BE A MINIMALIST Discipline Your Body Recognize Your Shift Change Your Mindset

By Belinda Payne

As the warmer days approach, we may find ourselves removing heavier clothing, eating light foods, and wanting less clutter, and we want to live with less. Today we call those types of individuals a minimalist.

We may not understand everything happening around us, but we should recognize and understand that a shift is occurring. We can walk into grocery stores and throughout the marketplaces and see product lines changing and selection choices narrowing. The airplane seats are getting smaller, and so are the free snacks! And let's not talk about the size of the cereal boxes – what's up with that?

When we see these dramatic changes around us, we should note that a shift must also occur in our minds and lifestyle practices. Learning to live like a minimalist is one such shift.

In short, we can learn a few things from others who have learned to live under various conditions under which they have no control or ability to influence, like space. Every square inch of the roadways that can legally be used is occupied.

Tiny houses are a BIG thing! Self-care getaways to tiny one-room cabins are becoming the ultimate escape places because they are geared and designed for short stays yet provide the ultimate comfort with minimal rustic or fine accessories.

Yes, this sounds good, but this new minimalist lifestyle will require an adjustment in our thinking. Otherwise, you will be overwhelmed by anxiety and frustration, defeating the purpose of being a minimalist in some form or fashion.

So what might be a few keys to adopting, adapting, and maintaining a minimalist lifestyle?

Discipline Your Body

Living with a dorm-sized refrigerator, a few miniature cabinets, and a two-burner stove is just the thing to help you become more selective at the grocery store! This change is just the thing to help you jump-start your dream to a healthier you! You asked for discipline – well, this grocery list takes discipline!

"Disciplining our body begins in the mind by training our temperament."

We may need to perform daily vigorous mental training | exercises to build our stamina against the temptation to return to being a food addict. You know…just getting it because it was on sale, or this week it is buying ten – get ten free – BOGO buying!

Not only that but intentionally scheduling time to get out and move about may be the key to thriving in such small spaces. That walk you kept putting off when you lived in the condo or the house is much more appealing since you can only live in one room. Now you get excited running errands in the rain.

So, by all means, developing a minimalist mindset may require a bit of purposeful scheduling at first – but with heartfelt planning, it may become as natural as breathing – to take a walk, grow a garden, join a yoga class, and more.

Recognize Your Shift

When you start feeling antsy, restless, and uncomfortable over a long period and can't seem to shake it – this is a good sign you are heading into your shift, and a conversion is taking place.

You may have lived a certain quality of life, having all you need and want. You lacked nothing. You had the wealth and power and lived a very good life. Now each day you arise, you feel or sense something is missing. Perhaps you find the entire perspective about living is shifting. You notice your interest has changed, and it does not take much to make you happy or bring you joy and peace within, and that is when you are ripe for making the transition to living a minimalist life

You increasingly find yourself in conditions and circumstances out of your control. You cannot control the economy, gas prices, or the stock market – not that you ever could. Yet, now you accept it without becoming anxious and fretful.

You have experienced your share of good days and bad and are embarking on the greatest time of your life. You are about to walk into the secret of contentment - by living in the sufficiency of what it means to have enough. The world has experienced a shift after COVID-19, and we must recognize that things will not return to how they were. The shift has occurred, and we must do the same.

Being a minimalist does not mean throwing away all the wonderful conveniences and luxuries of life. It means learning to recognize what it means to live a day at a time in moderation, not in excess, and be content.

Change Your Mindset.

And finally, we can change our mindset by teaching ourselves to live with an attitude of gratitude. The minimalist mindset gives us a new perspective on our time, talents, and resources and how we use all three daily. Things may not be as good as we would like, but they can certainly be worse than they are. We may not have everything we want, but you likely have everything you need.

We can teach ourselves to be minimalist and live with less when disciplining our bodies, recognize our shift, and change our mindset.