Why Minimalism?

Why did I choose to change my lifestyle to one of minimalism?

Well, I have been interested in minimalism for the past year now and have slowly introduced it into my own way of life. Now I have a lot less of many things: possessions crowding my home, numerous projects taking up my time, things constantly keeping me busy, and an endless collection of movies to watch. There was a time when I felt if I just had that one more movie or that one more CD, my collection would be complete. But it never was. I was always busy with a new project to work on, usually having six or more on the go at a time.

Now I have more time, more space, more focus. Minimalism for me was a way to de-clutter my life with all the distractions. I got rid of my smart phone, I stopped playing video games, I started saying NO to projects that I just didn't have time for. Now when something comes into my life, whether it is an object, a project, or a person, I seriously question whether it will have value for me before I allow it to enter my life. That's what minimalism is all about for me. Only keeping the things in life that really matter. It takes some serious thinking, and it changed my views on a lot of things about consumerism, society, and human nature, but it was a change for the best.

Here is a quote from Leo Babauta that really nails the meaning of minimalism:

It’s a way to escape the excesses of the world around us — the excesses of consumerism, material possessions, clutter, having too much to do, too much debt, too many distractions, too much noise. But too little meaning. Minimalism is a way of eschewing the non-essential in order to focus on what’s truly important, what gives our lives meaning, what gives us joy and value.

Here are a few articles on what minimalism is and what benefits can be attained through it. (Many of these are written much more eloquently than my blog, hahaha!)

What Is Minimalism? - The Minimalists

On Minimalism - Zen Habits

Minimalist FAQs - mnmlist

Why Minimalism Should Not Be Entered Into Lightly - BecomingMinimalist

Top Ten Benefits of Being A Minimalist - Miss Minimalist

Flocks of Birds; of Molecules; of Stars

A flock of birds moves together as one total being.

A flock of molecules in my hand moves together as one total being.

A flock of stars in a galaxy moves together as one total being.

All is one.

All is beautiful.

The Move Is Over

I am all moved into my new apartment. A nice one-bedroom basement apartment. There is something refreshing about an empty room and deciding where to put things and how to arrange a living space. I haven't fully organized everything but I am now in the process of going through all my stuff and paring down to what I really want to keep, what really adds value to my life. 

I started off pretty basic. I used to have two bookshelves full of books and movies. I gave one of the bookshelves away to my brother who was also moving into a new place. Whatever doesn't fit onto my one shelf has to go now. (My new bookshelf also matches better with the rest of the furniture in my living room, which is a single desk for writing and a couch for sitting.)

My new place is in a great location too. I am in downtown Fredericton, so I am closer to a few friends so it will be easier to socialize, and I am right next to the park, so it will be great to go on some nature walks and enjoy the great outdoors. The simple beauty of nature will be a great addition to my simple lifestyle I am trying to cultivate.

I am very excited to start arranging my new place. This is going to be my most minimalist home yet, and I am really looking forward to living alone for the first time and having my own space.

Moving and Opportunity

I am moving to a new apartment this weekend. This offers an excellent opportunity!

Packing for the move, I discovered a ton of stuff I haven't looked at in several months. What a great opportunity to get rid of junk I don't use! I got rid of more clothes. I am getting rid of more books and movies I no longer get value from. My new apartment can be arranged to fit better with my lifestyle.

It is a new beginning. I have a lot of goals this year and I plan on making the best of it. A simpler life with less stuff will hopefully give me more time and freedom to do the things I really want to do.

Time to minimalize my new digs!

Chill Out

Throughout this winter I have made an effort to get outside for walks a few times a day. I work a regular 8-5 schedule so during the day I really don't get a lot of sunlight. A lot of people don't want to go outside. It's cold out there and it's warm indoors. I live in New Brunswick, Canada, which isn't as far north as other Canadian locales, but it still gets pretty chilly here.

During my break time I have made an effort to get outside these past few months (unless it is raining). However, I don't wear a jacket. I let my body experience the frigid winter air in just my hoodie, or sweater, or whatever I am wearing that day (some days I even face the cold in only a t-shirt). I have received some strange looks and one colleague even called me crazy, that I'll get sick doing that! But I get a lot of benefits from this.

First, I get more sunlight. There are a lot of nutrients our body needs from the sun and it can be easy to deprive ourselves of this during the winter. That's one of the reasons why depression rises during the cold season. Also, by exposing my body to the cold in small amounts, I grow more used to it and my body can battle harmful effects better. That old adage, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, kind of works. By getting fresh air and becoming familiar to the lower temperatures, my immune system is better prepared to deal with winter colds. 

And you know what? I haven't been sick this winter at all!

On Suffering

I write a lot about happiness and striving to be a good person, but unfortunately there is still a lot of bad stuff that happens in life. We all go through hard times, loss, suffering, pain, grief. It sucks. The Buddhists realize this and that is why the First Noble Truth is that we must suffer (dukkha). It is part of life. 

I recently read a great book called Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay (I actually read it twice in a row I liked it so much). It was about the Holocaust and specifically about the arrest and deportation of Jewish families in Paris at the Vélodrome D'Hiver. I had never even heard of the Vel' D'Hiv before, but after reading De Rosnay's book, my eyes were opened to a whole new level of suffering through the eyes of a little girl during the Holocaust. The story was fictional, but the suffering was real. All of that pain and suffering during the Holocaust (or Shoah) was experienced by many many people.

I don't think suffering is something to be ignored. It should be remembered, always, like the Buddhists seem to say by putting it as the First Noble Truth, not the second or third. Remembering the pain of others is a huge theme in Sarah's Key. Never forget. Alas, many people do forget and choose to live in ignorance. I think this is the wrong way to go about it.

Alan Watts talks a lot about waves in his lectures. The waves of materiality, how particles act in waves and how this affects everything in our universe. The wave implies the trough, just as much as the trough implies the wave. You can't have one without the other. You can't have white without black, and you can't have light without dark. Life implies death, and death implies life. If we take this view on suffering, it can be looked at without the horrible connotations we normally associate with it. We don't need to be depressed in the face of brutality, suffering, and death. The bad implies the good.

We have many good things in life. Amazing moments, beautiful moments, wonderful relationships, and adventures, and experiences. But all these good things wouldn't be good if we didn't have something bad to compare them to. Everything is in relation to something else. So the next time you are having a bad day, remember that you have probably been through worse, and a lot of other people certainly have been through worse. And also remember that good days will come again, no matter how bad this moment is. It will pass. The trough implies the wave, the bad implies the good.

Tetrapharmakos

I recently watched this video on Khan Academy that described ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus' theory on the "cure for unhappiness". His theory was founded in the Tetrapharmakos which had four points:

1 God is nothing to fear.

2 Death is nothing to worry about.

3 It is easy to acquire the good things in life.

4 It is easy to endure the terrible things.

Some of these may seem shocking to some people and not jive with some beliefs. However the video goes into each point pretty well and offers justifications for these four concepts. A lot of his ideas resonate with me and actually align with many of the principles of minimalism, especially in the third point: It is easy to acquire the good things in life. Here's what the video says on the topic:

"When we consider the things we want, it is comforting to realize that our true needs are limited and fairly easily available from Nature, and that the things that are difficult to obtain, we just don't need. Air is available for our breath. Water for our thirst. Fire for warmth. And earth for ground to stand on. The minerals, plants, and animals supply our needs for shelter and sustenance. There are plenty of people around to become our friends. When we realize we have enough not just to survive but to alleviate most of our pain, we necessarily become relieved and tranquil. True relaxation and happiness becomes possible. We can focus not only on survival but a deeper, more aesthetic, appreciation of the universe that seeks to understand the nature of things not only to provide what we need and to eliminate our fears about the divine and about death but simply to be amazed at its beauty and sublimity...

"...if the idea that the good things in life are easily available seems doubtful to you, consider Epicurus' 3 Fold Division of Desires into: those that are 1) Natural and Necessary, like our desires for air, water, food, and shelter; those that are 2) Natural but Not Necessary, like our desires for expensive food and drink, mansions, or sex; and those that are 3) Neither Natural, Nor Necessary, which Epicurus calls hollow or empty. Desires for fame, riches, glory, political power, and immortality, common though they are, are all hollow. Their pursuit causes more unhappiness than happiness, not only because they are difficult or impossible to achieve, and so efforts in this direction are futile and frustrating, but also because they are unlimited. Not being related to any natural need, there is no amount of wealth, influence, or life extension that will satisfy us and allow us to live a relaxed tranquil life. Ease of living comes by appreciating just how little we need to be happy or flourish, and how abundant Nature seems to be in supplying our needs."

Watch the full lecture below:

On Joy

Listened to a great guided meditation this morning from the MindfulPeace YouTube channel.

Here is an excerpt:

Joy. 

You are capable of feeling intense, wonderful, profound joy right now. 

You may feel joy in thinking about certain moments from the past. But there is no joy in the past because the past is not real. It's merely a memory but you are experiencing it in the present.

There is also no joy in the future because the future is not real. It is only anticipation, which can itself be joy, but you are experiencing it in the present. 

There can only be joy in this moment. 

Right now. 

And it can be yours.

I find this passage to be wonderful and profound. Empowering too. We can all feel joy right now in the present, the only time that truly matters.

Listen to the full Meditation here.

On Moral Status

I watched this video lecture the other night on the concept of moral status from WiFi Philosophy's series on Khan Academy (a great online resource for learning a lot of different things). The video brought up a lot of issues and made me think about how we perceive rights and life.

What constitutes a thing to have moral status? What gives it a right to live free from suffering, discrimination, or prejudice? Obviously, most people would agree that human beings have rights to freedom and equality. Racial equality, gender equality, religious equality. These are things we hear about often. But what about other species?

Speciesism can be viewed as a form of discrimination as much as racism can be. "We can kill and eat pigs because they are lower forms of life. It's their natural place in the food chain." Why are they lower forms of life than us though? Because they don't think like we do? They don't write novels or make great works of art or conduct scientific experiments? Because they don't have feelings like we do? Well, some people can't think beyond the level of a pig; some people have mental health issues that prevent them from having a high level of cognizant thought. A lot of people can't read or write, a lot of people don't create art, and a lot of people aren't intelligent enough to conduct scientific inquiries. And some pigs probably feel a great deal more than some people (sociopaths anyone?). Is it ethical to kill and eat people with mental health issues? Most would agree that it is not.

So what makes us think we are better? Why do human beings believe we are so special? Is it just because we push our own psychological projections of uniqueness onto other beings similar to ourselves or that we perceive they experience emotions like we do (like our pet dogs)? If that is the case, then we only attribute rights to things we feel deserve rights because we care about. Then moral status is a highly subjective concept based on the distributor and not on the being who has the rights,

Maybe it is subjective though. What do you think?  Why do we treat non-human animals as if they have no rights? Why do we treat some non-human animals different than others? Watch the video below and maybe it will give you something to think about today. How does this challenge your beliefs? And what are you going to do about it now?

On Video Games

How much time do we spend playing video games? I know I used to spend a lot of time playing games. Sometimes full days. I play a lot less video games now. Part of that is because I am a lot more focused on what I really want to do now. I spend more time learning, reading, writing. More time with the people in my life that matter.

This isn't to say that video games are entirely bad. I learned great skills from playing strategy games, or dexterity from first-person shooters, or even math skills in educational games. I even experienced some wonderful stories that still stick with me. Video games were a huge part of growing up for me, but I think it is only good in moderation. When I see friends of mine who spend as many hours playing MMOs (massive multi-player online games) for as many hours as they spend working their day jobs, I think this becomes an issue. When you start neglecting your physical and mental health (or your friends and family) to spend more time playing every new game that comes out, I think this becomes an issue.

I think we can all spend a little less time glued to our escapist video game worlds where we keep striving for the next achievement, and focus on what achievements we want to make in our everyday lives. When I think back over my life, are my greatest achievements the ones when I caught all 150 Pokémon or maxed out all of my characters in Final Fantasy? Or will my greatest achievements be the novel I finished writing, or the film I won an award for, the painting I sold, or the family I raised? Because ultimately, playing video games is supporting the dreams of the people who created them, instead of supporting the dreams of what we want to create.

Check out this TedX talk from Cam Adair on escaping video game addiction. I think this is a real issue that not a lot of people believe is a problem. Check it out:

15 Simple Sentences

I love inspiring quotes. Here are 15 simple sentences I read today that I find personally inspiring and uplifting.

1. Never compare your weaknesses to other people’s strengths.
2. Own your life, or someone will own it for you.
3. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
4. Climb mountains not so the world can see you but so you can see the world.
5. If you accept your limitations, you go beyond them.
6. Comfort is the enemy of achievement.
7. No matter what anyone says to you, you don’t have to eat dinner with them, live with them or go to bed with them.
8. If you risk nothing, you risk everything.
9. Don’t give others the power to control your emotion. Those are only yours and it is only for you to manipulate.
10. Victory introduces you to the world, but defeat introduces the world to you.
11. If you don’t do stupid things while you are young, you will have nothing to smile about when you are old.
12. Don’t waste your time with explanations, people only hear what they want to hear.
13. Don’t rest after your first victory, because if you fail the second time,more lips will be waiting to say that your first victory was just luck.
14. Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves.
15. The person that you will spend most time with in your life is yourself, so better try to make yourself as interesting as possible.

Trigger, Thought, Action - The Power of Choice

We are creatures of habit and our life is dictated by what habits we are regularly allowing to control us. We get habits by reacting to external stimuli in repeated ways, so that our minds get used to responding to certain triggers in that way. The habit cycle works like this:

Some external stimuli triggers us.

We generate thoughts based on that trigger.

Our thoughts lead us to action.

This is where our power of choice comes in. The triggers are going to happen. External stimuli are out of our control. But we do have the power to choose our thoughts and our actions.

Here's an example:

I am driving in the parking lot and a guy cuts me off. I think "what a jerk!" and honk the horn at him so he can see me give him the finger. The other guy in turn feels pretty bad and gets angry too, and now both of us are in bad moods. So the trigger here was the guy cutting me off. My initial thought of "what a jerk!" is a normal response for most of us, but it's at this point that I can choose how to respond to that thought. I could get angry and demonstrate to the other guy my displeasure with his driving abilities OR I can take a new perspective. I can let it go and consider why he cut me off. Maybe he was in a rush to get home because his wife is pregnant, or maybe he just bought that new video game he really wants to play. Either way, no matter the importance of his reasoning, he probably isn't thinking about me when he cut me off. It is unlikely that he meant any personal offence towards me. So why should I take it personally? 

Letting go of things such as this has a lot to do with forming better habits. If I continuously get mad at other drivers on the road, then I will get used to reacting this way and it will become a habit so that I always get mad at other drivers. But if I can let go of other people's bad driving and realize it has nothing to do with me, then I can form a habit of forgiveness. It all lies in our power of choice.