Minimalist Life

Hello again and Happy Thursday! Yes I said Thursday instead of Wednesday, I do apologise for not posting yesterday. I’ve been a bit under the weather and took the day to relax the mind and body. This week, I would like to share with you a new way of life which I recently came across 2 weeks ago and that is living life as a Minimalist. During my Ted Talk binge on Youtube, I came across a video entitled A Rich Life With Less Stuff. It featured 2 gentlemen named Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus and their journey to becoming The Minimalists. Both men had corporate jobs making a very decent living for themselves, houses with more rooms that people, and everything they could ask for, yet with all these things, they were both unhappy and unfilled in the things that matter the most in life. To summarize the concept of minimalism, it is the act of living with only the things that add value to your life vs just filling your homes and lives with a bunch of stuff, cluttering your mind, your surrounding and overconsuming on everything. It’s a way of life that forces you to think before you buy and only surround yourself with the people and things that truly do matter. As they put it to use things and not people because the opposite never works.

This concept reminded me of my previous post where I was pretty much venting about the struggles of life . It seems that we live in a world where all we do is over consume, wanting  more and more without truly adding value to our lives. After watching their Ted Talks, I continued to do more research, listened to a bunch of their podcasts, and determined that this way of life is exactly what I’d been searching for. As you all know, I’m currently going through a complete transformation in my life, learning who I am, connecting with myself more and more each day, finding joy, happiness, and love from within and not from the things that I can buy which only brings more debt into my life. You may be wondering how does one become a minimalist? For Ryan, he was introduced to minimalism through Joshua which led him to do a packing party. He Packed everything he owned as though he was moving, properly labeled all the boxes, and for 21 days slowly unpacked all the things he needed. After 21 days, 80% of his belongings were just sitting in the boxes and he decided to donate all these things.

For me, a packing party isn’t something I’m able to do, so I’ve decided to slowly go through all my belongings one section at a time starting with my closet. There are a lot of things in there that are just not my personal style anymore. A lot of things that don’t fit anymore but for some reason, I still find myself holding onto them. And quite frankly my entire surroundings just feels like one junk drawer after another. Meaningless things that I’ve surrounded myself with that’s just taking up space. Once I’m done with my purge, I will be donating some items and sell the others. I have a lot of clothing that I’ve had for years but only worn once or twice. The funds I earn will serve as extra funds which will be used towards my debt. In all honesty, some of my things could potentially add value to someone else’s life. Hopefully, by the end of this week, my purge will be complete.

I know each which it seems as though I’m going on one new challenge after another or trying to implement a new change in my life, altogether, these have been things that I feel will drive me into ultimately living the life that I want. Ryan and Joshua talk about 5 values of living a meaningful life. They are health, relationships, passion (craft or creativity), growth and contribution. Surprisingly, after hearing that, it confirmed that everything that I’ve slowly implemented in my life to better myself, all fall within all these values. For example, Health: I now workout 5 to 6 times a week. Whether it’s by doing insanity or as of recent yoga. It has honestly become a healthy obsession for me. I find myself constantly checking myself out in the mirror every time I’m naked or in underwear, grinning from ear to ear because I’m very pleased with my progress so far. The vegan challenge I recently went on was the jump start to truly eating better and gaining more knowledge on the benefits of eating well, which ultimately has made me save more money because I no longer eat out anymore. Relationship – I am building stronger bonds with the people that are closest to me, not just with Jon, but also reconnecting with old friends that I lost touch with. Passion – with my recent 100 days of hand lettering challenge, it made my realize that this is something I want to get better at and hopefully turn into a career for myself. It has also made me realize that I always had this one thing I was passionate about but too scared to commit to anything out of fear of failure or thinking that I wasn’t good enough. Lastly – Growth and Contribution – this blog is not just something that I want to see grow but is also helping me grow as an individual. I want to share as much as I can with the world, spread positive vibes, get other people working towards their lives goals, and not stay stagnant in a life that doesn’t bring them joy. In sharing my stories or goals, I want to give other the strength to get out there and be vulnerable for once, face their fears and accomplish their goals while bringing meaning into their lives.

My purpose for sharing all this isn’t to turn you into a minimalist because I know this may not be for everyone. I want you to re-evaluate the things that we chose to surround ourselves with and really ask do these things bring value to me? What purpose do they possess in my life? Lastly, will my life be more fulfilling without the need to add more and more into? Asking you to live a life that is not full of consumption is hard and I understand that. I am still on the journey of learning myself and what matters to me, but one thing I am sure of is that the ability to buy more and add more things to my life has not brought me the joy I thought it would. Those pair of shoes that I just had to have has only added more debt, more clutter, and one more thing that I don’t wear. I’m hoping that as I dive deeper into this minimalist way of life, it will clear the path for me to continue to connect to myself, get a better sense of self, get rid of this constant anxiety I seem to always have, and pave the way to focus on what really matters the most to me. If anyone reading this is a minimalist or thinking of becoming one, I would love to hear from you. Please comment to share your experience with me. Some words of encouragement does go a long way! Till Next week. Have a blessed week