Being a minimalist to the max!

 

I've always been a less is more kind of person, so I wouldn't say I was a minimalist but that is just the way I am.  When I looked up the word minimalism,  one definition I found was that it is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.

So, that may not really define it but I did find a website that explains it quite nicely.
https://www.becomingminimalist.com/what-is-minimalism/

This is what I feel yoga does also, so I think finding the yogic path was always something that was meant to happen.  Mr. Iyengar has written that he wouldn't tell his students to stop drinking, smoking, over eating, etc., but following a yogic path those things just fell away and were no longer important.

I have always loved being a part of nature and doing things to try and protect nature. 
The quote, "Living simply so others can simply live." is really what I strive for. Traveling as a teen really helped me to see this both in terms of how little I really needed to live and how fortunate I was to have the home and conditions I did have.

 

That being said I think there is a flip side to the coin.  I have to really watch my mindset when I am in the cleaning out the house mode.  I know it is also a form of control, what I do when I feel I don't have control in the other areas of my life.  I clean, throw out and give away. 

 

That is not freedom.  It is still an area I must work on and I find yoga has helped me during these anxious times.

 

Our house is far from bare, but what we do keep we do try to make it something that has meaning.  I have had to accept that for the kids it might mean keeping a sticker or item of some sort that to me seems like garbage but to them has value and realize that living with 4 other people I may not have the perfect and uncluttered house in a day.

 

 

Namaste.

Pamela Nelson

www.plnyoga.blogspot.com

plnyogastudio@gmail.com