What is Minimalism?

Image via Dubrovska Studio

What I love about minimalism is it personally brings me peace, happiness and contentment in a world full of various levels of chaos, especially in our culture of consumerism to buy this, have this, conform to this and look and act like the rest if you want to be anything. Minimalism is a form of authenticity. I’m not saying not to have things, I have plenty, but it’s when things become excessive or born out of the above reasons, they lose authenticity and become yet another distraction that takes up space. Mindlessly purchasing, mindlessly doing, constantly saying yes, constantly needing to fill voids, these are all forms of excess, the opposite of minimalism.

Distraction
1. a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else.
2. extreme agitation of the mind or emotions.

Minimalism strips down the distractions of materialism, consumerism, inauthenticity, living above your means, conformity, excess behaviors and prevents you from playing pretend with your life. With anything inauthentic out of the way, it leaves you to sift through yourself, your true home, where you then begin to shed feelings, emotions, fears or anything else that does not serve your highest purpose and is taking up space while wasting your most precious resources, time and energy. When you purchase things you half ass like and/or spend time doing things you half ass like with people you half ass like, you’re cluttering your time and wasting energy. Of course I believe there is a time and place where we all have sacrifices to make but again, when the cluttering of your time becomes excessive with things that are inauthentic you, you’re veering into unhappiness and burnout danger zone.

Excess
1. an amount of something that is more than necessary, permitted, or desirable.
2. lack of moderation in an activity, especially eating or drinking.

As you journey deeper through minimalism, you start looking inwards more, as you have the TIME to because you aren’t bogged down with various forms of distractions, which, as mentioned above, include people, places, relationships, jobs, commitments made out of guilt (that’s a great way to waste your energy and resources!) etc. This is where minimalism really begins. You learn to kill distractions and open more space to ideas, people and things that are authentic to YOU, that your soul enjoys. Then, just like you wouldn’t spend your money on things you do not want or need, you’ll stop spending your time and energy on things you do not desire, want or need. You’ll notice less and less clutter in both your external and internal life.

Life of course still happens, minimalism does not equal perfection by any means. There are still plenty of decisions to make, situations to experience but you’ll be guided more by intention while becoming extremely mindful of your time, energy and resources. We live in a time where people’s lives are full of clutter well beyond their households and external environments.

For myself, Minimalism extends beyond our external environments and heavily entails clearing the clutter out of mind, body, and spirit because after all, this is truly where home is.