Practice minimalism

Nowadays the term happiness is almost always associated with material things, with being able to obtain everything we want.

As Spinoza, the Dutch philosopher, used to say, the essence of the human being is desire.

We always desire something we don't have, we turn it into a need, into a longing. This longing becomes suffering when we cannot attain it. Having a good house, a good car, being able to take grand and spectacular trips every year, having the best in technology...

One of the greatest mistakes, as a society in general, is the search for personal satisfaction or happiness in the material, in the tangible.

What is the minimalist lifestyle?

To combat this phenomenon, the minimalist lifestyle was born.

Ryan Nicodemus and Fields Millburn, promoters of the minimalist style, present us with this

way of life so we know how to separate the essential from the unnecessary. Summarizing this concept very briefly, "less is more".

What minimalist happiness consists of

Happiness, in this lifestyle, lies in detachment. In letting go of those material things we don't use, those that we have to dust off from time to time but refuse to. It doesn't mean we have to throw everything away, but rather to keep what we use or what fulfills us emotionally, what we enjoy.

Consumerism and the search for happiness

We are constantly under stimuli that incite us to consume and to the motivation of attaining fullness and happiness at the expense of the latest products on the market.

A clear example of this is the marketing campaigns for mobile phone products. People queue up to get the first units of the latest models of their technological devices. That same people who, after waiting in line for hours and hours and getting hold of the precious object, begin to save up for next year's device.

Basic principles of the minimalist lifestyle

The basic principles of this philosophy and lifestyle are the following:

• Avoid accumulation. Reduce to what is truly essential everything that fills your drawers, shelves and so on. If you have a tidy and clean home, with what truly makes you happy, you will be closer to finding well-being.- Practice detachment. Most objects have an associated memory, the person who gave it to us, or an experience. However, we are more powerful than the attachment to the object, the memory remains in us not in the object, and therefore, we don't stay anchored in a past that sometimes can be hindering for our well-being.- Control the consumption of information. Nowadays we have a great deal of information within our reach, so much that we are overinformed. We must filter the information we need or seek. We can fall into wasting time looking for unnecessary things or false information.- Know how to say no to commitments. Productivity does not only stay in the professional and work field, we must also include those social commitments that we know will not be productive. Untimely meetups with friends or family, toxic people, meetings out of obligation... The goal of meeting or seeing someone should always be emotional well-being.- Reduce the technological pack. It's not necessary for us to have a mobile, a laptop, a desktop computer, a tablet, etc. Let's reduce the number of these devices as much as possible. Let's remember that it is a short-term happiness. Let's enjoy the small experiences and reduce our possessions to those that are necessary to us on an emotional and material level. For more extensive and concrete content there is the website of "The Minimalists", in which they make a small guide trying to give another approach to the consumerist life we know and that society reflects. They also have an interesting documentary on Netflix. One of the most important elements of happiness is freedom of thought, establishing an alternative to the socially established, changing beliefs, social tastes and being reflective. All of this to attain emotional well-being.