I have been living a minimalist lifestyle for about seven years now, and through this journey
I've gotten rid of more than half of my stuff. Not only did I declutter a lot of things...
I also completely changed the way I consume and purchase new things. And in this video today
I want to share the five major things that I learned from minimalism along the way.
Welcome back to Simple Happy Zen
It's Vera, and today I want to talk about what the experience of getting rid of such a big part of my
possessions taught me and
any future lessons that will take from it.
And also some advice for you, if this is something that you would like to do as well. Of course
you don't have to do things the same way
I did. You can also just do some light decluttering, do it your own way.
But hopefully this video will give you some inspiration. The first thing that minimalism taught me is that my stuff does not define me.
I am more than my possessions, and what I have or don't have doesn't say anything about me.
And of course this goes for other people too. When I was younger
I definitely did feel more of the pressure to own certain things. And it wasn't that I thought people
who have better things or fancier things are better people.
But I certainly did somehow
expect that life had this progression that you need to go through. Go to school
get a job, buy a house, work hard, get a promotion, earn more money, buy a bigger house...
get a fancy car, buy expensive clothes, etc
And minimalism showed me that this is not a path that everyone has to do. And whether you have fancy things or not
It doesn't say anything about how successful you are, or how happy you are, or how good you are at life.
I actually feel more abundant and successful than ever. And that is because I'm living a life that I love. And
I would never say that minimalism is a magical cure for everything, because it's not.
But at least for me
it's a great lifestyle. Because it allows me to live more intentionally and make choices
based on what makes sense to me. And I could never do what I'm doing now at this point being a full-time youtuber
if it wasn't for minimalism. And while we're talking about being successful...
I think success can look differently for each person.
So for example, a single parent who has a couple kids and raises them to be healthy and happy individuals
I think that's very successful.
Or someone who quits their job, to become a professional dog walker because they really love dogs, or someone who
does not make a lot of money, but they make enough to sustain themselves and they have
time left over to do the things that they feel passionate about. That sounds really successful to me.
So success is not defined by your stuff.
So my advice here would just be to take a short moment to reflect.
Do you
consciously or subconsciously think that your stuff defines you? And if so, why? And could you maybe see it in a different way?
The second thing that
minimalism and getting rid of over half my stuff taught me is that
life is not boring with less stuff. If there's less going on. I used to love to go shopping, buying new things, ordering things online.
Because every time you get something new there's this moment of excitement and it's just something new and fresh.
And of course as a minimalist
I still have that sometimes, but certainly a lot less often, and with more intention.
But I learned that if you have less stuff and you buy less things, it's certainly not boring or uneventful. In fact for me
it's the opposite now.
I think the things we have around us in our space can also kind of weigh on us and weigh us down.
Because we do feel responsible for them.
And for a lot of people, myself included...
we don't really notice this until we remove some of it. And when we start to declutter
we suddenly experience more space and a lighter feeling and we feel more freedom. And that
was definitely my experience too. And this can also translate to different parts of you that you didn't even see coming.
For example, I started to feel more creative.
I started to explore different sides of myself. And I started to feel like more things were possible.
And of course, the less money we spend on things, the more we get to spend it on
experiences. And we can prioritize what we love more in our life and that makes a life worth less not boring
but actually really exciting.
I am really curious what you guys think about this. Do you on some level or does some part of you think that a
minimalist life will be more boring?
Yes or no and why please share it in the comments.
Because I do think that this could be something that might hold some people back from trying it out.
So I'd really love to know how you guys feel about this. Something else
I learned from minimalist living
is that I am in charge of what I want to let into my life. And I used to be a lot more
passive as a person.Aand now I am more proactive in different parts of my life as well.
And I learned through minimalism that I am in charge and I am free to make the choices that I want to make about
what I want to bring into my home and enter my life.
My home kind of is like my sanctuary now. And it feels really good to be here.
And this doesn't only apply to stuff, but also on less tangible things. If there is a project or a commitment or anything
like that
I do take a moment to think before I let it in.
I try to let go of what other people might think or what I feel I'm
expected to do. And I just think about what do I want? If I feel it would be good for me or for
someone I care about I will say yes, but if I feel like it won't do anyone much good I might say no.
I think minimalism can make us more proactive as a person, because it lets us practice that decision-making process of
"Will this actually bring value to my life?" or "Can I actually help someone out with this or not?"
And it translates to a lot of different areas of life.
The fourth thing that I learned from getting rid of more than half
my possessions is that life has a way of working out, and I can just trust that it will.
By nature I am very much a worrier and I do feel best when I feel like I'm in control.
There's actually a baby photo of me at my parents house with a really big worried look on my face.
So I guess it always has been that way. And worrying just comes really natural to me.
But I have to say that over the last few years
I worry less and less. And that
is because I see now that life just has a way of working out.
There is no need for me to worry about what ifs or
hang on to a certain item in case I might need it someday.
I know that if I'm not using it now I can just get rid of it.
And if there ever comes a time when I do need it, I know that there will be another solution available.
In my latest video, I talked about how minimalism is the opposite of clinging in a way and trusting that things will work out. And
for me
it really helps me to allow, release and let go, and trust that everything is as it should be. Of course
like I said earlier...
I'm not trying to say that minimalism is some sort of magical cure because it's not. But for me
at least, it really helped me to worry less.
The fifth thing that I want to share today that I learned from 7 years of minimalist living is
that every goal is reachable if you just continue to take small steps. And I used to be someone who was very
result oriented and I could always see the big picture of where I wanted to go, or what I wanted to achieve.
But I didn't really know how to get there, or where to start, or which first steps to take. And I would often get
discouraged before I even started. And getting rid of such a big part of our possessions
was not something that happened overnight. And in fact, we didn't even really set out to do it in the first place.
It wasn't our goal or something. And it's something that just happened naturally over the years.
When I first started out with minimalism, the intention was definitely to declutter and
getting rid of a bunch of things that we were not using. But it wasn't like we had this goal to
get rid of over half our things.
So if we had had this goal, chances are that I would not have even started.
But we got here because we continued to take one small step after another.
And I believe is the same with other big goals as well. If you take a look at people with successful online businesses, for example...
It's not something that they achieved overnight. And there was also not
one big magical thing that they did that suddenly made all the difference.
They got to where they are, because they continue to take small steps. And they did all those little things that needed doing.
If you just do that long enough, you will reach your goal. Hey guys little quick intermission for me here.
I was editing this video and suddenly I realized that I actually have an entire
video about reaching your goals and having a mindset for success.
Where I talk about the things that I have learned from growing my channel so far. And if you are interested in it
I'll make sure to link it in the description box as well as right here.
So you can check it out after you're done watching this one.
All right.
So minimalism taught me that the best thing you can do, is just to start something and keep going. Like this quotes that I absolutely
love: Start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can. You cannot do more than this.
But you owe it to yourself to at least take action.
It's always better to take action, and just see how things go, instead of wondering what it could be like or thinking about
the desired end goal of something that you want to achieve. So instead of just thinking okay
I will do it next year, or looking into the future, just take the first step and go from there. If you're still here
Thank you so much for watching, give this video a thumbs up if you want because it really helps me out.
And of course subscribe to the channel for weekly videos just like this one.
I have a video about decluttering your life right here.
And right here is a video about seven easy minimalist habits that you can start doing today.
Have a great day, and I'll see you next week my friend. Bye. Bye.
