Top 5 Reasons To Adopt A Minimalist Lifestyle
Even as our culture inundates us with advertising and marketing messages to keep buying more material items, a minimalist approach to life is gaining wider appeal. While many are simplifying their lives due to job loss and economic necessity, others are doing so by choice. Here are the top five benefits of a minimalist lifestyle:
1. An Increased Sense of Freedom
Too many material items can become like a weighted tether or heavy anchor, holding you down energetically. Releasing some of these items opens you up to a sense of personal and emotional freedom. Selling or giving away material goods can be freeing and liberating. Also, you don't have to do it all at once; putting a portion of your belongings in storage unit, such as All American Self Storage, can allow you to try out the minimalist lifestyle while still keeping access to your possessions.
2. More Satisfying Activities and Experiences
Studies have shown that people who favor spending their money on experiences rather than material items tend to be much happier. With less focus on possessions, you'll likely have more time and energy to spend with family and friends doing communal activities. You'll also have more time for hobbies such as reading, meditating, or taking a class.
3. Better Energy Flow in Your Home (and Life)
The ancient Asian art of Feng Shui is about finding an optimal flow of "chi," or life force energy, in your living space and life. A foundational principle of Feng Shui is reducing clutter, as it can cause agitated energy and blocked chi. The minimalist lifestyle naturally clears out blockages and stale chi to allow more nourishing energies into your home – and your life.
4. Less Stress, Better Health
When you are no longer driven to work, work, work in order to spend, spend, spend, you'll inevitably feel less stressed. You'll also have more time and energy for healthier pursuits. You may start cooking more from scratch instead of eating out; you'll likely exercise more, become more social and gravitate toward life-affirming activities.
5. Paving the Way for Positive Change
A purging of "stuff" creates more physical space, but it also promotes a feeling of peace, openness and equanimity. A "vacuum" is created that holds the potential for new energies, inspiration, scenarios and relationships that may not have been clear or possible before. In this way, a minimalist lifestyle can contribute to a renewed sense of direction and purpose in life.
Although we need the basics to survive, material things do not guarantee happiness. The minimalist approach to life allows you to cut out distractions and connect with what really matters. Why not give it a try?
