How Minimalism Healed Me

summer [Music] winter [Music] and that my friends is how you pack as a minimalist wait let's check the weather just in case 37 what the i first discovered minimalism four years ago and back then as i was researching this whole idea of being happy with fewer things was intriguing especially since i was raised to believe that more is better but as i researched the benefits made it sound like a no-brainer to adopt minimalism as a lifestyle i mean you spend less money you have less stress and anxiety from less clutter you reduce decision fatigue because you have one less mental activity to go through when you already know what you're wearing the next day you focus less on material things and more on important areas like health and relationships and it increases your peace of mind and happiness the perfect opportunity for me to try minimalism came when i was preparing for a three-month backpacking trip to southeast asia and because i wanted to try this whole backpacking style of traveling everything i would anticipate needing would have to fit into what i could carry on so for those three months i absolutely love the minimalist traveling i love the simplicity that i could just grab the closest clean article of clothing in my backpack and call it a day and i love the efficiency like every time i was repacking to go somewhere new that was a rather smooth process and i was able to free up more time and spend that on the experience of traveling itself or just the people i was with so overall i loved minimalist traveling and i was excited to just give it a go in real life and that's when i ran into some problems when i first explored minimalism what i saw were extreme minimalists the ones who sold most of their belongings and reduced it down to some magic number of 30 items so i thought that's what i had to do too i went through multiple rounds of decluttering but somewhere along this relentless pursuit of decluttering i justified my way to buying better things minimalism became an expensive and wasteful lifestyle because i was missing a really important point and that is that it's not necessarily about having fewer quality things although that may be just a natural byproduct of this lifestyle [Music] but it was important for me to acknowledge that because that led to a deeper appreciation and understanding of what minimalism has to offer when done out of a pure intention of mindful consumption rather than owning fewer quality things for the sake of it because that's what i thought minimalism should look like and that was what i was striving for and here i would like to introduce two concepts that i've learned about and have stayed with me more recently and one is marie kondo's idea of owning things that spark joy and the second is the danish idea of hygge which is the feeling of cozy contentment and well-being by enjoying the simple things in life after discovering these ideas i tried experimenting with them and allowed myself to buy things i absolutely love i treated myself out more than i used to and i've even invested in gears and gadgets to improve my quality of life and overall i'm really happy with the outcome of this experiment and the change in perspective because as counter-intuitive as this might sound the permission to intentionally consume things that maximize joy has actually made me more selective and therefore i've consumed less now i feel like it's really a combination of these ideas that have brought me the most satisfaction and the i think that just works for me so the takeaway here is find what works for you maybe minimalism can offer a starting framework but at the end of the day it's a process of self-discovery and finding a lifestyle that works for you with the core tenant that you can absolutely do more with less but i want to point out that that's only if you already have all of your basic needs met and are swimming in clutter and excess the greatest gift minimalism has been for me was being an aide in my process of purification and transformation as i turned my life around it's a lifestyle i found myself gravitating towards again and again despite all the changes i've gone through [Music] i truly believe that intentional consumption not just of physical things like what we buy and put into our bodies but also digital things like what we read and watch and who we talk to can have a profound impact on our well-being and in maximizing our enjoyment in life and i hope that this encourages you or even sparks a curiosity for you to try this out find what works for you and once you've gotten to a place where you're happy with what you own you're happy with your space i challenge you to then try this whole decluttering process to your digital space to what's in your computer what's stored what's in your phone and then to your mental space and that's my friends is a can of worms on its own you

Channel: deanna vy

Views: 348,534

Rating: 4.9110169 out of 5

Keywords: Minimalism, Spark joy, Marie Kondo, Hygge, Happy living, Minimalist, Minimalist lifestyle

Id: hgGWH2M7VVw

Length: 7min 49sec (469 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 10 2020