Minimalism and Me: Part 1

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO MINIMALISM

Have you heard of the term minimalism? In all probability, you have. The concept has been trending really well for the past few years. And even so; if you haven't heard of it yet...let me briefly explain the deal.

                                                   

There is a certain freedom in not having so many choices...

   

It's exactly what it sounds like...being minimal with every aspect of your life. It's the conscious act of letting go of unnecessary items. More often than not; unwanted stuff, feelings, people etc. gather in our lives and messes with its rhythm. They disrupt our balance and become a source of constant anxiety. So the best thing to do is to get rid of it. Clear it all out.

There's an even better way of explaining minimalism. Think about your room. Day after day passes by. It collects things; but not in the proper order. It starts off slow though...

            

You decide to not put a book in its right spot. Nothing extremely disastrous happens. 

              Then another book and then one book more. Still, it's all cool.

Then you order some stuff. You haven't decided where to put this stuff; so you chuck the boxes in the corner and plop the receipts on your spare table. Still, no damage is done.

       

And, the process continues...one month, two months, three months...Suddenly you are on Month 5. Every time you enter your room, something weighs down within you. You avoid staying at home because it means staying in your room with this weird heaviness in your heart. The days pass by and one fine day, you realise that the state of your room is the main cause of the heaviness within you. 

             You clear everything out. Bit by bit. It's darn hard as you have grown so used to seeing your room in this state. But then one day you return to a clean room and a heavy sigh of relief escapes from your lips. The heaviness is gone now...replaced with this light-hearted joy that makes you skip. Relief washes all over.

                                                        

The less you own, the less it owns you!

That's the basic way of defining minimalism and the feelings that follow. But minimalism doesn't just apply to material goods. It's equally applicable to human feelings. The huge pile of unwanted, unnecessary and toxic emotions that we keep shoving in the corner of our hearts--never once realising how utterly messy it's becoming! 

         Until one day...when it's all too much to even allow us to breathe. By then; it might be a little too late. So being a minimalist is keeping clutter at bay; irrespective of its kind. Just any type of unwanted clutter is not given a chance to mess with our mental well-being.

But what's fascinating is that even though many people have only recently discovered this concept...I was never aware; how I had been taught all this involuntarily by my family. 

The only defect was---they did not have any clue that this excellent advice they were giving me had a fancy name - MINIMALISM!!!

(To be continued...)