How To Take A Minimal Stance On Emotional Stress

The Power Of The Minimal Mindset

Hard times fall on all people. Financial distress, loss and grief, extreme schedules. This, like all other aspects of life, I believe can be made much easier by a minimalist lifestyle. Let me explain:

Minimalism is not about owning nothing; it is about your personal attachment to your things. We all know how to become minimalists on the outside- but that is just an outward expression of a mindset shift. The Mindset itself is where the power lies.

Instead of thinking about how much you can get away with, you train your mind to consider how little you can get by on.

Instead of considering all the things that will make you happy, you consider how you can be pleased with all that you have.

Instead of trying to figure out how to make your life perfect, you try to figure out how imperfect can still work, perfectly fine.

This mindset transcends the emotionally desperate state and leaves you with what is important and good in your life.

The minimalist thought process allows you to deal with stress in a very practical and efficient way. Do you remember those early days of learning basic math skills? One of the building blocks was to simplify an equation. That's what this mindset does. It simplifies all your worries and fears into their most basic form so you can deal with the root of the problem. Without this basic skill, most people end up going through their whole lives without ever actually dealing with their issues. They deal with all the "stuff" around their problems and leave the root intact. Somehow dealing with this "clutter" of emotional stress seems like it will be easier. It is an escape mechanism to cope with the pains of life.

What if we stop trying to "cope"?

What if we confidently looked at our life and "owned" our problems.

What if we woke up and were grateful for our so-called "problems."

It seems our country is facing an epidemic of, "its too hard..."

but, is it too hard?

I think we have a misconception that a "burden" is always bad. The word burden comes from the Latin word "onus" which by definition is a duty or responsibility. The burdens in life are not the boulders that we can't carry alone; they are merely the personal responsibilities that belong to us. They are not for a counselor, psychiatrist or empathetic friend. These problems are ours to carry, solve, and grow from. They turn us into the people we should become. Without them, or by casting them off on another, we are stunting our own growth.