Mindful Intentions Archives - Page 2 of 5

What Minimalism Means to Me

November 21, 2016

During the day you will most often see me with my ear buds in, listening to podcasts, and being thoroughly entertained by “my people” as I refer to them as. They really are my people. I finally found them! I’ve never really felt like I belonged into a particular group until I stumbled upon minimalism. Then it all became clear, I was like Yes, that is me. That is how I feel. No one else in my life has ever expressed feelings like this. I’ve always wanted to focus on the things that were the most valuable to me, and to my family. I’ve always wondered why we let everything else get in the way, essentially saying that it is more important. It’s crazy. Each of us is only here for finite period of time, I don’t want to waste a day of it. I feel like I’ve wasted so many days and it’s not ok, and I won’t do it anymore.

What Minimalism Means To Me

Minimalism is really just a tool to help you see what is truly most important to you. Yes, you usually start with clearing out all of your physical possessions that are weighing you down, but that is really just the first step. It is a great step but there is so much more to minimalism than that. For me it is about intentional living. It’s about figuring out what is important to me and living according to that. Meaning that I am not just going to agree with something if it isn’t something I really feel like I need to be doing. It means I will say NO a lot more and I won’t feel bad about it. It means that I will spend my days more mindfully, truly appreciating the moments, even the mundane moments that we might normally try to rush through. I don’t want to wish my days away. I want them to be well spent. I want to make sure I make an effort to let the people in my life that I love and appreciate know that they are important to me. I don’t want to keep it to myself. I want to show them that I care.

The only way I can do all of these things is if all the other junk is out of the way so that my time and focus will not be wasted on it. It is ever changing, and that’s okay. Something that is important to me now may not be as important a year from now. It’s good to know that I can let those things go. You don’t need to drag those things along with you and let them weigh you down. Learning to release is healthy and takes practice. I have noticed it gets easier and easier.

Minimalism has helped me to be happy with me, it has helped me to be more comfortable with myself. It has helped bring focus to my life by clearing away a lot of mental clutter. It has helped bring clarity to my life, in a way that I have not seen before. Not to say that everything is magically clear but it has helped me to see what I want for my life more clearly. Minimalism may start with the “stuff” but it ends with a freedom that takes place deep within your soul. For me this equals happiness!

Being Kind to Myself : Grateful Friday #10

November 18, 2016

I saw a quote this week that really resonated with me and the person that I am becoming.

It reminded me to be kind to myself, to love myself and to treat myself like I would treat a friend. It sounds simple but this does not come easily to me. I am truly my worst enemy somedays. Thankfully those days are much fewer now. I am learning to be gracious and allow myself room to make mistakes, to say no, to rest when I need it, and to not feel guilty when I do something for me.

So this week I am thankful for the growth that I am seeing in myself. Small steps equal big changes.

Have a lovely weekend!

Today I’m linking up with Heather.

Be Willing to Let Things Go : Detachment vs Attachment

November 7, 2016

This has been a tough lesson for me and one I am still learning. As humans it’s natural for us to form attachments to people, animals, objects, and ideas. With attachment comes suffering. Being able to let go of expectations or things that have happened in the past can bring forth a freedom that not many people truly experience.

I don’t believe that we will ever be able to eliminate all suffering but I do believe that we can limit the places we let it enter into our lives by how we respond to things that are happening around us and to us. When we resist something that is clearly going to happen or has already happened then we invite suffering. When we fight so hard against what is happening it creates pain. We can never feel peace this way, there will always be a war going on inside of us. That is a miserable way to live.

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Letting Go of Mental Clutter : Deleting Facebook From My Life

October 17, 2016

First, let me start this by saying that I am not against social media. I think it can be a good thing and can enhance people’s lives. It makes it convenient to reach out to people when you need support and it can keep people connected, although I do feel like many of those connections are disingenuous (more about that in a bit).

What Has Facebook Become?

It can be fun looking at pictures of your friends and their families, it is nice reading about important things that are going in their life… big announcements, a move, a promotion. All of those things are great and it makes it easy to reach out and to congratulate them. But I feel like it has become so much more than that. Facebook has become a place where people share practically every little detail of their life. Starting from how they did or did not sleep that night to what they had for breakfast, to having to sit in traffic, or having to wait at the post office, to being put on hold while making a service call…..omg the list could go on and on. So what happens when we are bombarded with all of this information every single day. Depending on how many people you have on your feed, that is a lot shit to wade through multiple times a day. No one makes us look at Facebook and read all of this but we do it, we do it without even thinking about it and I think some actually feel obligated to do it….or maybe it’s FOMO (fear of missing out). I think FOMO is huge. People do not send letters any more, hell we rarely even email, I mean why do that when you get to see almost every detail by just logging on to FB. You feel like you know what’s happening in everyone’s life. Of course you don’t because the majority of people only put out the distorted best of what is happening. We really have no idea of what is really going on but we feel like we do and that makes us happy…..until it doesn’t.

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