“Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.” Leo Babauta Life is made up of cycles. You may have begun your journey into the world of minimalism full of inspiration and clear focus on the essentials…but you’ve likely hit a couple bumps along the way. It’s
“Simplicity means to choose ways of living that touch the Earth more lightly and that reduce our ecological footprint.” Duane Elgin One of the great things about choosing a holistic minimalist lifestyle is that, even if you’re not trying specifically to reduce your ecological footprint, you will! Reducing consumption in
“Simplicity involves unburdening your life, and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere with a high quality life, as defined uniquely by each individual.” Linda Breen Pierce. In making the leap to a holistic minimalist lifestyle you may have to deal with a bit of backlash from people in
“Get yourself grounded and you can navigate even the stormiest roads in peace.” Steve Goodier Grounding.That elusive feeling of being centered and in balance, no matter what whirlwind of activity or chaos is swirling around you. How do you cultivate groundedness in a world that seems be constantly picking up
“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.”Leo Tolstoy Holistic minimalism mimics many principles we can find in the greater natural world. When you look at the way natural ecosystems organize themselves you can easily see how minimalism is
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” Melody Beattie It may not be immediately obvious how gratitude and abundance connect to minimalism.
“Scarcity mentality measures out life by the ounce; it always concludes that the needs outweigh the resources.” Erin M. Straza You’ve probably heard of the whole scarcity versus abundance mentality thing at this point. If not, the basic gist is that people who live in relative comfort are slowly clueing
“Family traditions are more than arguments with the dead, more than collections of family letters you try to decipher. A tradition is also a channel of memory through which fierce and unrequited longings surge, longings that define and shape a whole life.” Michael Ignatieff More and more people are coming
“Our most valuable possessions are those which can be shared without lessening – those which, when shared, multiply. Our least valuable possessions, on the other hand, are those which, when divided, are diminished.” William H. Danforth Sharing is a very effective way of owning less. It allows us to enjoy
“Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.” Roy T. Bennett It’s tempting to
“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” Kurt Vonnegut The connection between holistic minimalism and decreased isolation may not be immediately obvious, but it’s nevertheless
“You don’t have to be rich to travel well.” Eugene Fodor Long-distance travel has become something many of us take for granted. “Vacation” has come to be synonymous in many people’s minds with “all-inclusive luxury resort in some warm country with nice beaches.” Unfortunately this type of travel has costs
“Clutter is the physical manifestation of unmade decisions fueled by procrastination” Christina Scalise There are any number of ways out there to approach decluttering your home. Blogs and books abound on the subject. You could literally spend years reading up on it and never make a final decision on how
“Buy less, choose well.” Vivienne Westwood Before we get into talking about specific tips for successful second-hand shopping, some of you may be asking yourselves “what’s so great about thrifting?” The simple answer is that thrift shopping is one of those things that answers to just about any possible motivation
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” Epictetus There are numerous reasons you may feel the occasional urge to splurge. In and of itself, treating yourself every now and then is not a fundamental flaw. The issue is when your spending leans towards compulsion and
You may be asking yourself how goal-setting works into the whole scheme of a minimalist lifestyle. If minimalism is all about creating a happier, slower paced, less stressful mode of being that reflects your inherent values, how do you balance that with any kind of “productivity” or “achievement”? As with
“The unexamined life is not worth living” Socrates Another key phrase coined by Socrates is “to know thyself is beginning of wisdom.” While no one likes being pigeonholed, many of us crave clearer self-definition through the use of effective tools for analysis. This is because, somewhere deep down, you know
“People often ask me, “What’s so great about being a minimalist?” I usually answer with one word: freedom.” Francine Jay Does reducing clutter really increase your personal freedom? The simple answer is: Yes. However, in order to truly experience the freedom minimalism has to offer there are a few things
“We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties.” Anna C. Brackett First off, congratulations on choosing to transform your life through minimalism. By decluttering your life on every level you’re making space for increased happiness, a deeper sense of self and connection to the infinite new possibilities.