INTRODUCTION
"There are many resources for people's needs. But not for people's greed", said M.K. Gandhi.
Let's spare a few minutes to look around us. What do we see? Latest gadgets, costly goods, expensive products, high end lifestyle and lot more. Have we ever thought about their value or their importance. We have drowned ourselves so badly in accumulating things that we forgot to cherish them. It's so sad to see that we categorize ourselves based on our possessions.
It is to curb this issue that people gave birth to a lifestyle called minimalism.
How it started ?
What is minimalism or minimalist lifestyle? It refers to living a life without having the desire of accumulating more instead of realizing the value of emotions and relationships.
In the Western world minimalist lifestyle started in the 1950s when people realized that material possessions didn't pave a way to a happier life. Whereas our ancestors on the other hand realized that happiness cannot be attained with any possessions but simply by satisfaction and peace. That is where the concept of minimalism aroused.
Our ancestors focused on mental and spiritual aspects greater than hoarding wealth.Why did our forefathers choose this lifestyle?
When we speak of minimalism, it refers to living with the simplest of possessions. Our forefathers had their meals sitting on the floor rather than huge dining tables and chairs, which not only had scientific implications but also had huge gratification within themselves. They understood that priceless possessions are those which lasts long and provide us with a happiness that doesn't extinguish. Indeed, The vedic scriptures focused on "simple living and high thinking". Moreover, the Vedas simply defined man as, "spiritual souls embodied in materialism".
How disastrous is today's complex lifestyle ?
Today we are so much occupied with the idea of shopping that e-commerce websites alone have earned about 14 billion US dollar to 64 billion US dollar from 2014 to 2020 and are further estimated to rise up to 200 US billion dollar by 2024 just in India, as reported according to stastica.com. But what about us? Every time we see something new in the market we simply buy them just to look cool in front of others or under social pressure. At the end of the day it has abruptly disrupted the lives of many teens and adults today. Therefore minimalism becomes among the latest demands.
Benefits of minimalist lifestyle
1. Happiness: We say having a lot of stuff yields us cheerfulness while psychologists often stress the line "less is more". So the less you pile the more happy you will be. It is scientific that when your brain focuses on plenty of things at once it's efficiency reduces leading to anxiety and panic. This could be the reason as to why cases of mental issues are climbing the graph.
2. Focus: Who doesn't want to have maximum focus ? The lesser you have to work on the more concentrated you become. This of course, holds true with minimalism. We become less distracted and we can not only focus on whatever we are doing and whatever we have but the clarity of thoughts that gets blessed upon us indeed improve all the aspects of our life. We feel more energized, more positive which is a beautiful feeling in itself.
3. Self awareness/ self consciousness: We hoard things subjected to social expectations like if one possesses something we too have the same crave and we go for it irrespective of our needs. But when we start to unclutter to our real needs, we tend to move closer to our authentic self help, thus becoming self aware of what we are in true sense.
4. Opportunity : As opposed to the false belief, minimalism is not staying away from reality. When we become self-aware then we not only become more radical that takes us to the higher level but also paves the way to newer opportunities to explore hidden worlds which otherwise seemed 'out of reach'.
5. Humble : Being humble is the hallmark of real success and real heroes and minimalism teaches us to do that quite easily.
Monetary impacts:
1. It is not difficult to realize that minimalism helps you from overspending. One of the wise planning of money can be done by using the "50-40-10" rule. 50% of the income for daily needs, 40% for additional needs and 10% for saving. Minimalism is the best way to apply this rule.
2.One of the remarkable features of minimalist style of living is it differentiates between "wants" and "needs". Spending on 'needs' is the best way of saving money. As the money spent on needs can be saved later.
Is minimalism even practical ?
Can we buy happiness ? if the answer is yes then probably our whole life was a lie. Happiness is not a consequence after gaining something, it is feeling in the journey in realizing who we are, this could happen maybe through the challenges we take each day to unravel our hidden potential or maybe through something like meditation. Minimalism is all that it leads. Ratan Tata, Abdul Kalam, Warren Buffet, Manik Sarkar (chief minister of Tripura) were the best examples that possesive lifestyle is neither related to pursue success nor is it indicator of succesful people.
How can it be brought in picture?
Thanks to the adoption of western world in our lives, complete minimalism might be next to impossible. Nevertheless, we can execute it to an extent that little glimpse of it would be like a feeling of heaven. If we gotta start it from scratch then we should detach ourselves from something that is taking our real happiness and making us dependent and incapable. Like starting to switch to walking instead of mounting on a bike every time or simply making use of whatever we have instead of always buying a new one. Economists would indicate that this could harm our business and growth. Think of long term! It will actually make us more strong, capable and broad minded thus making us have more potential to the bigger economy as even resource scarcity is the plight of the hour.
Basic approach :
1. Think before you buy, why do you feel that you need, what you don't need ?
2. If you are feeling bored then give a try to unload the belongings that are not required and just keep it aside for some days and after over a period of time, when you will have seen that you don't need them, it's time to donate it , so that it might be of help for others.
This is as equivalent as cleaning your phone storage and our device becomes very efficient afterwards, the same will be the case with our lives (the only difference is that you cannot donate from your phone data).
Note, such a thing doesn't just give freedom from physical possessions but also provides mental detachments.
3. It might be quite difficult but driving ourselves makes better health than driving machines. This is the point when minimalism will start giving its fruits.
4. Minimalism doesn't ask you to stop cravings, it instead takes you to the position where your possessions are simply priceless, so try to target them.
Minimalism and Religion
In sooth, the religious practices are what lead to spirituality and that in turn make us life real worth. Although the concept of minimalism emerged from the Sanatana Dharma and the Indian culture very long back, but now, this phenomenon is nowhere confined to any community. Today, minimalism prevails for whoever cherishes it, introspects it and adapts it.
CONCLUSION
Our essential stuff is our subjective issue, what might be essential to us might not be to others and vice versa. Minimalism chiefly asks you to make space for your essentials and make life simpler and better, if not best.
What in the end can we do by consuming more and enjoying least? Let us consume less and enjoy the peak. Let us not get controlled by any of our possessions, instead control our possessions. Our goal in life is to rediscover our true self. This can be done only when we focus on ourselves and our betterment. Happiness is a state which needs to be attained by the mind. No materialistic possessions, luxuries or high end lifestyle can fill the void that is caused by the lack of self awareness.
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