Enjoy a Happier Life as a Minimalist

We have seen how adopting a more minimalist lifestyle has helped some people to:

• Save some money
• Be more productive
• Help the environment
• Create a MUCH more beautiful home
• Support the lifestyle that really made them happy

All of the above are pretty impressive causes. And no matter what kind of person you are, simply reducing the clutter in your home and changing the way you think about your purchases may help you to be a more fulfilled person. Your ultimate goal of this lifestyle shift may actually be to make you happier. When you become more minimal, you may possibly become happier.

How Minimalism Leads to Happiness

There are at least two ways that minimalism can lead to happiness: direct and indirect. We’re going to look at how you can use minimalism to really transform your mindset and your approach to your belongings, but we will come to that in a moment. In the meantime, what we’re interested in is some of the direct consequences of minimalism and how that makes you happier. We’ve touched on these things already but to recap, going minimal may help you to:

Save Time

If you have far less clutter in your home, that means you have less tidying to do. You’ve introduced simple systems to help you keep the house clean and you are less demanding on yourself. All this means that you can now come home and actually relax in a calm and beautiful environment. It’s impossible to overstate just what a positive impact this can have on your life or how much of a change this makes.

Reduce Stress

Minimalism may help you to live a less expensive lifestyle. You may start coming home from work and not bringing extra stress home with you. That could make you a better friend, a better partner and a better parent.

What about job satisfaction you ask? Well, perhaps you need to stop looking at your work as a way to achieve your satisfaction. What about gaining satisfaction from your own projects instead? How about writing an amazing novel, getting into incredible shape, or going on amazing travels? What about setting up a highly rewarding side business? Or working online?

Meanwhile, you also have less work to do around the house and possibly fewer financial strains. The less you realize you need, the more relaxed and fun life becomes again!

Increase Freedom

Less stress and fewer physical ties means more freedom. When you have more space in your home, you have more freedom even just to move around in that space! Freedom is such a fundamental part of the human experience and absolutely essential to our happiness!

Going Deeper

But that happiness goes much deeper. Because what minimalism is really about is knowing that you have everything you need to be happy right here, right now. On the other hand, if you always feel you want more and if you’re always pushing toward that next thing, then you’ll find you never really stop to enjoy the things you already have.

Put a stop to this by developing a gratitude attitude. A good way to do this is to spend some time taking stock of everything you have and everything you’re grateful for, for just five minutes. This might mean writing those things down in a notepad, or it can mean running through them mentally. Try to think of different things each night. And there is so much to be grateful for.

You can be grateful for the fact you are hopefully in good health. You can be grateful for the fact that you have people who love you. And you can be grateful for the fact that you have a roof over your head. Another tip is to make sure you schedule time to enjoy the things you own and the space you have. Better yet, make sure that you are truly enjoying the things that you are doing as well.

You could have a list of things that you can do for an evening and this can be an eclectic range of things from going stargazing in your own garden, writing in your blog, watching your favorite movie, or doing a project at home with the kids. Whatever the case, try to be creative when writing this list and to think about all the different ways that you can use the space you already have to have fun.

Look at objects you have around you and try to think of the new and exciting ways you could have fun with them or do something worthwhile or fulfilling. Try to rediscover that child’s sense of wonder in your own home. But what’s more, is that you then need to take the time to really reflect on what you’re doing and how fortunate you are. This is called being ‘present’ or being ‘mindful’ and it is currently a very big topic in psychology.

It essentially means that instead of letting your mind wonder to work and to all the things you’re stressed about right now, you’re instead going to stop and reflect on what you’re doing and how much fun you’re having. When you’re sitting in your sunporch or outdoor deck, take a moment to think how great it is to be able to see the stars outside. 

Tonight, think about how comfortable you are in your bed and about how much you’re looking forward to eating that good breakfast tomorrow. Learn that it really doesn’t matter what you have. What matters is your perception of the things you have. What matters is your appreciation of those things. You create value in the way you engage with the world and your belongings and in doing this, you bring value into your own life. 

You Don’t have to Be Bogged Down with “Stuff”

So just what is a minimalist lifestyle? Why is this so much more than an approach to décor? What does it really mean? “Get everything you want, by discovering you already have it.” Essentially, a minimalist lifestyle simply means reducing the clutter, scaling back your possessions and aiming to say and do more with less. It means appreciating a few things instead of having a huge amount of clutter that you don’t really need or want.

We often see minimalism as an approach to certain designs for devices from companies and on an increasing number of websites. Here, the all-important maxim to follow is ‘communicate, don’t decorate’. That means that unless something is serving an actual purpose, it doesn’t belong in the design. A website doesn’t need a patterned background, it doesn’t need unnecessary menus and it doesn’t flourish filling up every bit of white space.

Every single element should serve a purpose, whether that is to guide the viewers’ eyes in a certain direction, to communicate some key information, or to facilitate an important interaction. If a button doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t need to be there!

Applying Minimal Design to Your Home

This same theory can then be applied to décor. Of course, you don’t need to communicate anything as such when it comes to your home’s decoration but you can accomplish something similar when looking at items of furniture etc.

Minimalist items of furniture are items that are utilitarian in as much as they don’t have lines or decorations that don’t need to be there.

That means that they will be made up of straight lines and they won’t feature things like swirly handles, or unnecessarily elaborate feet. Everything serves a purpose. With that serving as the basis for your décor, you can then continue with that basic concept by adding just a few items that you need while staying away from the temptation to add extra decoration that will serve no real purpose.

This minimalist concept allows for better interactions. By having fewer distracting elements, this approach is able to more effectively direct users to the right points on the screen and encourage the right interactions. It also allows a website design to more effectively scale to different screen sizes when users change devices and it creates more ‘space’ which makes the experience more calming and enjoyable. All these same concepts may apply just the same to your home. When you start removing unnecessary decorations and clutter, you start to make interacting with your home much simpler.

When there are fewer items on your desk, you’ll find that you can find what you want that much more quickly and easily. Likewise, when there is less clutter generally in your interior design, you’ll have less clutter in your visual field. This will make your space that much more calming and relaxing and also make it much easier to keep clean and tidy. And that in turn means you’re now spending less time cleaning and less time digging around for things.

Your home will be clean and attractive more often and you’ll have more time and energy to do the things that you enjoy doing and actually use your space! Your home serves a function. That function is to support the lifestyle that you want to live. So, if an item in your home is not serving that role, then the simple solution is to remove it! And then you can breathe more easily.

Minimalism as a Reaction to Materialism 

More and more people are starting to realize the benefits of actually having less clutter and fewer items and this is resulting in a situation where they are happier with just a few beautiful objects rather than feeling the need to go out and buy everything they see advertised on TV. And what does that lead to as a result? Greater satisfaction and happiness with fewer items!

This makes a massive difference because it means that you’re now going to be happier and spend less time thinking about the things that you don’t have. And you’ll have more money to spend on those select few items and on the things that really make you happy. This is the perfect antidote to our modern, materialistic culture and it is also the very same theory that has been preached by numerous philosophies and spiritual practices for centuries. Happiness doesn’t come from what you own, it comes from what you do with what you own.

You can be the richest person in the world but be incredibly stressed and unhappy. Why? Because you have created a lifestyle that still pushes the limits of your budget. You’ve been accustomed to a certain quality of life that costs a lot of money and involves a lot of hard work. Maintaining this lifestyle takes a lot of effort and yet you are still always thinking about the things that you don’t have and the things you want.

You don’t stop to take a moment and just enjoy the things you have and objects of incredible value and beauty end up being lost in all the noise and losing their value to you. Minimalism is about getting the very most out of what you have and this applies to your personal life. Taking a gratitude attitude means waking up and feeling so lucky that you’re with your partner. It means being overjoyed with your children and with your health and with your freedom.

It means not looking next door and wishing that you had the neighbor’s widescreen TV. It means not wasting money on junk and it means being present. And of course, minimalism means that your happiness isn’t tied up in physical possessions. It means that you can get enjoyment out of your own mind rather than letting that small scratch on your car ruin your day. Life is there to be enjoyed and there is so much out there to be enjoyed right now.

If all you can think about is how much you want the latest toy or gadget though, then you’re not going to have time to stop and enjoy those things. You have to work harder, stay in the office later. But what you don’t realize is that you already have everything you need. It’s time to relax and enjoy it! Many thinkers agree that this is the secret to happiness.

To be able to truly appreciate things and let go of unnecessary stress, distracting desires and that gnawing sense of dissatisfaction. Of course, in a capitalist world, where every company under the sun is constantly showing off its wares, this can be incredibly difficult. 

Enjoy a Happier Life as a Minimalist

Adopting a more minimalist lifestyle can help you to:

• Save money
• Be more productive
• Help the environment
• Create a MUCH more beautiful home
•  Add the ‘wow factor’
• Support the lifestyle that really makes you happy
• Escape the rat race

All those are pretty worthy causes. And no matter what kind of person you are, simply reducing the clutter in your home and changing the way you think about your purchases will help you to be a more fulfilled person. But none of that is the ultimate goal this lifestyle shift. The real goal instead is to make you happier. When you become more minimal, you become happier.

How Minimalism Leads to Happiness

There are two ways that minimalism leads to happiness: direct and indirect. We’re going to look at how you can use minimalism to really transform your mindset and your approach to your belongings, but we will come to that in a moment. In the meantime, what we’re interested in is some of the direct consequences of minimalism and how that makes you happier. 

Save Time

You have far less clutter in your home now and that means you have less tidying to do. You’ve introduced simple systems to help you wash up and keep the house clean and you are less demanding on yourself. All this means that you can now come home and actually relax in a calm and beautiful environment. It’s impossible to overstate just what a positive impact this can have on your life or how much of a change this makes.

Reduce Stress

You live a less expensive lifestyle and thus you may possibly be able to work fewer hours. When you realize that you can achieve all those things you want to achieve without staying in work until 8pm and without taking on lots of extra responsibility and overtime, then you realize that you don’t need to work a bigger job to be happier! Now you’re coming home earlier and not bringing that stress home with you. That makes you a better friend, a better partner and a better parent.

What about job satisfaction you ask? Well, perhaps you need to stop looking at your work as a way to achieve your satisfaction. What about gaining satisfaction from your own projects instead? How about writing an amazing novel, getting into incredible shape, or going on amazing travels?What about setting up a highly rewarding side business? Or working online?

Meanwhile, you also have less work to do around the house and fewer financial strains. The less you realize you need, the more relaxed and fun life becomes again!

Increase Freedom

Less stress and fewer physical ties mans more freedom. When you have more space in your home, you have more freedom even just to move around in that space! Freedom is such a fundamental part of the human experience and absolutely essential to our happiness!

Going Deeper

But that happiness goes much deeper. Because what minimalism is really about is knowing that you have everything you need to be happy right here, right now. Recognize that fact and you can start to really appreciate how lucky you are and you can learn to be happy with anything. On the other hand, if you always feel you want more and if you’re always pushing toward that next thing, then you’ll find you never really stop to enjoy the things you already have.

Put a stop to this by developing a gratitude attitude. A good way to do this is to spend every evening taking stock of everything you have and everything you’re grateful for, for just five minutes. This might mean writing those things down in a notepad, or it can mean running through them mentally. Try to think of different things each night. And there is so much to be grateful for.

You can be grateful for the fact you are in good health. You can be grateful for the fact that you have people who love you. And you can be grateful for the fact that you have a roof over your head at all. Another tip is to make sure you schedule time to enjoy the things you own and the space you have. Better yet, make sure that you are truly enjoying the things that you are doing as well.

We have our list of things that we can do for an evening and this can be an eclectic range of things from going stargazing in your own garden, to sleeping in the summer house, to building a robot with the kids. Whatever the case, try to be creative when writing this list and to think about all the different ways that you can use the space you already have to have fun.

Look at objects you have around you and try to think of the new and exciting ways you could have fun with them or do something worthwhile or fulfilling. Try to rediscover that child’s sense of wonder in your own home. But what’s more, is that you then need to take the time to really reflect on what you’re doing and how fortunate you are. This is called being ‘present’ or being ‘mindful’ and it is currently a very big topic in psychology.

It essentially means that instead of letting your mind wonder to work and to all the things you’re stressed about right now, you’re instead going to stop and reflect on what you’re doing and how much fun you’re having. 

Tonight, think about how comfortable you are in your bed and about how much you’re looking forward to eating that breakfast cereal tomorrow. Learn that it really doesn’t matter what you have. What matters is your perception of the things you have. What matters is your appreciation of those things. You create value in the way you engage with the world and your belongings and in doing this, you bring value into your own life. You can be rich without spending a penny.