According to Fumio Sasaki in his book, Goodbye Things, minimalist Japanese life is a person who really knows what is important for himself and still maintains those things for himself.
In my personal opinion, minimalism is a mindset or our wise attitude to control all the necessities of life towards our personal items, not just our desires. Living a minimalist life means that you maximize the things you have and reduce the things that "may" actually mean nothing to you.
“The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don’t have.” – Woody Allen
In a world where we take everything for granted and get everything with the click of a button, we simply lose value in the things we do have.
We have become so entitled about our luxury that we fail to appreciate anything.
The great thing about Minimalism is not in having less, but rather in regaining that appreciation for the things you do have.
It’s understanding that you do not need more to be happy and that, instead, it is about how you treat what you do have.
It’s learning to let go of the idea that you must be rich, successful, own a giant house, or have the best and newest gadgets in everything to be happy.
Essentially; Minimalism is about finding Happiness without things.
It is that re-discovery that makes many people living minimalistic lifestyles so happy, for they almost force themselves to be happy with what they have.
Instead of relying on the things around them they try to create their own happiness with what they do and work on how they feel inside.
To be honest, this is not truly our fault.
We do live in a capitalistic society where millions upon millions are spent every month researching how to shape the mind of customers to buy more.
Commercials are filled with happy people that only seem happy with the newest product. Talk shows only invite successful people that smile and laugh and have a great time. And social media is filled with so many highlight reels that we simply lose track of what is real.
With all of this, it is very unfair to expect us to be happy with what we have for we are trained to believe we could be happier with more everywhere.
The truth, however, and something we will only truly realize when we have less, is that we need less to be happy.
And let me say this again:
"Minimalism is not just about having less. It’s the connection that is built-in having less that makes it so great"
“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” – Socrates
The truth is that as long as we chase happiness we will never reach it.
But once we stop and live, once we try less and live more, once we live life with what we have instead of what we think we need. We begin to understand that it was never about what we have that makes us happy.
And, at that point, minimalism or no minimalism will not make a difference.
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”– Albert Einstein
That's it!
May I have another chance to talk about this deeper than what it is.
Thank you and see you on the upcoming article~
