Minimalism: It’s just crazy enough to save our sanity

A simple life is a happy, healthy life.  As we talk about finding healing and living a life of wellness, it is most certainly not all just about what we put in our mouths and how we move our bodies.  The amount of stress, pressure, commitments, and obligations in our lives directly impact our health. 

Enter, Minimalism.

Minimalism is not just a way of life, it is an entire mindset/philosophy.  To me, it’s even spiritual.  It is built upon the belief that a life of excess not only does not bring us happiness, it becomes a life-sucking burden.  

Awareness of Minimalism has exploded in the past year and a half thanks to Marie Kondo’s Netflix series about decluttering (which is really only a small part of what Minimalism is).  

My whole adult life I have been a Minimalist before it was a thing. I never liked too much of “the stuff” and more importantly never liked having to find a place to keep the stuff and then take care of it.  I never liked to be too busy either, though I went through times of busyness because I thought that was what I was supposed to do.  But in the last ten years Minimalism has become a bona fide lifestyle for me. Now more than ever, my lifestyle centers around it’s ideas, and I firmly believe it has played a major hand in keeping me well.  

Before we go too far, let me be explicit that Minimalism is not about getting rid of all your possessions and living out of a van.  It doesn’t even mean you have to live in a tiny house!  It doesn’t mean you have to appear fringe or extreme in any way.  It’s about simplifying your possessions and simplifying your life.

Here’s the important part - it’s not just about “stuff.”  A broader term to use is “Simplicity,” which applies the same minimalistic thinking to our daily schedules and routines.  Too many commitments, responsibilities, and obligations = too much stress and too many burdens.

This philosophy has helped my husband and I learn to structure our lives on purpose with the intent to live minimally and simply.  Our main motivator for this is a desire to avoid many of the unnecessary stressors that come with following society’s standards.  For us this looks pretty counter-cultural in many ways, especially as we are raising our 11 year old.  

Our family enjoys small-space living in an urban condo.  We don’t have a lot of possessions to take care of - if it doesn’t fit easily in the condo, we don’t own it.  If something new comes in, something old needs to go out.  We try to borrow things instead of buying them.  We share one vehicle but most of the time our biggest form of transportation is our own two feet.  For the time being, we are homeschooling our kid (a better term is “worldschooling,” but that’s a post for another day).  We keep ourselves busy but not too busy, leaving open time for exercise and self-care, time to engage in our hobbies and interests, time to volunteer in our community, time to be with friends and family, and time to just hang out with each other.

Despite my best efforts, I am just sooooooo Type A.  I also struggle with high anxiety and a bit of PTSD from almost dying of an Ulcerative Colitis severe flare up years ago.  This makes choosing to live a simple life all the more essential for me.  Minimalism literally saves my life daily.  Less to worry about = less stress and pressure and more freedom.  Less commitments = more time spent with my family, having the bandwidth to be able to focus on my daughter’s education, and more time to practice self care.  Less expenses = less stressing about money and bills.  

Does Minimalism solve all my problems? Of course not.  But I can safely say that by reducing the overall amount of stressors I have it greatly reduces the amount of problems I have! (I’ve got 99 problems and yard work ain’t one!).

We control what we can control, which is certainly not everything, but when the uncontrollables do pop up, we find ourselves having more margin to deal with them.

If you are interested in getting a tiny idea of what it feels like to live a minimalist life there are two experiments that I’d suggest you try.

1. Clean out a closet or drawer that is so full and disorganized you not only don’t really know what’s in it, but just opening it up stresses you out.  Take everything out, clean it out, then one by one pick up each of its contents and decide if you really need it/use it, really want it, and if it’s really worth keeping.  Put back ONLY what passes this test and get rid of what needs to go.  See how this makes you feel.
2. Find a weekend day on your calendar that either has nothing on it or has things scheduled that can easily be moved or cancelled.  Plan absolutely nothing for this day.  Defend its openness to the death.  When the day arrives, put your phone on silent and then spend all 12 hours however you ACTUALLY WANT TO SPEND IT, whether this means doing something fun with a loved one like taking your kid out for a tech-free meal, gardening, reading a book, going for a hike, having coffee with a friend, visiting a museum, driving to a lake, etc.  See how this makes you feel.  This one might need to be altered a bit thanks to the pandemic but can still be done with a little creativity.

If it feels good, if it feels right, by all means keep going.  You don’t have to go from 0 to 100 right away, or even at all.  Just choose a next step - clean out the garage; cancel a weekly commitment that has been too much of a time suck.  Step by step, keep going.

You can choose to stop letting society tell you what your life should look like.  Envision the life and the future YOU want to have and go after it. 

I highly recommend diving into the wide world of Minimalist Blogs to help keep you inspired and motivated. You can find my suggestions on the "Resources" page.