Why we should be open to minimalism

I am an aspiring writer. Yesterday when I was in the middle of my morning activities I was visualizing a story that involves a person who is addicted to buying things. Just buying things like a coat stand, designer carpets, audio system, few USB cables, and subscribing to memberships on websites and apps.

The algorithm has won over him. It has attracted him. He is exchanging money he does not even have over goods he does not even know whether he needs or not. He sees some advertisement on the social media and video platforms and redeems it as may be useful for him. He thinks that it may improve his life.

One day when he wakes up and steps out his bed his foot touches a thorny texture. It is an artificial grass he has bought to add ‘flavor’ to his room. It irritates him early in the morning so he tries to take the next step past that grass. This resulted in him losing balance and hitting his head against the coat stand falling on the foot elliptical. His spine gets severely damaged and his limb movement is in question for the rest of his very short life.

I did not think after that. I don’t know how it ends. The story is kind of preachy about consumerism and all that but this is just a rough draft to get you into what I need to talk about in this article. Like an example to refer to explain some concepts because I am not a learned person to spew technical terms describing few phenomena and seriously you don’t care either.

Now I am not here to blame the big corporates for advertising unnecessary products. I am not going to thrash the social media platforms and the video platforms for exploiting people’s psychology and the companies in turn exploiting the algorithm. Someone working in those companies may be reading this. It is their job. They should do a pretty good job. That is what they do for survival. So they will do all it takes to make you like their product, make you feel that their product is necessary for your life.

We all have choices to make. Decisions to take. Everything in life changes based on your choices and decisions. There is always an alternative. Just eradicate the fact that the other direction might be rocky, difficult, and takes a long time to reach your destination. It is just there.

You would have heard many people on the internet say that we can choose how to react to problems. When your boss is driving you crazy you can choose to be calm because there is no value in getting irritated other than increasing your stress level. When you are facing a block and not getting ideas or solutions for the problems, you can choose to silence your mind and go through your thoughts. Getting frustrated adds to the list of problems.

The point here is when you see an ad of a coat hanger or a designer carpet with pretty pictures, though it looks great and they make you feel that it adds flavor to your room when guests arrive, you just need to think whether it is really necessary. First of all, you rarely have guests. Secondly, your room already looks great with the green paint on the wall and the art pieces hanging on it. So this implies you don’t need extra crap to add anything to your room. They would say if you only have so and so then your room is not complete and the carpet completes you, but honestly what completes your room should be decided by you.

If you already have a lot of stuff in your chest of drawers that you are unable to close without a cloth piece sticking out of one may be throw stuff out. Last month I saw that I have subscribed to a lot of websites and apps that I could not save enough money for the course I have decided to join next year. I just thought it was just four or five then when I looked at my statement it was 8–9.

I did not even know how to cancel and which websites I have subscribed to. When I started earning and I had money in my hand I was excited. I could buy anything on my own online. I could do whatever I want on the Internet. But these monthly subscriptions really affect you psychologically saying that you can do multiple stuff forever with a small monthly fee. These small pieces add to a large chunk of your income. Above all this is the guilt of not having time to view the content in those apps. Just because I have paid I have to watch something on that platform or learn from those sites.

I realized after I came back from a walk that I don’t really need that and I don’t have a use for it now. I don’t have to watch the content in that streaming platform. I don’t have to learn from that website. I can buy or rent a movie when I want to and learns stuff from books or through medium blogs and youtube videos. At the end of the day, it is all about the quality of intake. So I deleted all those apps and deactivated those accounts. Now I don’t have the guilt of not using it. I don’t have that in my world now. I felt a little light.

So minimalism is not about living in a small loft with just a bed and a laptop. It is about having a lifestyle of choosing what you really NEED and surrounding yourself with only that. Don’t get too attached to material stuff, it might sound like philosophical stuff, but how much ever you might have spent on a shirt you have to throw it away when it does not fit.

What I am going to say applies to everything. We are all replaceable and perishable. When human beings are themselves temporary, then what value does anything else have in our life. Nothing is permanent. Everything has a life and everything is either destroyed or comes to an end ultimately.