Minimalism Movement
WHAT IS IT?
If you have been anywhere near the internet recently, you would have noticed a steady rise in the minimalist culture. Although the concept of "Minimalism" initially started out in music where it referred to music that was composed of simple music theory and used minimal instruments, I am not talking about that kind. When I say minimalism, I am thinking of minimalism as a lifestyle, which influences our everyday habits, decision-making skills, and our relationship with materialistic goods.
As previously said, minimalism works as a lifestyle and mindset, which at its core, prioritizes things that we truly value instead of just buying things either because we can or because we are tempted to buy it. In essence, minimalism is the opposite of the commonly found consumerism, which encourages more spending as it is seen to positively contribute to the growth of the economy.
More is often not better, and minimalism does just that; It puts greater focus on the quality of things we own, instead of the quantity that it comes in
WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?
Even though minimalism does put so much emphasis on not owning a lot, that does not mean that it is inherently wrong with owning many material possessions. The issues come when we assign meaning or self-worth to our material possessions, where as a result our own health, relationships, personal growth, and hobbies suffer.
Minimalism encourages buying goods that genuinely provide value to us, meaning that we focus on quality over quality. Because with minimalism we are much more intentional with the things we buy and we put much more thought, into our purchasing process, it is often also referred to as internationalism.
The idea of minimalism is becoming increasingly popular, because through minimalism we are not only positively contributing to ourselves, but also having a positive impact on our social relationships and the environment - that is becoming increasingly important to other people.
Below I have highlighted the 5 main benefits, all of which have come from personal experiences from implementing more minimalistic approaches in my life. That is not to say that you need to be considered a perfect "minimalist" to get these benefits, because neither am I one, and I still found it brought me a lot of good. I think that no matter to what degree you decide to implement minimalism, you will gain something positive from it.
5 MAIN BENEFITS
INCREASED FOCUS AND CLARITY
By purchasing and owning fewer things, you are able to have better focus and more mental clarity, as there are fewer external distractions in your environment as well as internal disruptors from worrying thoughts.
This can be an incredible feeling, as you can fully put your mind to work and turn on all focus towards what you are doing which allows you to get your work done faster and at a much higher level fo quality.
FASTER AND EASIER DECISION MAKING
This is a big one, whereby incorporating minimalism into your life, you end up with owning fewer things - and more important things that you value - which makes it that much easier to make decisions.
Studies have often shown that the more choices you give a person, the slower and poorer their decision-making abilities will be. This is often demonstrated in stores and supermarkets where you have on offer at all times a mass amount of products, which leaves your brain tired and unable to make good decisions, a phenomenon known as decision fatigue. Minimalism greatly eliminates or at least lessens this.
INCREASED HAPPINESS
Many people have experienced higher levels of happiness and general satisfaction from incorporating more minimalist approaches into their life. One reason for this is because you simply own more of things that you truly value and get real use out of. As we have touched upon before, more is often not the answer to digging us out of a hole, but it will often just dig the hole deeper.
Secondly, though minimalism you are able to be more appreciative and be grateful for what you have, as you put more attention into your purchasing habits and generally make fewer impulse buys. By being more considerate of what you have it shifts your perspective into being thankful for what you have and that may be the answer doesn't lie in getting more of something.
SAVES RESOURCES
Minimalism can greatly cut down on your need and reliance on resources, whether that be material resources such as money, water, electricity, or natural materials or it can also help save you more time in the long run and space around your home.
Through avoiding impulse buys and really considering in what ways we use our money, we are able to tremendously cut down our spendings, as we are not just spending money here and there, which on a monthly basis can add up to a decent amount.
The counterpart to materialism; consumerism, is also heavily blamed for depleting or using up the world's natural resources as well as contributing to more environmental damage in the forms of deforestation, water/ air pollution, incorrect waste disposal, and loss of biodiversity. Through conserving materials, these impacts can be reduced.
Furthermore, with minimalism you can save your most valuable resource; time, as you spend less time shopping, making decisions, and worrying about our materialistic possessions.
Lastly, through owning less but owning more of what makes us happy, we free up a to of room in our home that was previously taken up by random space fillers, which allows us to bring even more intention and purpose into our living or working space.
MORE FREEDOM
The last benefit to minimalism that I have come across is just that you are freer and have less attachment to things, which makes you more flexible with your time and that much less likely to worry about forgetting something or not taking care of another thing. It frees your mind from so many of the worries that arise from heavy consumerism and your possessions no longer hold you back from truly living.
Through all of these combined, by having fewer concerns clouding your mind and being more intentional with the way you choose to spend your time and money, you start living and being more present at the moment. You are able to make every living moment intentional and purposeful to you in whatever way that may be.
With minimalism, you clear up so many of the unnecessary distractions of everyday life, and it can radically make a positive impact on your life by bringing back mental clarity and a reason for why you do things; your larger intention.
5 MINIMALISM MISCONCEPTIONS
YOU HAVE TO OWN A MINIMAL NUMBER OF THINGS
If you have ever encountered minimalism before, you have probably heard of people who own less than 100 things and are perfectly content with what they have. As someone who likely owns more than 100 things, you immediately went "Oh I could never do that, that simply would just not work with me", and here it is important to realize that it is okay because maybe owning less than 100 things is really not compatible with your lifestyle and maybe it wouldn't even make you happier in the end. We are all different.
The point I am trying to make here is that if you would like to become a minimalist, you can still own more than 100 things, but let them be meaningful to you. Let them provide you with some sort of value and not just take up space. There is no point in just hoarding things or even depriving yourself of things if that simply just doesn't work for you.
Everyone has got a different lifestyle with different preferences, which is why there is no perfect idea of minimalism that would suit everyone.
IT IS TOO EXTREME AND HARD TO IMPLEMENT
Also, many people have the idea in their head that they have to turn full minimalist overnight and immediately get rid of the majority of their belongings and simply their life to the fullest all of a sudden. That is simply just not true. Because of these thinking patterns, people get scared of minimalism and see it as too extreme and difficult to achieve, but the truth is that minimalism is a longterm learning journey of improving your relationship with materialistic possessions.
YOU HAVE TO SAVE MONEY AT ALL TIMES
Minimalism also does not only limit you to buying things that you need basic necessities), because everyone has things that they want, but not necessarily need. It is important to also take care of our wants as they can bring a lot of happiness into our lives, but that doesn't mean that we should buy every single thing that we want, because that just leads to more consumerism.
Its perfectly fine to treat ourselves to a gift or a purchase every so often, but buy something because you will get use and happiness out of it, not because you feel the need to just buy something.
Apart from that, minimalism is also commonly mistaken for us having to be very frugal with our money at all times, by once again it just comes down to spending money on the things we care about. Often when focusing on higher quality of goods, the price is automatically higher, meaning that you are either choosing between purchasing fewer products of higher price and quality or buying more products that are cheaper and have poorer quality, meaning they last you less time.
EVERYONE IN YOUR SOCIAL CICRCL NEEDS OT BE A MINIMALIST
Upon adopting a minimalist lifestyle, it is common to think that from now on you have to only surround yourself with other minimalists and in all ways, keep away from heavy consumers. With that approach, you will see that at the end of the day you will not end up with many friends at all, because not everyone in the world will be inclined to try or adopt minimalism.
It is important to respect the choices that others have made for their lifestyle and to not force them into something they are not interested in. it is best to try and explain and educate them about the topic and your reasons for doing it, but by no means do you now have to force them into becoming a minimalist.
Learn to live with each other’s lifestyle choices and support each other in making responsible choices.
MINIMALISM AS AN ACTION
Minimalism is a type of lifestyle and mindset, instead of a single action that defines us as a minimalist. It is not the shorthand action of purging your closet that will make you an immediate minimalist, but it is more of a longterm change in mindset, habits, and other lifestyle factors, such as choosing to intentionally buy less clothing. As a lifestyle, it encompasses more than just your purchasing habits, but also your thinking and relationship with the world around you.
Anything worth changing for does not happen overnight, because rewiring your thinking habits is hard and takes time, therefore expect that this is a long term journey and positive lifestyle change that you are taking on.
MINDFUL IMPLEMENTATION PRACTICES
It is not about becoming a minimalist overnight, but a gradual transition process into becoming more mindful with our purchases and possessions. Here are some tips and advice on how to try to start implementing some minimalistic practices into your life, so that you too can experience some of the benefits it carries.
When going through your current possessions, ask yourself:
Does this bring any form of value to me?
How often do I use this?
Could someone else appreciate or need this more than me?
Have a declutter day or spend 5-10 minutes decluttering something each day
Find ways in which you can simply aspects of you rife (cooking, cleaning working)
Give away things you down want/ need anymore to people in need
If you don’t like or use something anymore, try to reuse or fix up so that you will give the item a second chance for use
Invest in quality pieces instead of quantity of pieces that will save you more money in the long run
Have a limited number of clothes hangers available in your wardrobe
