of stuff. At least for my dorm. These boxes contain the things I need for the school year: dance clothes (which is mostly work out clothes), my rice cooker, blender, bathroom stuff, my camera, yoga mat, roller, and three reusable grocery bags. There are probably a few things I'm missing but that's it. I'm not kidding. Yes I do have some posters and miscellaneous objects but those are things I enjoy having. They are handheld and  no bigger than the size of my face which means I can get rid of them at any time. Nevertheless, Move-in and move-out time are pretty easy for me.

Now getting to this point isn't easy for some people. Some people go minimalist because they want to be environmentally conscious, they have a hoarding problem, or feel they need to cleanse their life. For me, it was a little bit of everything. I found that I was holding onto my dysfunctional past like a crutch. I needed to de-clutter and start over. I also had, and still have, aspirations to travel after college so I didn't want that much stuff.  

Little did I know how deep getting rid of my stuff would take me. I had to see how insane I was during my eating disorder. And, it wasn't pretty. It was jarring to see. It made me realize how powerful the sub-conscious is. How we can keep unwanted thoughts without realizing it. My parents were questioning me about my decision to do this. They thought I was going through a depression. In all honesty I was letting go and growing up. I was finding that the past wasn't serving me any longer and I needed to move on. Otherwise I would have been a complete mess. 

Some of the main minimalist building blocks is in regards to this question: what are your aspirations/goals? If you're aspiration is to live from place to place,  then you won't need that much stuff. But if you want to live in one place, then ask this question (which sort of ties into the first question): where do my morals and values lie? This will help with figuring out what things to let go of.

The main question I asked myself was this: are going to use this for the future? If it was a no, then I got rid of it without mercy. For clothes it was, and still is, this: if I haven't worn it in a year, then it's time to let go of it. 

One podcast that really helps me is called The Minimalists where Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus discuss the ups and downs of being minimalist.  This podcast has helped me so much and I hope it does for you too.

As you can tell, this process is about letting go and focusing your aspirations. It's not easy but I can tell you it's worth it. 

I hope ya'll enjoyed this post. Namaste.