Skip to main content

Practicing the Art of Minimalism

Being locked inside the house...all alone...for more than fifteen days now...often brings rollercoaster rides of several emotions and thoughts. A lot of extra time to ponder over my own life...my own life's choices and decisions.

Sitting at home and trying to pick up a new hobby or lifestyle, a few days back I started focusing on the art of minimalism. If you are new to the concept, the minimalist lifestyle is about living with only the things you need. Minimalists are free from the desire to buy and accumulate more. Instead, they find happiness in relationships and experiences. There is an amazing blog around this - https://www.becomingminimalist.com/5-years-of-better/.

After reading about it, watching a few youtube videos and documentaries, I started looking through everything I own at present and making a list of everything that I don't really need. I started pulling out clothes that I have not worn in months, pulling out shoes that I have not worn in years, books that I have finished reading and will probably never pick again. Thankfully I don't live in a big house or have too much furniture, to begin with, so a lot of that sorting was not needed. Next came the part of planning on how I could discard these extra things that I own. Well, once the quarantine season is over, I now have a list of places and people who could use those things that I have been collecting in my house without really having much need for them. This also made me think around my next shopping plans. Now, this is where the lifestyle change needs to kick in. From shopping at every Myntra or Amazon sale to shopping only when I really can't do without something...that's the switch I need to consciously make.

Replacing a traditional work-table in a minimalistic architectural way 
The art of minimalistic living sounds simple at a superficial level. The benefits also sound promising. But trying to practically implement this lifestyle is not easy. You want to know what the biggest challenge in this practice is? Well...its the society we live in, its the people we go out with, the people we work with. If a decently paid employee of a multinational organization doesn't have a couch at her home when she welcomes guests or fancy glasses to serve the wine in, well...your friends and colleagues are not going to like you a lot. Your family also might not approve of you too much. I can tell this from experience. It is now that I have started making a conscious effort towards minimalistic living, but I have always liked to stay at a smaller space, with fewer furniture....compared to what the social norms generally have been for someone of my social status. I have had incidences where a house party planned at my place had been moved to a different venue because...I was told that my house was too small for 4-5 people to be able to comfortably accommodate themselves. Well, being a good host generally, the statement had hurt me real bad that day. This had happened a few months back. Thinking back to that incident today and now that minimalism is a conscious practice for me, I realize that I will have to make a lot of choices...between minimalistic living and social approval.

I have to make those choices of whether I want to have a new dress for every party that I attend...or do I want a simpler and happier lifestyle with minimal clothes that are basic requirements. Well, being inside the house for the last 15+ days, I have realized that I can literally survive with just 5 pairs of clothes. I am not saying I will go that far immediately...but maybe with time, that is where I would like to head towards. These choices are tricky. And I am not at that place yet where I can tell you if all the benefits, that these articles and movies about minimalism are claiming, are true or not. All I know is that I have lived life in a certain way for a really long time. And I have recently heard about a different route that also exists...where the terrain is different from the road that I have taken so far...but being of the inquisitive nature that I am, I am willing to travel that road too for a while before choosing which road I would like to take for the remaining of life's journey.

While I am trying to put minimalism into practice every day, I am also starting to spend some time trying to find my Ikigai...my reason to jump out of the bed each morning. Hopefully, I will share a blog with more details on this topic soon. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A lot can happen over coffee....only if you are allowed to sit at a CCD outlet!

Cafe Coffee Day is no more a new name for the youngsters in India. For a warm cup of coffee at an affordable price, thats where we generally go to! But more than the cup of coffee, its the atmosphere of Café Coffee Days which attracts all of us. An informal setup...good beverage and snacks...soothing music (most of the time)...complimentary wi-fi (at many outlets)...well, CCD always had a lot to offer its customers. Photo source - https://www.zomato.com/pune/cafe-coffee-day-2-koregaon-park For Siddhartha, coffee always used to be an experience to be offered...not just beans to be grown. I have had my job interview conducted at a CCD outlet. I have hosted and attended several community meetups at different CCD outlets across the country. I have even had my coffee dates at CCDs. Well, truely, a lot has happened in my life over coffee...at different CCD outlets. Once, Siddhartha himself had spent his new year's eve, serving customers at a Café Coffee Day (CCD) outlet near C...
8 comments
Read more

Quarantining Alone - A Once in a Lifetime Opportunity

This Covid-19 virus has turned the entire world upside down. It has broken a lot of older habits and set a lot of new normals. Towards the early days of this lockdown, I had written a blog - An Extrovert in Isolation . The early lockdown days were extremely difficult for me. That was the phase of breaking old habits. An extrovert by nature, couldn't accept the sudden change of being locked alone inside my house. I am writing this blog again after being locked at home for more than 100 days now. Most of the older habits are broken by now. A few new habits have become a part of my new normal. What seemed to have been painful 100 days back has now turned to be blissful. Here, I am sharing my story of how quarantining alone has ended up being the greatest opportunity and a huge transformation in my life.  I have been struggling for years to fix my sleep patterns. Going to bed late and waking up late had been a habit for a really long time. My struggles to change this habit had...
1 comment
Read more

Equality and Equity: A Journey That Starts at Home, Beyond the Workplace!

In 2023, during the celebration of International Women's Day, I encountered the notion of " Equity " for the first time. Initially, its significance in a woman's daily life didn't strike me profoundly. However, over the past year, I've been continually reminded of its relevance on numerous occasions. Discussions around workplace Diversity and the concerted effort to elevate the presence of women in organizations, especially in leadership roles, have gained traction globally. While commendable, there's a touch of irony in this commendable endeavor. The very men who wield decision-making power in organizations, shaping policies to foster inclusivity and gender balance, often seem to leave the concept of equality at their home doorstep. As they enter their domestic realm, they discard the notion of equality as if shedding a coat, anticipating their wives to effortlessly shift from their professional roles into the responsibilities of a homemaker. It's imp...
Post a Comment
Read more