How Labeling Yourself As A “Minimalist” Could Or Could Not Work

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

2464

Abstract

accepting a job, buying anything no matter how small or large, picking your clothing style, learning new skills, and so on. For anything we should ask ourselves: «Is this aligned with my values and beliefs?» or «Does this serve a purpose?» and decide to start from there.</li><li>Make use of it to hold yourself accountable. Let’s be honest, it happens to everyone (and I rarely generalize) to lose track of an objective or vision, no matter how meaningful and important it is. We are human, we sometimes stray, we get distracted for different reasons. For these situations, it could be useful to say «hey, I’m a minimalist» in the same way we say «hey, I have the skill for this task» or «I’m strong» or «I’m a kind person» etc., «therefore I shouldn’t do x, y or z». Use it as a reminder.</li><li>Use it to spark up a conversation or to convey a message. You may have noticed that when we use a label, a controversial term, a popular one or, on the contrary, an abstract or a too general term, it usually either transmits quickly an information people can identify (even if they don’t have a lot of knowledge on the subject) or it sparks their curiosity and opens a discussion. There’s no right or wrong way of “doing minimalism”, so use this as a way not to convince anyone to agree with you, but to share your perspective, knowledge, or personal story — it can lead to something valuable for the other person.</li></ul><h1 id="ed49">How The Label Might Work Against What You Aim For</h1><ul><li>Don’t use it because it’s trendy. I do not encourage following any kind of trend, and minimalism could be considered a trend nowadays, although one can argue that minimalist principles exist since antiquity and will never die. The negative thing with trends is, from my point of view, that they make many people adhere to them for external reasons, for external validation, for creating that temporary vibe of I’m part of something or I belong. Belonging is, indeed, an important human need, but we should question the reasons we are pursuing it.</li><li>Don’t use it to fool yourself. Just because we say the thing doesn’t mean we do the thing. Just because we post an enticing meal photo doesn’t mean it was tasty and nutritious. Our thoughts and actions must be congruent, our behavior should reflect our values. It has been shown that aligning our inner life (values, ideas, decisions) with our external life (behavior,

Options

actions, accomplishments) has multiple benefits, such as it builds core confidence (that long-term confidence which we will have even if the confidence given by the superficial or life-style elements is lost) and builds momentum which propels us to move forward and grow.</li><li>You should not limit yourself. When we perceive ourselves as being different than most people in our environment, we tend, more than in other cases, to put that label, regardless if that perception is positive or negative to us: punctual or late, lazy or hardworking, minimalist or… maximalist or which is the opposite? I think that’s unhealthy because it puts us in a box, it makes us look through a two-colored pair of glasses when in fact life is a complex spectrum of colors, influenced by different factors at different times. A label could also make it easier to stay comfortable and not put in the effort to further develop: Simple is not easy (I came upon this as a quote various times and in various words; similarly, complex is not the same as difficult).</li></ul><h1 id="70c6">Final Thought: Build Bridges</h1>Call it however it suits you. If not minimalism, call it living meaningfully, following your values, simple living, essentialism, intentionalism or whichever “ism” reflects best what you wish to accomplish or to communicate to the world and yourself.I was in the first year of university (in numbers that would be 10 years ago, but memories depict it as “last month”) when I took part in an oh-so-cliché exercise where we had to create our life book. It turned out to be quite a revealing exercise and it was then when I came up with the bridge metaphor. What does it mean, you ask? Well, a bridge connects two places, it is a way of bringing together areas that otherwise might never meet. They sometimes are built by nature, but to serve our human needs and wants we started to build them ourselves.So, how does a bridge sound compared to a label on a box? How about using this as a metaphor to create connections with others and encourage open-mindedness?<figure id="0303"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*QsFV_geRsxru5WU2xXrCCQ.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@karenuppal?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Karen Uppal</a> on Unsplash</figcaption></figure></article></body>

Suggestions around the idea of being mindful of the reasons we are or aren’t using the minimalism label

Photo by Keila Hötzel on Unsplash

While it’s true and we are aware that we have different roles in our lives, follow different values, beliefs, even ideologies or philosophies, and while it’s also true that the human brain is wired to work with categories, labels, patterns, it’s quite tricky using labels or calling ourselves or something as being you-name-it-what-or-how.

This story’s suggestions on how to approach this are around the idea of being mindful of the reasons we are or aren’t using this title.

I never publicly said that I’m a minimalist, not even to a close friend, although I do consider myself as being. This recently popped up in my thoughts, asking myself why, and it struck quite an inner debate.

The Journey That Brought Me Here

Do you know that overused hashtag wokeuplikethis? Well, it kind of is true that one day I “woke up” as a minimalist after I saw one documentary which made me realize I identify my way of thinking, acting, and values to what the documentary described, and I said «oh, that’s it then, I’m a minimalist!» and this started a whole journey for me.

But I didn’t decide at that moment that I’m a minimalist and everything changed. Rather, I discovered a name for how I naturally behaved my entire life and it made me curious to read more on this topic, watch videos, listen to podcasts and learn a bunch of valuable things.

Since starting on the path of simplifying and living more intentionally, I came to find out that the minimalist label is, like others, a controversial one.

How The Label Might Serve You

See it as a tool. A tool to find your values and align them with your actions. A tool for decision making. These values should be a guide for the daily behaviors such as the way of speaking, starting a new relationship of any kind or continuing current relationships, accepting a job, buying anything no matter how small or large, picking your clothing style, learning new skills, and so on. For anything we should ask ourselves: «Is this aligned with my values and beliefs?» or «Does this serve a purpose?» and decide to start from there.

Make use of it to hold yourself accountable. Let’s be honest, it happens to everyone (and I rarely generalize) to lose track of an objective or vision, no matter how meaningful and important it is. We are human, we sometimes stray, we get distracted for different reasons. For these situations, it could be useful to say «hey, I’m a minimalist» in the same way we say «hey, I have the skill for this task» or «I’m strong» or «I’m a kind person» etc., «therefore I shouldn’t do x, y or z». Use it as a reminder.

Use it to spark up a conversation or to convey a message. You may have noticed that when we use a label, a controversial term, a popular one or, on the contrary, an abstract or a too general term, it usually either transmits quickly an information people can identify (even if they don’t have a lot of knowledge on the subject) or it sparks their curiosity and opens a discussion. There’s no right or wrong way of “doing minimalism”, so use this as a way not to convince anyone to agree with you, but to share your perspective, knowledge, or personal story — it can lead to something valuable for the other person.

How The Label Might Work Against What You Aim For

Don’t use it because it’s trendy. I do not encourage following any kind of trend, and minimalism could be considered a trend nowadays, although one can argue that minimalist principles exist since antiquity and will never die. The negative thing with trends is, from my point of view, that they make many people adhere to them for external reasons, for external validation, for creating that temporary vibe of I’m part of something or I belong. Belonging is, indeed, an important human need, but we should question the reasons we are pursuing it.

Don’t use it to fool yourself. Just because we say the thing doesn’t mean we do the thing. Just because we post an enticing meal photo doesn’t mean it was tasty and nutritious. Our thoughts and actions must be congruent, our behavior should reflect our values. It has been shown that aligning our inner life (values, ideas, decisions) with our external life (behavior, actions, accomplishments) has multiple benefits, such as it builds core confidence (that long-term confidence which we will have even if the confidence given by the superficial or life-style elements is lost) and builds momentum which propels us to move forward and grow.

You should not limit yourself. When we perceive ourselves as being different than most people in our environment, we tend, more than in other cases, to put that label, regardless if that perception is positive or negative to us: punctual or late, lazy or hardworking, minimalist or… maximalist or which is the opposite? I think that’s unhealthy because it puts us in a box, it makes us look through a two-colored pair of glasses when in fact life is a complex spectrum of colors, influenced by different factors at different times. A label could also make it easier to stay comfortable and not put in the effort to further develop: Simple is not easy (I came upon this as a quote various times and in various words; similarly, complex is not the same as difficult).

Final Thought: Build Bridges

Call it however it suits you. If not minimalism, call it living meaningfully, following your values, simple living, essentialism, intentionalism or whichever “ism” reflects best what you wish to accomplish or to communicate to the world and yourself.

I was in the first year of university (in numbers that would be 10 years ago, but memories depict it as “last month”) when I took part in an oh-so-cliché exercise where we had to create our life book. It turned out to be quite a revealing exercise and it was then when I came up with the bridge metaphor. What does it mean, you ask? Well, a bridge connects two places, it is a way of bringing together areas that otherwise might never meet. They sometimes are built by nature, but to serve our human needs and wants we started to build them ourselves.

So, how does a bridge sound compared to a label on a box? How about using this as a metaphor to create connections with others and encourage open-mindedness?

Photo by Karen Uppal on Unsplash