The world we live in incentivizes the pursuit of more.
More items, more goals in the bucket list, more of this, more of that, more of essentially anything which has an inherent commercial value.
It is at the core of Commerce.
While, minimalism is intended to help overcome this problem, more and more of minimalism is oxymoronic.
Isn’t it?
Plus, like everything else, it has a price.
Minimalism, done the wrong way, can be as costly as Materialism.
Speaking of materialism, as we try to accumulate more and more things in our lives; we deprive ourselves of more and more of something else, in return.
The freedom of Choice has its costs.
The costs are multi-fold in the form of freedom of Focus, Time, and Money.
The freedom of Money is our biggest concern, for most of the time.
It is so because it happens to be the easiest to measure, and just about anything today can be easily measured against it.
The freedom of Time is less understood and cared-about, in comparison.
It is measurable but we take it for granted.
Mostly because, we know we will get a new set of 1440 minutes the next day.
It feels like something that gets replenished every day.
But it is the opposite that is true.
Time is a vector that moves forward. Only that we choose to measure it in little packets of 1440 minutes every day.
This gives the illusion of replenishment, while the total time available remains unchanged.
Add to this equation, the several ways we jeopardize our health, the total ‘effective’ time available is much less.
And Time once lost cannot be regained.
You may want to argue about living healthier and longer, but that’s irrelevant here.
The freedom of focus is a short window of opportunity per day, usually 2-4 hours, where you get 100% focus, and the opportunity to get something major done.
In effect, the freedom of Focus is shorter than the Freedom of Time.
Together, both are scarcer and limited, while the Freedom of Money is not, more of it can be earned.
Yet, we ignore the essentials by placing more of our focus on the things that are abundant.
In pursuit of such a goal, we deprive ourselves of the freedom to live a calmer, peaceful and meaningful life.
While the idea of mental peace is enticing, and it now happens to be a billion dollar industry; it is simpler than it seems to be.
The only tool you need is ‘a word’.
“NO”
The more No(s) you use for the wrong things, the more Yes(s) you can say to the right things.
The more you do of the right things, or better, one thing, the easier it becomes for your mind to find peace, calmness and happiness.
There is nothing like going to bed at night with the feeling of having done some-thing of great value.
Peace starts where the Rush ends.
Stop rushing through less valuable or less significant things.
Start focusing on doing a few things better..
Peace is right there, next door.
Trying to meditate with a headset and an app is meaningless and oxymoronic.
You missed the point.
Meditation is embracing ‘nothingness’.
Just do nothing, quite literally ‘nothing’.
Say NO.
Go for less.
Resist the rush for more.
That is minimalism, in practice.
While the world is unable to resist the Lure of More, knowing the Magic of Less is the key to find what you are looking for:
Happiness.