I had a few discussions lately on the topic of minimalism .. they all fuse together in this little text I created "on demand" for another dear "magic-life-creator" :)
I don’t really like the word minimalism, because I don’t like boxes or étiquettes.
Anyhow, I would like to talk a bit about having less, a trend commonly called « minimalism ».
A few years ago, I was working in an office five days a week and I often asked myself « So this is it ? ».. to which I also gave myself this very instinctive answer : « There MUST be something else ».
I was tired and had no real time for me or my beloved ones. I was working five days a week to pay of the bills. Bills for my nice flat, holidays, insurances, hobbies, sports, clothes, and so on and so forth.. I had two days a week during which I could really enjoy life and five weeks of holidays to rest (yes, I know.. for many, this is already a lot).
At some point, I started doubting: “Is this really gonna be it ?” And again.. I answered to myself: “There MUST be something else”.
My brother has always been a very little consumer and he inspired me a lot in this way. Naturally, I started to become more aware of my needs and realised they were way smaller than what I was thought or.. brainwashed – let’s say.
I started to sort out my stuff. I made piles. Piles of what I really need, what I don’t need but still want to keep and stuff I can give away.
Slowly the process was launched. And the seed grew.. I changed flat, I sold many things, I got a part time job and what happened ?
I actually have more TIME.
Time to think and learn.
Time to be with my friends and family.
Time to do nothing and be.
It’s is not a goal I have set, there is nothing I want to reach.
Rather, I see this as an endless process.
Over the years, I noticed many changes in my consumption behaviour .. but not only on the material level.
It also changed the way I deal with time, how and with whom I invest and spend it.
Lately, I started to look at my internet consumption in that way – and on this specific point (as well as many others of course;), I must admit.. I still have work to do ;) but.. as I said, it’s a journey and I really like to take it as a game.
On a more philosophical level, Krishnamurti an Indian philosopher wrote:
« Now, our conception of a simple life is to possess only a few things or to have no possessions at all, but surely, that is not a simple life. We look up to those who lead a simple life in the physical sense, who have few clothes and no property, as though that were something marvelous. Why? Because we in ourselves are attached to things, to property. But is living a simple life merely a matter of denudation, the putting aside of physical things? Or is it much deeper? Though we may have but few things, inwardly we are always gathering, accumulating; we are bound to beliefs, to dogmas, to every form of experience and memory, and there is in us a ceaseless conflict between various wants, longings, hopes, desires. All this indicates not a simple life but a very complex inward life. So I think it is important to find out why the mind accumulates, consciously as well as unconsciously, why it cannot meet every incident, every reaction as though it were something new, fresh. Why must it translate each experience in terms of the old, in terms of what it has known? The mind is always accumulating experiences, reactions, storing them away as memory in order to use them for its own security. And is understanding, is intelligence the result of innumerable experiences? Or is it the capacity to look at things anew, to face life from moment to moment without the darkening effect of experience, of the past? ».
So let me leave you with this simple question that I ask myself over and over again :
« What do I need right now ? ».
Sainte Rose, Guadeloupe - November 2019
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