For me, having a minimalism lifestyle means having less and doing less in order to have more time, space and energy for the things that really truly matter to me.

Keeping things simple and minimal means, for me, to focus only on the essentials, the things of value, and not get caught up in distractions and worries. It helps me free myself from overwhelm, stress, find clarity and straighten out my priorities.

My personal priorities in life are: health, passion, growth, location independence, art and community. What are yours?

Here is a super simple exercise to get us started:

List maybe 5 to 7 things that you value in life, write them down on your phone or on a piece of paper, or just keep them in your head. Now, go through a normal day in your life, how you spend it, what you’re doing, the places you go, the people you interact with. How many of those things in your daily life align with your values? Do they support your values of what’s important in life? Do they help you live like you would like to live?

If your answer is yes, then congrats! You’re on the right path! If your answer is no... maybe there is place for a bit of reevaluation and restructuring of how you choose to spend this life. because, how we spend our days is after all how we spend our lives.

Keeping things simple and essential enables me to live more intentionally. When you’re not being controlled and directed by 100 people, commitments, bills to pay, projects to work on, meet-ups to attend, you can elegantly and intentionally design your own days so that you wake up, go through and go to sleep with a sense of peace, calm and awareness of your every move. You can use every hour doing something that matters to you and you can intentionally make a decision to veer out on a journey when you feel the time is right.

Maybe most of all, having a minimalistic life enables me to pursue my passions. A low overhead enables me to live and thrive on a minimal income. Putting more value in experiences, growth and knowledge rather than possession, material things and money, enables me to feel the same sense of happiness by singing for a room of a people as maybe some people would get from buying a car. Having less commitments enables me to spend my time with focus and intention so I can build this dream of mine. No minutes wasted.

The resources to learn more that I'm mentioning in this episode are:

1. https://www.theminimalists.com/

2. https://zenhabits.net/

3. "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo