How to Strengthen Your Minimalist Practice with Wabi-Sabi
When letting go gets hard, you can come back to this concept.
It All Starts with Dissatisfaction
Here’s a familiar story about how I got overwhelmed with everything. As a millennial, you’d expect me to thrive in the internet age and to consume information, stuff, and entertainment regularly. For a while, you’d be right.
I’m always on my phone, and always looking for ways to get inspired. Phone and inspired don’t go together when you actually want to get things done. And so I had a long detox away from the majority of social media, deleting apps and shuffling them over to the second screen in the hopes that I could organize and get creative.
Being organized, as it turns out, is an illusion of productivity and of minimalism.
While I delete one app, I may add two more, or sell a stack of books and then buy three more because I feel the constant need to be ‘stimulated.’ And then you end up with little to nothing to show for it, because you get hung up on perfection.
Perfect living space, ideal planning, sound structure.
What is Wabi-Sabi?
When I learned about wabi-sabi, my initial thought was to repeat the word sounded childishly. Say it aloud enough times, and you might feel silly too.
Then when I dug deeper into the meaning behind wabi-sabi, it became clear to me that my efforts to minimize my life where merely an attempt to be ‘more organized, more structured, having more by having less.’ And honestly, it’s hard. By living in such a consumeristic society, you’re going to cave in some areas and thrive in others.
The philosophy that imperfection should be embraced, and that mistakes and incompletion aren’t things to be ignored or hated in the creative process, is liberating. I do get tired of the overwhelming chaos of my phone and the need to consume information. I do want to create more, and share in spite of the criticisms that may come. Nothing is perfect, but you knew that already. At this point, it’s a matter of genuinely believing that fact and embrace the process.
Poverty isn’t A Dirty Word
In the practice of minimalism, having less doesn’t mean less than. Letting go of the fixation on material things is liberating, and accepting inconvenience in the aesthetic sense (not necessities of course), can make the transition easier.
Imperfection is King
Embracing the process and practice is inherently messy, chaotic and unpredictable. You’re not going to dwindle your collection down to a few over a week, or even a month. You’re going to get rid of too much or cling to too many things. It’s about figuring about what matters to you, not according to some complete guideline of what minimalism is.
Relationships Grow
There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light comes in. — Leonard Koren
Knowing that your friend or loved ones are as imperfect as yourself can make room for them to share in your practice. Or not. The end game isn’t to have everybody be a minimalist by mandate. Yet if they see that you’re even a little bit happier, that can open up the conversation.
Your Wardrobe Gets New Life
You can keep your comfortable, inexpensive clothes that you wear every day, even if they’re ‘ugly.’ That fancy, perfect dress or suit that you only wear once a year can kick rocks. And you do this cycle of revamping the wardrobe every 90 days.
Just because we live in an age of consumption and consumerism doesn’t mean we have to embrace it. It helps to take a media detox and focus on the simple things, like what you’d really be doing with your time if there was no smartphone. You may find you can do without more things than you think.
