I think that Minimalism is just a word created by the society to define a certain group of people living a life with less stuff.
I don’t personally love the word ‘minimalism’ because if you are not a person that thinks to words definitions to a deep level, it will be just a word.
When people ask questions like: ‘how to become a minimalist?’, I feel like is a very dumb question. Here in this article, I am going to try to explain what minimalism is for me.
But if I want to be straight to the point, here in a few words is my definition of minimalism.
Minimalism is the ability to reconnect with our real survivals – MinimalistBoy
What Is Minimalism?
If you started to read my blog, you probably started to figure out that I don’t trust humans so much. I am the biggest source of trust flowing in my life. I don’t like the fact that humans spend their lives to grow up under rules that the society has imposed.
The fact that in 2018, still there are some people that strongly believe in a god is very confusing. It’s a sign of a society that does not want to evolve.
I think that believing in something is very important in life, but when this belief can be called with a name suddenly lose my interest.
I lose my interest unless I am creating my personal definition of that belief, and I go against the flow to keep it up.
So humans defined minimalism as a group of people that live with less in order to achieve happiness. I don’t like this definition as well. I don’t think there is the need to define you as a minimalist if you are living with less. You can just be called with your real name, and not minimalist.
What defines happiness in our average lives
For most of the people I know, happiness is something you can purchase. Certain days we are in front of the fact that this is not the case, but still, we keep forgetting these days.
There is no way that you can become a better person if you keep forgetting circumstances where you are in front of your real self-needs.
I was looking at a video from a TED speech of the minimalists before writing this article. In the whole video the thing that caught my attention, was when Joshua started to figure out that he didn’t need to pursue the life he was pursuing because of the death of his mother. The things she left, were absolutely worthless. (something triggered in him).
All of us face situations like this one, all the time. The thing is that Joshua pushed himself for a change, and to have a better life for him. What people do usually, is to realize what deeply and truly needed under those circumstances and then as soon as they feel better they just say: “fuck it“.
WRONG
Happiness by kilowatt
From the moment you say “fuck it”, you are not willing for a change, and you get stuck in your world of ‘happiness by kilowatt’. This is the title of a song written by one of my favorite artists, Dallas Green from City and Colour.
The lyrics of this song are simple, and they go like this:
So this is continuous happiness
You know, I always
Imagined it something more
With the right drapes, the right paints
The right frames, this could really work
What a great day to spend indoors
We spend our lives indoors and trying to fill ourselves with drapes and frames. I would like to think of this situation as for the opposite of what we call minimalism.
Minimalism and reconnect with our survivals
Minimalism for me is the ability to reconnect with our survivals, but defining what a survival is, can be simple and at the same time daunting.
In order to be able to define your survivals, you need to know your limits and what are your real self-needs. A stupid example is if you have a physical condition where you cannot eat tomatoes or else you will die. This is a real self-need.
People will not call you the tomatomalist because you don’t eat tomatoes. They will just call you as the person that in order to survive doesn’t eat tomatoes.
I have no serious physical conditions, but I probably do have some mental conditions, and something I am pretty sure I really need in life is my car.
The reason why I need my car or a motorcycle is that I need to explore any corner of this world. And if I would have to do this walking, it would be so much harder.
I am not willing to waive on a harder life, so I need a car. This is one of my survivals but it is definitely not necessarily yours.
“I really need it” what this means
Minimalism as a word is not a scarcity of something, but it is the perfect amount of your needs. You need to make your own minimalism.
When you are in front of your real self, it will be your job to thin down your needs to your essential needs. This not necessarily will make you happy. If you see that buying stuff and cumulating things satisfy you, you don’t need to stop it.
The problem is that I have some doubts that having more things will make you happy. For me having more stuff leads to more confusion.
I deeply and truly love to be surrounded by only things that are adding value and help me in life. I don’t want to waste time being around something I don’t love.
Being able to represent your needs and letting go what you don’t need will for sure make you a better person.
How to define your real survivals
Your real survivals can be defined only when you are living in the moment. To live in the moment you need to experience real freedom.
Our society teaches us that we need to go to school, get a job, pay the bills, raise a kid and wishing that your kids would have the same life as yours.
What prehistoric man wanted from their kids was the capacity to survive in the wilderness without being killed.
In our century, we take for granted that we are alive and we are the only responsible for our causes.
If I have to make a list of the steps that will help you on how to define your survivals. I would probably list them like this:
- Everything objective, is actually subjecting.
- You can not have objective things, you can create an illusion of objective things.
- Actualize your visions.
- Aim to be extraordinary, not ordinary.
- Leave behind the superfluous and useless.
How the world put most of the people in a cage
If you were born in a country where nothing is missing, and where food and liberty are always on the table, you might have lost your survival.
In this kind of society, usually, people grow up the same way. Our educational system is so messed up, we are never taught how to make money, or how to survive alone outdoor in the cold. We assume that those basic and vital aspects of our lives are included in the package “you are born on this planet”.
It is absurd that some people believe in things that don’t exist, and makes wiser people richer. This should be eradicated from the world with culture and passion for life.
We should raise our kids in the awareness that we are truly free and we only need what our minimal survival needs.
No one will assume in the first place that you are an idiot if you have a degree. Meanwhile, if you are farmer raising cows, you might be considered at first, a second-class citizen.
What we miss, is passion and real minimalism not only as a word, but as something to have the need for as a survival.
Why some people want stuff they don’t need
There are people that buy stuff all the time! The main reason is that having more according to our educational system, and society, gives us more power.
There will be few people telling you, quit your job, quit school and just follow your hearth. Probably because had become too hard to live in this world if you don’t have skills and you don’t live a stressful life.
Some people will seclude their anger and depression in stuff like yoga, and or go to a psychologist. But in fact, if you were to lose everything you have, right now, and you will be thrown into the real wilderness. It will not take too long to understand that all you need is you and being healthy.
Practicing mindfulness, and eating good food and get the right amount of sleep will be a routine in your survival process. There is no need to call it yoga, diet or good rest time. It will just come so that you can survive and live to the fullest.
The most important things in life according to minimalism
To pursue an extraordinary life filled with emotions, you have to be a simple person.
What makes us extraordinary for me are mainly these factors:
- Unlimited curiosity.
- Health.
- Love.
- Purpose.
- Relationships.
Conclusions on Minimalism
To conclude this article about what is minimalism, I want to shrink all I wrote above in a few words. I think that minimalism cannot just be called with a name, but it needs to be practiced. In order for it to be practiced there is nothing more simple than this.
You just need to reconnect with your survivals and deep needs, life will be less confused and the rest (happiness etc.) will come automatically.
In this MinimalistBoy Blog, I will write my experiences and slowly try to open your eyes to a life of less. I have like 50 posts titles lined up in my OneNote, and I will slowly put them out. This requires a lot of time, and I hope you liked this content.
If you are looking forward to more content, Bookmark this blog. Share it with your friends and spread some rumors about it.
Further Readings:
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