There’s a certain lifestyle that’s becoming more popular recently. It’s so popular that many people online talk so much about it.
Some claim it made them so happy in life; others say they became rich and escaped the rat race because of it. But they all called this life hack one thing: Minimalism!
But, what is minimalism exactly? Is minimalism actually beneficial or just nonsense?
Well, I’ll be showing you what this is and why it’s a cheat code in life.
After all, with the 2020’s being chaotic, we need some cheat codes.
Minimalism is a philosophical lifestyle where you own fewer possessions. You essentially own things that are only necessary and or things you truly enjoy.
There’s no specific amount that would be classified as minimalistic or not; instead, it’s a spectrum, where on one hand you have secular people who are trying to declutter their living space while on the other hand you have monks living monastically.
Regardless of where you are on the spectrum, your overall goal is to minimize distractions from the modern, materialistic world for whatever reason and live with the least amount of unnecessary worries and restrictions.
Now sure, it seems so simple and nothing really special, but by practicing minimalism, you will have certain benefits in your life that may not be obvious for those of you watching.
So, here are the benefits:
Less Living Expenses
While it still depends on the cost of items you do purchase, having the choice to only accumulate essentials often results in financial freedom due to frugality.
Spending less on things you really don’t need will cut your financial expenses down and increase your savings, which can be used for investing to further increase your wealth.
A lot of materialists need to have huge amounts of income to fund their cluttered lifestyle.
Minimalists, on the other hand, need to have only enough to cover their essentials.
So, they can either live the financial independence retire early life or take a part-time job at a coffee shop like Starbucks!
By practicing minimalism, you’re reminding yourself to be frugal and only buy things you actually need or that have an absolute purpose in your life.
Less Stress and Responsibilities
Having a decreased amount of stress and more freedom.
Obviously, the lower cost of living with extra money saved decreases the stress, but simply not owning things will further that decrease because you simply don’t even have to worry or think about taking care of those items.
The more goods you own, the more you need to spend your mental resources on those things, which can be taxing, especially if those goods are expensive or get damaged or lost.
Practicing minimalism will prevent these additional stresses from occurring and you will become freer due to having less responsibilities.
Without the responsibilities of caring for excessive amounts of items, you can do whatever you want wherever you want.
Freedom with the least amount of stress is one of the things we humans cherish, and thus, minimalism will help you achieve that.
Environmentally Friendly
The third benefit is that you’re helping the environment and antagonizing consumer culture.
After all, simply refusing to add more items to your life will reduce the amount of environmental resources being wasted on things you don’t really need, and on top of that, you’re sending a message to businesses not to over produce goods, which further prevents harm to the environment.
It’s expected for businesses to try and create new products and innovation, but that does not mean our lives are completely based on what we own or getting the latest and trendy items.
After all, companies don’t care about you.
They just want you to buy as much products as you can put your money down on them.
As a result, we have ads that subconsciously tell people: they will never be happy unless they consume.
By practicing minimalism, you are the counter culture that will fight the consumer culture, and by fighting the consumer culture, you’re saving the environment and potentially preventing the endangerment or extinction of some limited resources.
No Distractions
The fourth benefit is that there’s no distractions and you can focus on what you really want in life..
Although I said this many times throughout the article, I really want to emphasize this: by owning multiple stuff that isn’t necessary, you’re wasting resources, whether it be monetary or mental patience. Wasting those resources are a big distraction.
When you declutter, you’re letting yourself find out what you truly want in life and have the ability to focus on them.
After all, we have a limited time on earth and so many of us waste time on things we actually don’t care about deep down.
When you declutter and minimize the amount of things you have in your life, you will have the perseverance to live life as you always wanted.
Now that I talked about the benefits, I do want to address some caveats. I’m not saying you should go to the extreme and throw away everything that you’re not utilizing or that have no actual purpose.
For example, if you like to have certain things like art or knick knacks, that’s fine as long as you keep it within control of course. This can also include survival supplies for emergency situations, like first aid.
Just make sure you find the appropriate balance between what’s actually worth keeping and what’s not.
Another caveat I want to address is that this lifestyle is not necessarily meant for everyone.
There are some genuinely materialistic people out there who will be miserable by just owning a few possessions no matter what.
If this is you, then you probably shouldn’t participate in this lifestyle. But, if you actually do some self-evaluation and find you don’t mind some aspects of minimalism, then I recommend at least incorporating some of the decluttering and see how it goes. Minimalism is an interesting lifestyle.
On the surface, it appears simple; but when you actually look at the benefits, you realize that most people can actually live like this and still get what they want in life.
Seriously, this lifestyle hack is literally a cheat code! Most people waste space and money on things they never even use!
By living this lifestyle, you can escape the rat race and enjoy what you truly want in life.
So, do you live a minimalistic life? Do you actually feel better when practicing minimalism?
