What Is Minimalism? Lifestyle, Examples

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What is Minimalism?

As The Minimalists (Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodeemus) define it, “Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favor of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom.”

Note: It’s not all about completely decluttering your home and owning as little as possible.

There are things we can all agree matter to us: health, safety, personal happiness, peace and contentment, fulfillment, and so on. We all want those general things. But the specifics of how we define those things can be a lot different.

Minimalism Starts With Your Vision Of Happiness

Example: My vision of personal happiness is seeing myself walking on a beach somewhere with blue skies and a nice ocean breeze.

Some of you probably can’t stand the beach and would prefer a cabin on the side of a mountain. And that’s completely fine.

Do this for me right now . Close your eyes and visualize your happy place.

Now use that as your daily motivation in order to get to that place. Research shows that visualization helps us to feel happier. It has to do with our brains not distinguishing between reality and imagination.

Imagine yourself feeling all the things you would feel in your happy place. Your body feels calmer and relaxed like it’s actually happening.

Think about what you just did. You didn’t move a single thing to feel happier. All you did was change what your mind focused on.

What if becoming a minimalist could change your life without throwing away one single thing? No re-organising stuff. Everything as messy as you want it to be.

Sounds crazy? Well it isn’t. Because being a minimalist isn’t about things, it’s about you. If that intrigues you, you’re on the right minimalism blog.

I was sitting in an airport waiting out a 2 hour delay. No smartphone, no computer. Just me stuck in my thoughts. I kept thinking to myself, “I want to make changes when I get home. I want to do new things and see my life drastically improve.”

You know what I mean? Maybe you’ve felt that at your regular 9 to 5 job, or just lying at home doing absolutely nothing. That tells me deep down inside you know you can do better. You know you can have better. But you don’t know how to get better.

We try so many things throughout our lives. Sometimes they work, but a lot of times they don’t. And we keep pondering what to do differently to change things. A new way of thinking and living that can be the answer to our problems.

Why Antimaximalist Exists

That’s the point of this blog and why you’re still reading. Because you want to find more knowledge to make your life better. I’ve spent so much time reflecting and reading different ways I can think and act to get what I want.

It’s gotten me the things I wanted, and even given me joy in the process. And you know what? It doesn’t require that much to make us happy.

Don’t believe me? Look at the elderly who in study after study rank as the happiest age group. Most people that age have lesser things than they had when they were younger.

What does that say about what really makes people happy?

Maybe you don’t need as many things as you think. Because maybe all that needs to change is your mindset and your actions.

Messy Bed or Messy Head?

People tend to focus on the physical space when it comes to minimalism. Getting rid of things you don’t use anymore. Organizing things to create more space around you.

But let me tell you, taking a minimalist approach to our mental and emotional space is far more important.

Ask yourself what’s really worse, a messy bed or a messy head? We have to apply minimalism to our thoughts and emotions by minimizing them to the ones that bring us most joy.

Because this helps us take more positive steps in life. And those steps influence our thoughts and emotions even more to being as happy as we desire.

If you remember nothing else, remember this. Your thoughts influence your actions, and your actions influence your thoughts.

The thoughts you need to start getting rid of right now are the negative ones, because they’re holding you back. You know them by heart.

You aren’t smart enough, you aren’t strong enough, you aren’t normal, you don’t fit in. Close your eyes, think of a trash can with the label BS on it, and throw all those labels in there.

Better yet, imagine opening that lid, pouring some gasoline on all the negative crap people have said about you, and burn that son of a you-know-what to the ground.

Believe In Yourself

If you’re feeling passion building inside of you, that’s great! Because you need to give yourself that kind of passion boost everyday in order to really take action.

But minimizing those negative thoughts isn’t going to take one mental exercise. They’re still going to pop up every now and then.

But as you build up your confidence through your actions then your negative thoughts will have less power to grab your attention.

When minimizing the negative, you make space for the positive. So remind yourself that you are smart, you are strong, and you are normal and good enough.

That’s the first step right there, because if you don’t believe in yourself, your chances of getting what you want are zero!

It’s because you’re not going to be as motivated to take action. Our inaction keeps things the same and our negative thoughts stick in our mind more. As a result, those negative thoughts further encourage you to do nothing.

So you trap yourself in a vicious cycle, and you keep yourself from getting your happiness. But I know that’s darn sure not what you want.

Think You Can Again

As Henry Ford put it “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”

It’s time to start thinking you can again, and I’m gonna show you how through my writings.

You’re gonna learn things that’ll help you live the best life you’ve ever lived, and maybe things you’ve not heard beffore

I spent years of being stuck in life with no direction in my 20’s. I spent a lot of time trying to find new ways and new steps to take to get more meaning in life.

I’ve read so many ideas of how to think and act that I’ve never heard of before. Through doing all of that, I’ve finally felt I’ve gotten answers to getting that joy I desire.

So I wanted to write and do the same for other people out there in the US, UK, Australia, and all over the world searching for answers.

This could completely change your life, or if nothing else, can get you started in the right direction again.

If you felt inspired, motivated, or intrigued by this post, you’re welcome to join the journey through subscribing.

I look forward to all of the unique stories you have to share in the comments.