The True Essence of Minimalism
For me, minimalism is about self-constraint. Minimalism is also analogous to frugality, in a sense that if you observe true minimalism, you would only buy the things that you really need, and skip those wants that will just clutter your space and making you budget-guilty for binge-shopping the non-essentials.
Last Friday, when I was doing the groceries, I passed by the ceramic section, and browse through a few nice looking mugs, and wanted to buy a stylish one I plan to use as my daily coffee mug at work, but then I’m not sure which one to pick, since I like more than one design. As a result, I just took a photo of each mug that appealed to me, and move on to just buy the essentials that I need (e.g. food, toiletries, etc.). I don’t really need another mug, as I already have a WomenTechMakers mug, which I got from last year’s event.
My interest towards minimalism started upon stumbling a nice book by Marie Kondo, about how to find joy by tidying your home, which is also applicable to any space you spent time at. It’s really amazing how she turned a simple mechanism of tidying things into a profitable business.
In my journey as a UX Developer, I become aware of how unorganised our home is, that we have many things we didn’t really use on a daily basis. Since I became aware of what good design is, and how design affects human behaviour. I wanted to make every space I spent time at to be as pleasant as possible, and that includes some areas in our home. This means I need to let go of some things that is not essential to my current state of living — to my daily flow. I really planned to have a clean slate before the year 2020 started. But due to various events, moments, and errands, etc.— all these many things that make up our lives, I got busy to set aside a time to clear up my space, and my head. So, until now, I’m still in the continual gradual process of letting go most of the whatever tangible items that don’t really makes sense to me now. According to Marie Kondo, the only things that should stay with you are those that spark joy.
Minimalism is indeed the art of letting go. It’s about choosing which ones are important to you now. Rachel Aust made a flowchart in her book, Less, to help us is our decision making. I refer to it whenever I’m lost with my declutter process. It’s a more detailed version in addition to Marie Kondo’s “joy” method.
I am convinced with the concept of living with less, which I find is a way to actually appreciate more out of life, and out of what you have. Minimalism is about being content with lesser and lesser. Less is more, if you think about it. All the advise other people are giving about minimalism is just a guide for us to know which one or few among our clutter makes sense. Minimalism guides us in knowing what is important in our lives. And what’s important should take precedence above other things. And if you ever get lost in choosing what’s important, you can always go back to nature. The answers to all our questions somehow exist already in this universe, we just have to look deeper.
Have you ever notice how you feel when you walk towards nature, filled with just plain green grass, or tall trees lined along the road spaced apart from each other almost perfectly? Have you ever notice how peaceful it feels to look up in the sky during night time, to see only a few twinkling stars, and one moon? When you sit down at the uncrowded beach, and look afar, you only see a horizon line with blue sky and a sunrise/sunset above it, the vast sea below it. Sometimes you may see a few birds flying, or a ship passing by. But that’s it, not that much elements for your brain to process.
When you see only a few items in your surroundings, you tend to appreciate those items more, and you eventually feel a sense of gratitude, a sense satisfaction towards life, and towards the fact that you are alive to be able to experience all of these beauty around you; that soon you will realize that you actually don’t need that much material things to truly appreciate and enjoy life.
