Simplicity and Minimalism

I think simplicity in life is very important, as when you make things complicated it creates stress which can lead to depression and other problems. There are many ways of making life simple like changing your habits and doing less things everyday but for me it has also been to become a minimalist.

Minimalism is a philosophy of life where you get rid of things that you don’t need around you to concentrate more on the more important things.

For example, get rid of the TV as is one of the biggest distractions in every household. We don’t need a TV, we can read the news on a newspaper or read it online on websites or through RSS, we will get less bombardment of adverts which always tell us that our life is shit and if we want to make it better we must buy that item!, We won’t get monthly bills of those TV subscription and wont need to buy DVDs & Blu-rays to watch through your blu-ray player. You can always go a family or friend’s place when you want to watch a movie and have fun watching with them, this way you are also socialising and having fun rather than just mindlessly watching the TV screen.

Doing something like this you are putting less things to handle in your life and giving yourself more time to do other things.

You must be thinking “what can I do??? Won’t life get boring???”

Well there are millions of things you can do with your time, like stepping outside your house, and roaming around the block or picking up a hobby that you always wanted to do and having a crack at it!, and/or spending more time with your family & friends. The possibilities are endless!

But its not just the TV. Donate those clothes which have been lying around in the back of your closet since years which you are never going to wear, sell or donate objects in your room which are not important and just create clutter in your room and eat more healthier and simple meals everyday which do not include deep-fried junk food or sugary treats (once is a while is fine).

So minimalism is not just about throwing away everything in your house and sitting on a floor starring at the wall (but yes you can do that), its about clearing away the unneeded things in your life to make way for the more important things. Its about simplifying your life with less.

Competitions

I was just on Facebook and I saw my friends were arguing about which phone is better, the iPhone 5 or the Samsung Galaxy S3? Each one of them wanted to prove they are right and they have the best phone. But why do people compete so much? Is it because they want to make other people jealous? To envy them? And if so then why?

People use money to buy the best things there are currently out there, to be popular and show others how much of an envious life they have but the truth is that they are still empty inside.

They want more and more precious things to fill that emptiness but it would never be enough because they are never content with what they already have.

They want others to notice them for their expensive mobile phone, their flashy Mercedes and they huge 4 bedroom house but what really matters is none of it.

Remove the big house, the phone and the expensive car, at the end none of it matters. All that matters is you.

People shouldn’t like you for what you have, people should like you for who you are and what you do for others. Rather than taking, you should give and be happy with what you already have, even if it isn’t the best thing in the world.

I was thinking of getting the iPhone 5 because everyone thought it was cool, popular and sexy but instead I bought a $90 Nokia phone. Because I don’t care if people don’t envy me, I don’t care if I am not in a competition to become the most popular guy. All I care is that it is all I need for my day to day work and I know that my true friends wont disrespect me for it.