Why did I become a minimalist ? Simply put, I wasn’t happy.
Decluttering made me feel enlightened, unburdened and free. The more I got rid of stuff, the more enlightened and happy I felt.
I applied the same process to mental clutter, that I had to the physical, that too had the same effect.
I spent less time with those people I felt didn’t bring anything to my relationships, both in my work and in my personal life. Some people called me selfish on more than one occasion, a small price to pay for the benefits it brought.
I made some big changes to to my relationships, to the work I did, and to almost every aspect of my life. I made a conscious decision to remove everything that didn’t add value to my life. Concentrating only on those things that did.
I gave up television, unsubscribed from blogs, e-mail lists and stopped reading as many newspapers and magazines. I steered clear of marketing and advertising as much as I could.
The less I had, the happier I felt.
Instead I read a lot more books, I started writing, I travelled, I took photographs. I did a lot more of the things I loved doing. Pretty much everything that didn’t involve having more stuff.
I started to tell others about my experience. It wasn’t always comfortable, not everyone understood, and at a few points I did feel a little alienated, but I was happy and that was the main thing.
It was about this point that the mainstream media started picking up on my experiences and I started to tell a wider audience why I’d become a minimalist. The responses were mixed, but I noticed more readers coming to my blog and others similarly minded sending me notes showing how being a bit more minimal made them feel good.
Recently, I’ve seen a change in people’s reactions when I talk about why I became a minimalist. People are more understanding, less judgemental and they ask less about “What is minimalism?”. They know about it, ok, so some still think its about having white rooms with nothing in them. They have heard about the concept, the lifestyle and concentrating about what’s important, and removing everything that doesn’t contribute to that.
I became a minimalist to be happy, and whats more, I’ve been able to show others what I’ve learnt, offer ideas, talk about experiences and make them happy too.
The blog post – Finding your why – why I became a minimalist, first appeared on TwoLessThings.co.uk
Hi Chris, I really like your blog.
I knew minimalism a few months back and I just started to implement it – getting rid of unimportant things, and I feel exactly what you wrote here: the more I got rid of stuff, the more enlightened and happy I felt.
Nice article – keep writing!! 🙂
I too have discovered minamilism. I was sick to death of working all week and spending days off cleaning things I didn’t use. I think we’ve all lost the plot, working loooonnngggg hours to buy ‘the latest stuff’.
I am currently in the process of giving things away and not buying anything non essential and god it feels good.
Something had to change I was tired of all the stuff. Great blog and good to see other people waking up to the hype of our world x
I have recently been looking into minimalism. I find it fascinating that so many people (including myself) are now finding that we do not continually need to struggle month to month. I know longer feel the need to buy “everything” and can even tell the difference now between “need” and “want”… I’m 41 and I feel like I have always worried about money.
The main reason is because I haven’t been living within my means.
I’m working on clearing down my debt and will be debt free come 2018 🙂 I have also addressed how I spend my time and made some immediate changes that have already had a great impact. This also goes applies to less time spent with certain people. Overall I feel this is a positive change that’ involves some exciting steps. The more I get rid of – the happier I feel. This seems to be a common statement amongst minimalists!! 🙂