The world around us, our schools, businesses, governments, parents, they all us teach us how we need to have more, achieve more, be more. Minimalism teaches us how to have enough. What is enough? It is a state of being when we feel contentment with what is, with what we have. In a way, it is not very different from the lofty ideas of enlightenment or happiness, ideas of being present and happy here and now. Minimalism is not anything new. The Greek philosophers, Japanese Zen masters, Chinese Taoist hermits, and many, many others have been practicing minimalism since the times forgotten. Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, they all understood the limitations of things. In the world of materialism and common mindless consumption, the idea of minimalism is a counterbalance to excess. To have enough or to be enough has been a goal pursued by many. In minimalism, contrary to other approaches, enough is sought by subtracting rather than adding. Letting go rather than accumulating. Appreciating the “haves” rather than craving the “have nots”. When we realize what we really need – we realize what is enough for us. When you realize that there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you – Lao Tzu Many types of Buddhist practices emphasize the importance of being present in the moment, aware and mindful of what we are doing. Minimalism shares the same desire to be more mindful of our real needs for possessions, achievements, and many more. When we simply react to the world around us, it is often an unconscious or undesirable reaction. A result of previous experiences, past conditioning or a formed habit. On the material plane, we happen to react to peer pressure or marketing suggestions and buy more things in hopes that they will bring us joy and happiness. While things can do that, it is not a very long lasting feeling. Because we want to experience the feeling again, we end up buying more and more. As a result, we get more conditioned, our reward system down-regulates and we need to do it even more often, feeling progressively less pleasure. Not to mention that our stuff quickly accumulates. It is a vicious circle that slowly burns out our joy of life. So, instead of investing our hopes for contentment in yet another toy we would like to have, why don’t we start the process of elimination to discover that we don’t really need much to feel satisfied with life. Re-discovering a long forgotten hobby, simple interactions with other people and nature can be as rewarding and much longer lasting means of finding the elusive happiness. Do YOU enjoy every day appreciating its gifts and remembering its transience? ...
Life is complicated enough. Simplify what you can. Especially your daily habits. Healthy = Natural = Simple
Kids do it. Birds do it. Your dog and cat do it. Sometimes 40-50 times a day. Since we sit so much, we tend to forget how important it is to pandiculate – contract and extend the muscle or better yet – the entire muscle group as often as possible. This is how we can get rid of excessive tension accumulating in our body as a result of a lack of movement. Pandiculation resets the muscles to their neutral position, helping them to get back to their natural state and prepare the entire musculoskeletal system for movement. Contract and extend the entire body when you wake up, while in bed and continue to do it frequently throughout the day (especially if you have to sit a lot!) Various forms of meditation have a huge impact on our body and mind. Did you know that meditation reduces anxiety and stress, improves concentration and mood, decreases cortisol (stress hormone) levels, lowers blood pressure, slows down the heartbeat, increases the feeling of relaxation and raises the number of antibodies thus improving resistance to infections and inflammation? At the beginning or at the end of your day, create some time for quiet contemplation, simple meditation… Most animals in Nature do not eat all the time. Observe and imitate natural patterns in the wild by skipping a meal or two from time to time. Extend the time between meals and create an opportunity for your organism to activate its regenerative mechanisms. The body gets quickly adapted to a new meal frequency and it becomes a natural, everyday habit. By not eating for 16 hours (including sleep), we benefit by improving our cognitive functioning, lowering the inflammation, blood pressure and blood glucose levels and by a general improvement of metabolic processes of the body. Do not eat until you’re really hungry and when you are, drink some bone broth or a cup of herbal tea or coffee, extending the time of fasting. When you are ready for a meal, eat real, natural, unprocessed food, including lots of veggies, especially the fermented ones. Move your body. Sweat a little every day! Exercise and physical activity allow you not only to retain your strength and functionality but have a huge impact on your mood, memory, sleep quality, stress reduction and cognitive fitness. Take at least a short, intense walk. Run a few flights of stairs. Take the garbage out. Walk the dog a few blocks. Take every opportunity to train your thermoregulating mechanisms. Body conditioning that takes advantage of natural elements, exposing yourself gradually to cold or heat can improve your blood circulation and resistance to colds, activate your hidden energetic reserves and strengthen your immune system. Walk barefoot. Take a cool shower! It can be more efficient than a cup of coffee or a Red Bull! Make sure you create an optimal condition for natural, healthy sleep. People who experience problems with sleep tend to gain weight easily, are more prone to inflammation and depression. Proper sleep helps to ward off diabetes, prevents heart disease, increases fertility and sex drive, improves concentration and productivity, boosts immunity response and mental wellbeing. Sleep in a quiet, dark and well-aired room with no phone, iPad, computer etc. ...
Use it or lose it!
Maintaining health is similar to riding a bike. You cannot ride a bike and then just stop and expect you will maintain balance. The moment we stop moving our balance is compromised. The moment we stop practicing healthy habits, our health, sometimes unnoticeably, starts declining. The moment we stop using our muscles – they start getting weaker and weaker. The moment we stop stretching – we start getting tighter and begin losing our mobility. The moment we stop making a mental effort to remember, to create solutions, to recognize and react – our mental capabilities’ decline begins. The main weapon we have to prevent this from happening or at the very least, to slow it down, is our effort to continue performing or maybe even improving our ability to perform various actions so that we maintain this ability as long as possible. WE DO TO BE. Idle pleasures like watching television or playing computer games, while ok in small doses, can quickly turn into “preferable” way of spending time, developing strongly addictive habits that do not challenge our mental or physical capabilities, thus contributing to the decrease of our well being. The gradual limiting of our social interactions, relying on patterns and solutions that we are very comfortable with, even practicing the very same practices without seeking improvement can and frequently does bring a slow decline. Is it only because we are getting “older”? Or is it because we are getting lazy? If we look at examples of those in later stages of their lives, who continue working in their field, studying, practicing, researching, it is easy to notice that their abilities do not correspond to their chronological age. In a positive sense. One more reason not to stop DOING! ...
