MINIMALISM// Decluttering non-material stuff and sitting with discomfort.
I’ve been thinking about this quote from @minimalismlife and how it can be applied to non-material “stuff.” Minimalism often begins with decluttering physical objects, but that’s just the beginning. Minimalism is ongoing. It’s about continually checking in and evaluating so you can prioritize what matters.
While Minimalism can clear your slate in terms of having fewer belongings; your life, time, and energy can easily and silently be filled back up by other “stuff” just as quickly if you don’t declutter this stuff the same way you would material possessions.
What if we apply clearing, sorting, and letting go to; aspects of relationships, what you follow online, how you engage with people and communicate, phone use, commitments, obligations, thoughts, emotions and habits.
If you check your phone a million times, have an unwanted resentment, poor eating patterns, an unaligned commitment, work addiction, this is the “stuff” you might want to declutter if it feels like these things own you. But these habits and choices are often just an outward manifestation of displaced discomfort, and it’s the discomfort you actually want to sit with and unwrap if you want real change.
If we stop reaching for things, distracting ourselves from how we really feel, and instead pause and get still, we can subtly observe what’s happening within us. From a non-attached objective place we can gently hold our emotional situation, decluttering thoughts and emotions the same way we would sort through a junk drawer. Figuring out the best way to clear it, making space.
The process of applying minimalism becomes about taking account of everything that happens internally as well as how it's manifesting outwardly as actions or behaviour, and sorting it all like it's your "stuff."
When you start to deal with your internal landscape, any internal shift will naturally lead to different choices. It won’t feel like a behaviour, emotion, habit etc. "owns" you because you've done the work and let go of the internal "stuff" that led to it. Any new choices become intentional, in alignment with who you are or want to be.
GRAPHIC FROM: @MINIMALISM.LIFE