What’s wrong with our lives? And How To Solve It
The way we live our lives nowadays is always connected, always surrounded by noise and clutter. We are no longer at peace with people, our surroundings and most importantly with ourselves. Now we live our day to day doing meaningless stuff. But do we actually care about all of these?
Probably not, and maybe some people will just keep with their infinite scrolling on social media -instead of doing something meaningful- after they read this. But first of all, lets put some context before we discuss anything and who better than a President to explain to you.
“It’s clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper — deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession […]. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy […]. The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence.
In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I’ve warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.” — Jimmy Carter
As you should know we are living in the 21st century where our way of living has become automated and repetitive by the daily tasks we engage with. Our generation has fallen onto a series of habits and behaviors which create our comfort zone. Are we bored? We take our phone and check Facebook. Are we eating? We post an image on Instagram. Are we sawing a product on the shelve that we crave a lot? We buy it. Are we hungry? We will probably eat junk food.
Am I generalizing on these statements? Probably a little, but everywhere I go I can see how these behaviors and conducts prevail in today’s society. Consumerism, lack of privacy, an unhealthy diet, social media, and phone addiction are just some of the issues that are filling with clutter our lives and our minds.
And probably at least one of these things is affecting you. These are the facts, a typical cell phone user touches his or her phone at least 2,617 times every single day. It has been proved that social media addiction is a thing and that it can affect us in serious ways like depression, anxiety, lower self-esteem, etc. People spend more money than they actually have as a product of consumerism while large corporations get profit out of it. Privacy no longer exists as nobody reads the “terms and conditions” and just accepts to get some instant gratification on social media. And the average American gets the equivalent of 19 teaspoons of sugar every day as a result of an unhealthy diet which can provoke obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, etc.
In a few words, we are screwed. And before you think I am a pessimist and I’m just complaining of life, let me get to my point. So when I realized about the effects that living under these circumstances were having on my life I decided to make some radical change for good. But wait, what is the other path Jimmy Carter was talking about?
That’s when I discovered minimalism. And for those of you who have the idea that minimalism is about living on a Van with three changes of gray clothes, you have the wrong idea (although you may find a minimalist living under those conditions). Minimalism isn’t about throwing all of your stuff, is about keeping only what adds value to your life, this movement goes by the motto “less is more”.
Minimalism helps you to live a more meaningful life, and when I found out about that, I just couldn’t resist so I started to declutter my life right away. First of all, I started with my closet and just by looking at it I realized that I didn’t use at least half of my clothes so I decided to donate everything I didn’t need. If you are scared to throw away some of your clothes because you “might need it someday”, you should try Project 333 which consists of only using 33 clothing items for 3 months. In my case, I took less than a month to realize I didn’t need that much stuff on my closet.
After my closet, I kept going with the rest of my stuff such as old documents or regular items that didn’t add value to my life. The key on minimalism to declutter the right way is by determining if something you have adds value or not to your life or if you truly make use of it. For example, I love books and I have a big collection all over my house, but this collection has meaning for me and I consider it adds value to my life even if I don’t read every single book regularly. The same applies to personal objects that have personal value, so as long as that item is meaningful to yourself, you should keep it. Another criterion to declutter from stuff you “might need someday” is to revise if you have used that stuff on the last 90 days and to ask yourself if it is likely that you will use it on the next 90 days and if the answer is no, you know what to do.
The purpose of getting rid of the excess stuff is to be happier and more healthy. Being said that, it is truly amazing how minimalism can fit into every aspect of our lives and this is why I’m convinced that it is the way to go because when you look at the current state of society you realize that every single day corporations are selling us a better version of ourselves and are telling us the way we should live so that we can have social approval.
Society is selling us this template of life which tells you that by having this or that you are going to be accepted and recognized, while you should instead create your own template of what is meaningful to you. Therefore minimalism hasn’t only one way to go, instead, you create your own version of minimalism.
You maybe think that minimalism isn’t for you or that you will never be able to make such a radical change but I strongly encourage you to at least try it for 30 days. Moreover, you can also bring minimalism to other areas of your life such as your mind, relationships, digital devices, etc.
It is time for us to change and become better humans above all. Time to reinforce our relationships set big goals and to have the courage and passion to realize them. All in all, minimalism is a way of living that allows you to be calm and at peace with yourself but the most important to live a meaningful life, so if after you read this you weren’t convinced by minimalism, at least keep in your mind this phrase.
“Love people. Use things. The opposite never works.” — The Minimalists
P.S. If you want to know more about minimalism you should definitely watch the documentary Minimalism and keep up with The Minimalists.
