How to Create A Minimalist Lifestyle and Live A Better Life

The word minimalism has been trending in society for some time now. In this article, we will try to understand the true meaning of minimalism, how to create a minimalist lifestyle and also focus on the ways in which one can inculcate this concept for a better life.

What is minimalism?

Minimalism means living life in a simple and subtle manner, with minimum things of need.

In fact, the Indian culture, our Vedas and Puranas, preach this as an unerring way of living. Our ancestors may not have given this concept such a fancy name, but this was their lifestyle.

As the time passed, a feeling of attachment towards materialistic things started to arise in humans which is the cause of all their suffering and pain.

Minimalism helps us to break the bonds of attachment and leads us towards a contented and happy life.

Ancient Indian philosophy teaches us that man should never run after ‘too much’, but he should learn to be happy with less.

The idea of ​​minimalism is such that the more chaos and bustle around us, the more disorganized and disturbed our mind will be. A lot of our time is wasted in clearing this external and internal disorder.

As we get rid of this external clutter, our state of mind will improve, and we will get more time for ourselves which we can devote to some productive work and move more quickly towards the most important goal of our life.

There are no strict rules for living a minimalist lifestyle. It is entirely up to you which unnecessary item you want to eliminate from your surroundings.

How to follow minimalism?

The best way to do this is to start from home. First of all, remove all such items in your house that you do not use at all or which you have not used for a long time. Either donate such things or throw them away.

Similarly, we can clear the clutter from our wardrobes also by sorting our waste and unused clothes from those which we actually wear.

At the same time, we also have to keep in mind that we do not spend money to buy such useless stuff and avoid unnecessary shopping.

Spending money on unnecessary things, making space for them in the house, and then maintaining them spoils our state of mind and causes excessive stress and anxiety.

Reducing such useless stuff which is no more required or which was never required and focusing on what is actually needed, you will be able to save your time, money and energy.

Minimalism is a way of living in which you yourself identify what things you need to live and which do not. Gradually, you keep on removing everything from your life which is not necessary for you so that you will have more time, more space and more money for important things.

For a beginner minimalist, these five things can make the beginning of his or her minimalism easier:

1. Know your ‘why’

First of all you should know why you want to follow minimalism and what change you want to bring in your life by this.

When you find this reason, you will know where to start, and then you can set goals for yourself to achieve minimalism in your own way.

2. Take small steps

Decluttering in the process of following minimalism can seem like a huge task, but you must not give up.

Take it easy, keep it simple and take small steps. The end result of following minimalism should be that you get happiness, you get peace, you get more time for your important tasks.

So don’t look at this process as a burden. Every day, declutter a small space around you, and clean it.

3. Change your shopping patterns

You can create a budget for yourself to monitor your shopping. Along with this, you can make some rules for yourself, say you will shop on only one day in a week, or will not shop at all in a particular month etc.

Limit the amount of money and the amount of time you spend on shopping. Many of us do shopping simply because it gives them a stimulating pleasure. In this case find different stimulating experiences for yourself.

Find your triggers which force you to shop (eg: social media ads), and eliminate them. Delay your purchases. Whenever you feel like buying something, don’t buy instantly, wait for a month and then at the end of the month analyze if you really needed that thing this month.

4. Borrow or rent things

Sometimes we want such things which we are probably going to be used only once, like dresses of latest trending fashion for a friend’s wedding. In such cases it is prudent to either rent things or borrow from elsewhere.

5. Never forget, you are complete as you are

We need to understand that we never needed any external thing to complete ourselves and neither do we need them now, we are complete in ourselves as we are.

Myths about minimalism

The popularity of minimalism has been increasing for the last few years and simultaneously misconceptions related to it are also increasing.

The biggest of these is the myth that those who follow minimalism should throw out all their belongings from the house. But it is not so.

Minimalism makes your life easier by preventing you from getting bogged down in unnecessary things. But this does not mean at all that the things which are necessary for your daily work, you should also remove them from your life.

Another myth is that if you are a minimalist then you cannot have any desires or interests. Basically, minimalism means that you remove the turmoil around you and devote all your energy to a few selected things.

Minimalists also have interests and hobbies on which they spend almost all of their time, money and energy.

The third myth is that there are extremely strict rules about following minimalism. But it is nothing like that. Two minimalists can follow it in two different ways. It completely depends on their circumstances and mind-sets.

The article provides sufficient information related to minimalism by reading that any person can easily apply this concept in their day-to-day activities, and can enjoy its benefits.

Let us know in the comment section what you think about minimalism.