How to Simplify Your Life | Minimalist Philosophy

Transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau argued that for humans. Simplicity is the law of nature we thrive in Simplicity it’s an optimal.

State free of clutter and without unnecessary weight. When our lives are simple it’s easier to see where we stand come from and move towards as the minimal amount of chaos troubles or Vision Thoreau compared the value of.

Simplicity to a mathematician solving an equation he reduces it to its simplest terms. Because of today’s many possibilities people tend to over complicate life our consumerist culture encourages us to buy unnecessary stuff instilling in us that our lives are incomplete or inconvenient without them.

Enviroment

The ancient Greek philosopher diogenes lived with minimal possessions living in a barrel on the streets only having some rags and a drinking cup but when he saw a child drinking water using his hands he threw away his drinking cup saying a child has beaten me in plainness of living diogenes wasn’t the only one who lived with almost no possessions certain.

Hermits and various monastic orders renounce worldly possessions partly to free themselves of the burdens that come with them the Dalai Lama stated in an interview and I quote if one’s life is

simple contentment has to come, Simplicity is extremely important for happiness having few desires feeling satisfied with what you have is very vital satisfaction with just enough food clothing and shelter to protect yourself from the elements

Social

Even though human beings are social creatures. The presence of people could serve as a significant burden if we have surrounded ourselves with too many people, or Worse the wrong people our social life may cause us more harm.

The problem with having many social connections is that we often don’t see which of those connections we actually enjoy for example,

we may be part of a large Social Circle but within that Circle there are only a handful of people we genuinely connect with at the same time all those people we don’t connect with expect us to attend their parties and other events we may not even enjoy these events and see them as social obligations.

With friends quantity probably isn’t better than quality interestingly. Enough research conducted by evolutionary psychologists suggests that having fewer friends is a sign of intelligence. This research shows that most social interaction correlates with greater happiness however these correlations are diminished or reversed for intellectuals meaning that many social interactions make them less happy depending on what kind of person you are these.

Outcomes may be another reason to simplify your social life the term social minimalism points to minimizing one’s social interactions limiting them to what’s essential for one’s satisfaction social minimalism doesn’t have to mean calling out friends or becoming a Hermit as the amount and nature of social interaction one prefers is personal simplifying.

Our social lives isn’t necessarily limiting the number of friends it could also be limiting the number of social interactions with these friends and being selective about what kind of social interactions we engage. In we may avoid needless repetitive chit chat at specific social Gatherings while embracing one-on-one conversations during during Forest walks.

Digital Minimalism

Feeling overwhelmed by our busy lives is a common complaint in modern times which goes hand in hand with anxiety and stress but in many cases it’s not just because life demands too much of us it’s also because there’s too much noise mainly because of digital technology life is full of distractions.

Digital minimalism is a form of minimalism concerning itself with limiting one’s time using technology.

Author Cal Newport wrote that our sociability is quote unquote too complex to be outsourced to a social network or reduced to instant messages and emojis.

His book “digital minimalism” offers ways to declutter digitally without throwing away the baby with the bath water after all technology can be very beneficial he describes digital minimalism as follows and a quote

A philosophy of Technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value and then happily miss out on everything else

By cutting down our online time we experience much fewer unnecessary distractions and stimuli which considering how widespread digital technology is amounts to a significant reduction of clutter.

We can declutter our environments as much as we want.

If our minds are full of rubbish then it’s likely will still complicate our lives despite our simplified surroundings. Overthinking worrying and ruminating make uncomplicated things complicated also it often makes problems.

Much more significant than they are in factproblems originate in the mind not in the outside world living a simple life while burdened by racing complex thoughts seems pretty contradictory our living rooms may be minimalistic and clean our heads may be full of worries.

About work our agendas may be spacious our brains May ruminate about past events if obsessive thinking answers every waking minute despite our simplified surroundings how futile have been our efforts to simplify our lives for well-being without a doubt.

An uncluttered living environment May contribute to mental Clarity but Simplicity is best served with the coolness of a tranquil mind -inderveer singh