Minimalism And Being A Connoisseur of Life
What is Minimalism?
Minimalism or being a minimalist is not about deprivation, but more about becoming a connoisseur of life. It’s about being willing to discard of the quantity of life and delve into the quality of it. It’s like selling all of your belongings, only to use that money to purchase a single pearl of beauty.
Creating minimalism:
- Clearing out your closet of items you rarely use will make room for the few quality items you actually enjoy.
- When you sell unused books, toys and gadgets, you are highlighting the importance and usefulness of the ones that remain.
- When you empty your schedule of unnecessary tasks and events, you are leaving space for communication and experiences that actually matter to you.
In the book, Rework, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, they write: “Be a curator. You don’t make a great museum by putting all the art in the world into a single room. That’s a warehouse. What makes a museum great is the stuff that’s not on the walls … it’s the stuff you leave out that matters.”
What Jason and David are saying is that you have the power to rework your life, to edit it in a way that works for you. Minimalism is about saying yes to the things that work, but it’s also about saying no to the things that don’t work so much. And when you find something you absolutely want to say yes to, leave it out and treasure it as if it was an installation in your museum of life.
In 30-40 years, how would you like to see your life? Would you like to see your life as being filled with distractions, obligations and unnecessary attachments? Or would you like to see a life that highlights goals, experiences and items of value. We all wish we could do what’s important to us and ignore the static around us. By discarding those things that do not serve us, our only remaining reaction is to go towards those worthwhile experiences.
This is the part of minimalism that is often ignored and underestimated. That through getting rid of or discarding, we actually come upon a river a wealth and prosperity. We experience more purpose, stronger connections, more happiness, independence, passion and great work.
In acupuncture, one of the principles is that through freeing up the energetic meridians in the body, we experience more flow and a feeling of freedom. By getting rid of the clutter in your life, you will be freeing up these energetic meridians or rivers within your life much like acupuncture does.
Are you a connoisseur of life or do you hold on to things and let them pull you down?