Minimalism Archives - Page 2 of 3

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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Who Wants to Play the Mins Game?

October 31, 2016

Who wants to join me in playing the Mins Game for the month of November?? I thought this would be a fun challenge and if you are new to Minimalism it could also be helpful for jump starting your journey. Over the last year or so I have decluttered most areas of my life but I still have a few places left to conquer so I thought this would be a fun way to help me conquer it and I would love it if you would like to play along also!

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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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My Minimalist Closet

October 3, 2016

This is something that is still evolving for me. I feel like I am getting closer and closer to finding what the right amount of clothes is for me. I don’t like to spend a lot of time deciding what to wear in the mornings. I like it to be comfortable and I like knowing that what I am wearing looks good on me. There are always pieces in my closet that I gravitate towards. I’ve done a lot of reading on Project 333, which was started by Courtney Carver. It challenges you to dress with 33 items or less for 3 months. This includes clothing, accessories, jewelry, outerwear and shoes. It does not include your wedding ring or another sentimental piece of jewelry that you never take off, underwear, sleep wear, in-home lounge wear, and workout clothing.

Over the last year or so I have gotten rid of so many clothes but it still feels like I have too much. So I have decided to eliminate even more. I know everyone sees this differently… what is right for me may not be right for anyone else. One person can be perfectly happy with 33 items and for someone else it might be closer to 60. Only you can know what is right for you. I fall somewhere in the middle.

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