Minimalism: The Art of Letting Go!

I had at least 6 books on my bed, I had clothes unmanaged in my cupboard; and I had my favourite black sweatshirt lying on the floor- dirty of course.

Everything in the room looked messy.

And to be honest, so was my life- all messy.

I was depressed. I was on the ground, literally and metaphorically. Maybe I was soon going to dive deep, not in the sea but in that filthy floor.

Then I thought of the last time I had one full guilt-free day in my life.

I know I have done a lot of wrong deeds which can’t be forgiven.

You too might have been involved in some horrible things in your past. Isn’t it?

Or, you must have treated yourself terribly, throwing your self-esteem in the trash.

I wondered what could I do if I found no way out.

Hadn’t you thought that too?

And of all the replies, the most convincing one was that you let go of things.

You let everything go that isn’t useful.

You cut off all the absurd show-off friendships you’re pretending to be in and you cut off the social media (or remove your dp on WhatsApp).

Yeah, that’s human nature.

But, what if we let go of things in our daily life?

Maybe, right now, less is more.

In our lives, we don’t learn to let go of things so easily. Well, maybe minimalism is the way.

What’s Minimalism?

Minimalism is the art of letting go.

It is the practice of surviving on only the most necessary things. The basic principle is- the lesser the choices, the better we choose.

Consumer culture and marketing tactics have made us believe that the more we have, the better it’d be for us. The more is always better.

Bullshit.

Maybe, this has created all the mess for us.

Practically, What is Minimalism?

The major step involved in practising Minimalism is-

Anything where you could cut off the unnecessary!

Minimalist Desktop Screen

So, the fewer icons you save on your desktop screen, least distracted you will be when you turn on your laptop.

Look at my desktop screen. Just 3 icons. If you’re reading this on a laptop or a PC, minimize this tab (or close it, I don’t care), and reduce the icons on your screen.

Trust me; you’ll love a clean desktop.

Minimalist Mobile home screen

Here’s my mobile phone’s home screen. I grouped different apps into relevant categories –  Basic apps, Cabs, Browsers, Social Media, and Productivity.

If you are reading this on your phone, press the home button and go to your home screen. Clean your phone right now. It won’t take more than a minute.

(The closer you look, the lesser you see)

Cutting off too many clothes.

This is a hard step. You can ignore. Don’t worry. Do not reduce your wardrobe.

Though, I did.

According to a stat (followed by Pareto rule), we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the times.

Just think about it. No one will force you 😉

Unfollow useless FB pages

Most of the FB pages, nowadays post the same sort of memes. So, it’s better to have a clean and clear facebook feed, rather than having the same memes all over your feed.

The same goes for Quora, Instagram and Twitter. Unfollow people who aren’t worthy of your time.

Cut short your information intake.

At some point or the other, minimalism means reducing the quantities of your possessions.

Benefits of Minimalism

Now that we got a glitch of what is minimalism, let’s know the miracles it would do to you.

The art of letting go and Lessons of Moving on.

She came. She loved you, and then she left you for someone better.

He came, chased you and he made you feel like a princess. He cheated on you.

(Sorry for the stereotypes)

Now what? You made a mistake. Allow yourself to move on.

You can’t just get up and move on. Yeah, I know.

Try letting go of your articles (like unnecessary clothes, books, etc) and you’ll observe yourself moving on from people as well.

Focus on limited directions.

If we have fewer choices to make, we’d have better choices to make.

At any given point, most of us have distracted goals and we often get seduced by the beauty of any distraction.

Minimalism helps us focus on what’s necessary for our lives.

Minimalism is the art of differentiating our needs from our wants.

Mental peace.

Ever been a place where you’d have to make a choice between 3 or 4 objects? It’s always tough.

Selecting one t-shirt from a cupboard is easier, than selecting one from the mall.

Excess of choices makes it hard for us to choose calmly.

The less we have to choose from, the more we could be stable mentally.

Dedicated Achievements.

“Jack of all trades, master of none.”

Minimalism is also about cutting out negativity from your life. Just cut out ‘n’ from the above phrase, and you get-

“Jack of all trades, master of ‘one’.”

Minimalism helps one to dedicate himself to one goal and hence you can be the master of one trade.

Better financial opportunities.

Once you start practising minimalism, you’ll notice the amount of money you will be saving throughout.

More Satisfaction.

The less you have, the more contented you’ll feel with whatever little you have.

Minimalism, in a direct sense also helps us surviving through adverse situations.

Bonus point- You may inspire someone.

I guess I shouldn’t explain this point, at least 😉

Conclusion

Feel content with whatever you have- be it your clothes, friends, life and of course love.

And when it comes to making choice about something you desire, just choose the one you think is the most important of all.

Minimalize the sorrows and thus, let’s start speaking smiles 😀

Keep reading DipanshuRawal.Com

Thank you!

Dipanshu Rawal.