Positive Minimalist Prepping for a Simpler Life
When you are in a constant struggle with the events of life it can be disheartening to say the least. Finances, health, career, and strained relationships are just some of the struggles we all face at moments in our lives. They say that the perfect storm for a mental breakdown is when you have worries about housing, relationship and finance. Many of us have faced all three at once in our lives, including me.
What if you could prepare a better path through life with less struggle?
I would like to share a few strategies that I have learned through living a minimalist lifestyle to meet the many challenges I once faced, and my preparedness for what will come.
Choose fewer options: Choose to do the important things and do less about the trivial. You accomplish more when you refuse to get caught up in the work that appears important but where you are actually just spinning your wheels in unproductivity. Focus on what you consider important and has the most impact personally and for your business.
Control only what you can: You can very rarely influence people and outside events, so it is best to focus on what you have full control over, your positive attitude to others and your constructive reactions to external events. Frustration and misery come from your expectations that you can control other people and external situations.
Empathise and understand others: People make more sense when you understand that they experience loss and longing just like you do. When you know that some people have less emotional tolerance in certain circumstances than others, you can focus on your own calm and understanding reactions to them. When negative emotions pour out, it is a reflection of a feeling of some loss or longing. This inner pain is what you must acknowledge in order to empathise.
Focus on what really matters: Learn to become more efficient and flow more in life. Refine the flow of your physical movement and reduce the complication that human thinking and design often brings. Keep things as close to their natural state as possible. Nature teaches us perspective about human-constructed objects and processes that often entangle and interfere in our lives. Look to nature for a truer reflection of our reality.
Learn to let go of the petty things in life: Inspirational author, Richard Carlson, wrote a whole successful series of books back in the 1980’s and 1990’s with the message “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”. We get so caught up with little, insignificant matters that don’t benefit our physical and mental advancement in life. Learn to let go of what is simply a waste of your time and effort.
Own fewer possessions: Many of our possessions are also petty, serve no function, nor continue to bring us pleasure. By choice, we still hold onto the detritus to the point where all the clutter buries the greatness of the possessions we enjoy most. Start by getting rid of the many, many duplicates and things that could be cheaply and easily replaced if we ever really needed to use them again. Be resourceful with fewer quality items instead.
Take care of things in the moment: Lose the lazy streak and take care of things around you as you go. Learn to make the bed as you get up, hang up your clothes as you take them off, clean and put things away as soon as you’ve finished. This habit is rewarding and efficient and will serve your life better in many areas as your discipline and resilience builds.
Take one step at a time: It can be motivating to leap into action, but when you jump into the deep end without knowing how to swim, you find yourself in difficulty. When faced with any daunting project, step into the shallow end first and then take one step at a time until you learn to swim into deeper matters and practices.
If you would like to learn further practical ideas about minimalism and leading a positive life, consider reading one of my books, available here.