Are you overwhelmed and anxious? Do you feel like you can’t keep up with the demands of your household? Are you constantly doing things you do not enjoy? Introduce intentional living.
In this post you are going to learn all about how to pursue intentional living.
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First, we must understand the reason why people make the transition to intentional and minimalist lifestyles. Typically we see a transition after the death of a loved one. You realize that material things don’t matter. They don’t make up a life. For this reason people don’t want the responsibility to sort through their excess things to pass onto their partner or children. While this may not be the case with everyone in the intentional, slow living, minimalist lifestyles, this concept of living with less and intentionally is an attractive one.
Perspective Shift
Next, we dig into where to start. With intentional living an easy place to begin is to take into account what you truly value in your life. It 100% caters to the individual. Its not like you need to do XYZ to be a quote unquote minimalist or one that lives with intention. You cut out the noise in order to live your life with less distractions and hold space for what you really enjoy.
For instance, say you want to have a library because you love reading but you never have the space for it. You have four chairs and a loveseat that were gifts and a massive TV hanging on your wall that you barely watch. Since TV and lounging aren’t a huge priority to you, you make the decision to get rid of 2 chairs and downsize the TV so you can now fit the book shelf and begin the library you’ve always wanted.
You see we forget we have the power to choose our life.
As you a result, we get stuck in this cycle of chasing what we don’t actually want. Most of the time we as a society feel this constant pressure to keep up with the Jones’ and to want what every one else wants. You rarely stop and take inventory of what you want in life. Instead the message is to push, to chase, to compare, and then wonder why you feel anxious and unhappy.
Its a shift from you can to have it all and you SHOULD. To only pursuing what you want.
Resources
If any of this resonates with you and you want to learn more there are a few resources linked here.
Goodbye things by Fumio Sasaki – his book is the perfect place to start. Just listen or read it if you are curious.
Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields Millburn are known as the Minimalists. They have two documentaries which both can be seen on Netflix. Not that I have Netflix anymore. But I will link their website here.
Mari Kondo – her book, The life changing magic of tidying up, was the first book I read regarding living with less. I’m sure you have heard about her work but if you haven’t one of her practices asks people to hold an item and if it sparks joy you keep it, if not you get rid of it. She also has a Netflix series.
Lastly, my hope is to bring a perspective filled with grace and encouragement with this post. You don’t have to actively pursue intentional living but if you are feeling overwhelmed or anxious when it comes to your things, know you always have the power to change your situation. Remember, this is not a competition or a game to be won. Its about letting go of what you don’t want and leaving the space for what you do.
I’ll share my personal journey and the process I am going through in a future post so be on the look out for that 🙂
