In a society that delights itself to accumulate possessions, minimalism is the key to freedom. It unfetters us from the trap of consumer culture we have built our lives around. But what is minimalism exactly? Minimalism is a path that is going towards happiness, fulfillment, and freedom while strictly keeping you away from the excess of life.
Minimalism makes you in charge of your happiness. You can define your path of happiness by choosing what earthly possession is significant and what is redundant in your life. Talking about practicing minimalism as your lifestyle, initial changes can definitely be profound on your psyche. Though it isn’t easy to take the first step, you will find tranquillity in the process as you progress.
You can apply minimalism in any area of your life. All you need is a strong intention to keep what makes you happy and say goodbye to the rest. Let me take you through simple steps that can help you find your way of minimalism –
Pen Down
It may not sound significant step to adapt minimalism, but when you do it, you will realize how important it could be. Write all the reasons supporting why you want a minimalist life? It could be anything, your lifestyle affecting health, you need more time with family or you want to travel more anything. Once you understand the why, the how, what, and where will naturally follow.
Declutter
Minimalism and declutter always go side by side, but the process can be cumbersome. To simplify things, start with discarding the duplicates like copies of the same book or DVD. Clutter-free, the areas filled with boxes you haven’t checked for a long time. You can also discard recurring commitments that are serving no good to your life.
One in One Out Rule
Bring a system to your way of minimalism. Make a rule to replace one item whenever you bring anything new. It will force you to rethink before making any purchase for the house, and most of the time you will save yourself to clutter it again.
Revamp your closet
No, you do not bring a whole new style of fashion in your closet to revamp it, in fact, discards the non-essential fashion for good. Challenge yourself to follow something fun like ‘5 dresses a week and repeat’. This will help you find out what are the things in your closet you can live happily without, so you can dump them easily.
Digital Detox
One can not identify the benefits of having it without practicing it. Start from cutting down your time with gazettes. Remove your email from the phone, as you will do nothing but to gaze it via phone. Remove all the shortcuts to any app from the home page of your phone, so you will not tempt to open anything even if you just check the time. Strictly avoid receiving calls while with family. You will see a significant shift in our lifestyle by accepting these changes.
Go Debt Free
Becoming minimalist includes freedom from debt too. First, find out things you own and things you owe. Always take a debt when you can save some emergency amounts from your money apart from debt payments. If you are not in debt but spend all your money, make it a practice to save some specific amount every month. It will help you cope with any urgent situations.
Travel Light
Nobody on this planet can live without traveling. The occasion can be anything either good-bad or just a hobby. But you need to change the way you pack to travel in a minimalist way. Always pack for half the time of your total time of stay, you can re-use the clothes or also clean them on your trip. But traveling light will give you novel experiences.
Minimalism can bring a sense of real freedom, you will no longer feel tied to possessions in your home. You will have lesser stuff that cuts down your stress to maintain things. The less you buy the more you save and who will not enjoy some extra money in the bank account? If you use limited possessions, there will be enough for others, in a way you are contributing to our exponentially growing community.