Live More Fully Through Minimalism
You are joining me as I look out of my train window towards the rolling Scottish hills.
The sky meets the ocean in inevitable blue brilliance in the far distance.
This is my first train journey in 18 months. As you can imagine, I wanted to make the most of the journey.
I always love travelling on trains because I can escape into my own world by reading a book or watching a film. They allow me time to stop, reflect, and learn things anew as I’m swept towards my destination.
You join me now having just watched the first Netflix documentary about minimalism (2015’s Minimalism: A Documentary About The Important Things)
I would like to share with you my immediate reaction about minimalism, the values that drive us, and importantly, self-introspection.
Before watching this documentary, I had certain presumptions about minimalism. My position was that it was an anti-consumption movement whereby people try to move closer towards the things they like and to get rid of things they don’t use. It is a philosophy of tidying and reduction that comes from a place of lack.
I don’t think my preconceptions could have been further away, especially that final sentence.
Upon reflection, there is one trait that every practising minimalist I have ever met shares.
It overlaps with every Buddhist I have ever met as well as everyone I would describe as genuinely wise.
It is a unifying, open trait that you can’t quite identify or put your finger on until it is pointed out to you. That labelling usually leads to an ‘aha’ moment.
A moment where you proclaim aloud “I get it now”.
I was going to call this trait “authenticity” and I considered going for something like “fulfilment-seeking”. But neither quite hit the mark for me; both may be true but this trait is a prerequisite to fulfilment, authenticity, and beyond that authentic fulfilment.
This trait is honesty.
An honest person, I would say, is more likely to be authentic with the world and the people they interact with because they have nothing to hide.
They have no facade, no fake ideal prescribed to them that they are aspiring to become. They simply are. They simply are honest and truly themselves.
It is in this radiant honesty that shame falls away. That fear retreats with acknowledgement, and that genuine authentic human connection is fostered.
Honest people are relatable and encourage that trait in others not out of guilt but out of empathy and acceptance. Honest people accept that they are themselves and they accept all judgement from those around them. They may interact with this judgement, but they are not in their core selves affected by it.
Honesty, then, is a foundation to fulfilled living. Something minimalism takes very seriously.
Minimalism depends and thrives upon introspection. Looking into ourselves, being ok and honest about what we find and then acting towards that.
It has a clear goal of putting oneself under the microscope and analysing the deeper “why” that we have never considered.
We strip away what holds little or zero genuine utility to us.
Ergo, we must be introspective in order to retain that which is useful as we seek a minimalist lifestyle.
But what exactly is a minimalist lifestyle? Well, if I took anything away from the documentary it is that minimalism is no one thing, it looks different for everyone. To summarise, it would be: a minimalist lifestyle is living with less in order to fulfil an experience-focused life that we yearn for rather than a material-focused life that we are told we want.
So far today, then, our honesty has led to acceptance which has encouraged introspection and perhaps decision making towards our version of a minimalist lifestyle (an example would be reducing the number of clothes we possess by getting rid of what we both don’t like and don’t use).
It is the outcome of introspective action in the direction of minimalism that moves us towards fulfilment and it is our personal fulfilment that frees us.
There can be nothing more genuine, more real or more authentic to us than being honest with ourselves.
This is why I think every minimalist, Buddhist and wise person I have met has an introspective and accepting honesty about them; it is that quality that radiates and is infectious to others.
Honesty encourages you to show up for yourself which in turn helps you to show up better for others.
To express, act, be and live in a way that is in accordance with your state of being.
As opposed to something, societal or cultural, something external prescribed to you.
Honest people ignore prescriptions.
As I leave you, then, my advice to myself and to you after watching Netflix’s first documentary about minimalism on my winding train ride is not actually to cultivate minimalism directly.
It is to be more honest.
To be more true to yourself, to your thoughts, beliefs, and desires.
Honour that and you will find a state of self-acceptance through which you will move closer to what you see to be fulfilment.
The journey begins and ends with honesty.
So, let’s start now…
How are you, really?
Ryan is a contributing writer for MindMapper UK and the CCO of House Hack, a Talent Accelerator and Consultancy for Gen Z supporting young people into start-ups. You can find out more on www.rymcgee.com
MindMapper UK and DigInBox are bringing you, The Festival You Didn’t Know You Needed on October 8th: https://www.medayfestival.com/
