- Hello friends and
welcome to today's video.
I'm gonna be talking about
why the minimalist lifestyle
has been so enriching for me personally
and why I believe it will
rock your world as well.
So my life has always been
quite minimalist in a way
that because of my very
nomadic sort of history
since I was a teenager and
living all over the place,
I never really had the
opportunity to accumulate a lot
of stuff and had to always
leave things behind, I guess.
And also I just always really
loved getting rid of stuff.
When I look back to my
childhood I just always loved
sorting through things and
just keeping the things
that were most important to me.
But I took all this to
a way more intense level
when I consciously embraced
minimalist living in 2011
because I downsized everything I owned,
all of my belongings to 100 things.
I will make an extra video about my story
into minimalism at another time.
So since those days I've
more mindfully taken on
minimalism as a lifestyle and
I guess a life philosophy.
And also I've been a digital
nomad for about five years now
and that in itself comes with
a minimalist way of being
as you travel the world.
And for the last three years even,
I've mostly only been
traveling with carry-on only.
So that's not a whole lot of stuff.
And also at this point I don't
have a place to call my home,
I'm not renting an apartment
or a house or anything.
So I really only have the things
that I carry with me wherever I go.
Let it be here while I'm in
California for three months.
Yeah I'm accumulating a
few more things definitely,
but all over my whole setup
in life is very minimalist.
So for me minimalism is a
lifestyle that helps me question
whether things add
value to my life or not.
And this is important for me
because I don't like
having clutter in my life,
whether it be material
things or immaterial things.
And I really enjoy using that space
that a minimalist approach
to life gives me to then
fill that up with things that
are actually meaningful to me.
So in the end it really enables
me to have a more conscious
life because in many ways I
constantly think about what do
I let into my life and what
do I not let into my life and
in that way I can really focus
on what is really essential.
Minimalist living has really connected me
to the Buddhist principle of
detachment and letting go.
Mostly also letting go of
the illusion that we can
find stability and safety
or security in things,
'cause it's kind of all up here, right.
And so for me being able
to practice detachment
in all areas of my life
while approaching it
with a minimalist mindset,
for me that means a lot
and is very fulfilling.
It also made me realize that
I value experiences in life
way more than I do things, in
that I cannot buy happiness.
And also just knowing and realizing
that I don't need many things to be happy.
I just need, you know, my
backpack full of stuff,
and a camera, and a
laptop, and a few clothes,
and I'm ready to go
having a super, awesome,
exciting, happy, fulfilling life.
My minimalist mind also allows
me to live a cheaper life
because I don't go out shopping very much,
I'm very deliberate with what I buy
and I usually only buy things
when I really need them
in terms of clothing or
any other accessories.
I don't go out shopping to
kind of fulfill some sort
of hole in my life or to
make myself feel better,
like shopping therapy or
whatever people call it.
I don't really enjoy
shopping very much anyway,
and I just don't really
wanna waste time shopping.
I'd rather be sitting
here and creating a video.
One huge thing that minimalism taught me
and that really rocks my life
until this very day is when
I discovered minimalism as
a mindset, as an approach
to life, I realized that I
can do things differently.
I can set my own rules,
I can do my own thing,
and figure out what makes
me happy and fulfilled.
I don't have to run after everybody else
going after consuming,
consuming, consuming.
I can just ignore that
and stay true to myself
and what I enjoy and that has always been
not having a lot of clutter in my life.
That has always made me way more happier
than having a lot of stuff in my room
or in my head or in my laptop or whatever.
I realized that it was
okay to not own a house,
that I don't need to
have five million books,
that I don't need to have a huge closet,
like it doesn't make me
a happier human being and that's okay.
I can wear the three same
shirts and have only two pairs
of jeans and one pair of
shoes and I don't feel like
I need to adjust to a
different way of being because
I've always been sort of in this mindset
of simplifying my life and
not owning too many things.
And I always sort of criticized
myself for it or judged myself for that.
Once I discovered more
and more people that were
doing things differently,
going away from this
consuming mindset, just really focusing on
the essentials in life,
that was huge for me
because it was like this
lifestyle of making my own rules
and that was big and it
still is to this day.
One main reason why a minimalist mindset
and a minimalist approach to
life is so beneficial for me
and why I love it so much is because
it really helps me with my
tendency to feel overwhelmed.
I generally, maybe it's
a little bit of OCD
or whatever you want to
call it, I don't care,
but I get overwhelmed really easily.
Some people might call me
highly sensitive or what not.
but the less things that I own,
the less things I have to worry about,
the less stuff that, the
less my life is cluttered,
the more space I have in my
head, the more I can focus,
the more productive I am,
the more grounded I feel.
And so by not owning many
things, by knowing all my stuff
fits into a backpack more or less,
for some reason it makes me feel at peace.
Way more at peace than knowing I have
all these things in a house
that I need to worry about.
It frees up space in my head
and it frees up space in my life.
And in general a minimalist environment,
it really allows me to
be way more creative.
I find space extremely
inspiring to be creative.
Before I get any work
done, I need to make sure
that my working environment is
clear and that there's space
and also in my room, in here.
It's not that I cleaned up very much,
it just generally looks like that.
I don't own many things,
I like things to be neat.
I make my bed in the
morning because I like it.
That's just how I work,
that's how I function best
is in a minimalist environment.
And here's one super
crucial, crucial benefit
and reason of why I live a
minimalist lifestyle so much.
It makes movement easier and
it makes me way more flexible.
I can pack up all my things here right now
in probably 20 minutes, pack
up, go hop on the next train
or plane and just go wherever I want
and then start a new life there.
It's almost like it's the ultimate freedom
to be able to go wherever I
want at any time of the day.
I'm not tied to one place.
I feel like owning a
lot of things can really
tie you down and maybe
you know that because
you own a house or an apartment.
And in that apartment there's
a lot of things that you own
and you just can't get up and just like
leave all that behind,
you just wouldn't do that.
I can and that's pretty awesome.
And lastly in many ways
material minimalism
also led me too immaterial minimalism.
And that means I discovered
a lot of different approaches
of being a minimalist and
having a minimalist mindset,
not just when it comes to my belongings
but many other areas of my life.
Such as business, such
as my mind, such as food,
such as the place I live
in, such as my closet,
such as to do lists and
the 80 20 Pareto Principle.
Also when it comes to productivity,
instead of multitasking, monotasking,
which is what I do and
how I function best.
So these are all my reasons
why I absolutely love
having a minimalist
lifestyle and why for me it's
the best way to live a life
based on a minimalist mindset.
And if you have any questions now
please pop them in the
comment section below.
Also like my video if you enjoyed it,
subscribe to my channel,
always super awesome.
And I will see you in the next video.
Thanks guys, bye.
(soothing piano music)
