Minimalism

Over the past year, I have started to subscribe to the ideas of minimalism. The Minimalists describe minimalism as follows:

Minimalism is a tool used to rid yourself of life’s excess in favor of focusing on what’s important so you can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom. 

To me, that is powerful. Basically, it is a wake up call to start focusing on the most important aspects of our lives and remove all of the junk out of our lives. The junk can be material possessions, bad relationships, negative thoughts, or ANYTHING! What's important is that it is junk that is holding you back from finding freedom.

As I have been working on becoming a minimalist, I have discovered what the most important things in my life. Here is my short list:

1. Family
2. Friends
3. Nature
4. Cooking/Baking
5. Travelling

These are the things in life that provide me with the most fulfillment. These are the things that keep me in balance. These are the things that bring me happiness. If these things aren't in my life, I feel like there is a hole in my life. 

Since I have returned from Switzerland, I have been trying to purge unnecessary junk from my life. A couple weeks ago, I took 3 bags of clothes to a shelter and threw out another 2 bags of trash that had built up in my tiny NYC bedroom. I couldn't believe how much junk there was! But after I got rid of the junk, I felt much better. It was cleansing for both my physical living space as well as my soul. 

While I was cleaning out my room, I spent a lot of time thinking about other junk that I could remove from my mind. I focused on removing my insecurities and my bad habits. We all have them and they can all be damaging to us and our relationships. These are much harder to remove, but I have been trying to rid myself of them. Some of my insecurities include failure, people leaving me for no apparent reason, and being rejected. Some of my bad habits are being too overbearing, taking too much care of those around me, and spending too much time on social media. I'm slowly trying to remove the junk from my life and replace it with things that are better for me physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of consumer culture we've built our lives around. Real freedom.  

-The Minimalists 

 I want to find this freedom from all of negativity in my life.