Millennial Minimalism: Simplifying When It's Simplest

Millennial Minimalism: Simplifying When Its Simplest

I finally got around to watching the documentary from last year by the Minimalists, Josh and Ryan, and I enjoyed it! It reaffirmed everything I already believe in and talk about here on the blog.

I couldn’t help notice though, that every person speaking about the concept were 5, 10, even 40 years older than myself.

Why was there no voice of a millennial?

Maybe someone young, supposedly naive to real life, only at the beginning of their adult-ing journey, wouldn't appear a credible minimalism advocate...

Or maybe it’s because so many people had to have a decade or more of adult-ing, a long period of working, acquiring and consuming, before they felt the call of minimalism.

I suppose I had my mid-life crisis super early, 22 to be exact, when my first ‘corporate’ type job sucked the joy out of my life and the hope away from my outlook.

There was nothing too terrible about the job itself (I worked in a bank) and its a job many people do happily for years, their whole lifetime. But either way, it was still a job where I felt like I was inducted in the hall of life cynicism and I was supposed to just deal with it and make the best of it (with my debit card).

I had aspirations, and they weren’t being met even slightly.

I had skills and abilities that were irrelevant in that environment.

I had something real that I had worked hard for and truly thrived at, my degree in Media, and yet I was working in a customer service job with a heavy dose of sales thrown in.

It all felt like a whole load of bullshit to be frank.

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My life did not suit me, and I wore my new reality like a straight-jacket.

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Over the next year I found myself changing, responding to what I had been through; a depressing job where spending was my only release, and where my mental health suffered immeasurably as a result.

Now 4 years later I call myself a minimalist, albeit one who remains a work in progress, but the belief is there, the true passion for living a simpler life. And I’m not 45 and talking about it in a documentary, because I luckily got to this place a little sooner than some of my counterparts.

I was just finding my feet, only just stepping onto the carousel of adult life, when circumstances conspired to create a disillusionment, within my own mind, at probably a similar time in the late 2000's, as my older counterparts too begin to debate the idea of mindless consumerism.

I feel fortunate that events conspired when they did, to afford me a clear and open passage into the minimalist mindset.

The concept was increasingly providing a true solution for so many individuals feeling disengaged and disenfranchised, and I knew I had nothing to lose (except of course, most of my stuff and my consumerist habits).

I like to think that the sooner and earlier you welcome the minimalist mindset in, as a millennial, the better it is for not just you, but all those around you, including your unborn distant children, and your ageing parents.

Soon, as in now.

Before the boxes of 25 toys make their way to the attic, before they are even bought.

Before you find yourself feeling gut-wrenched, clearing out 10 rooms of your parents belongings.

Before you feel the need to spend more than you earn to finance a bigger life, and enter into debt.

Before you climb the property ladder and invest in a house with more rooms than you can hope to fill.

Before you slump down, surrounded by reams of things in your own space that don’t even belong to you, on top of those that do.

Before the task of change appears too giant to even begin.

Simplify your life and your lifestyle, while its still simple enough to do so. Set a precedent for generations to come and generations behind you, and change the way the world works.

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Thanks for reading!

Hannah here, one half of NomaderHowFar. I love reading, the beach, proper fish and chips, and a good cup of tea. But I mostly like to chat about minimalism, simplifying your life, the beauty of travel and sometimes I get a bit deep. Get to know us here!

Be social and come follow us across the virtual world!

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A Minimalist Mindful Moment: 10 Things Challenge

A Minimalist Mindful Moment: 10 Things Challenge

You made it. You are here. Another year has passed in your brief lifetime.

You are likely altered in some way, be it mood, attitude, outlook or personality.

Its reality that the world fundamentally changes around you, for better and for worse, despite your best intentions, or your inaction.

You are changed, carved into something different every year by the sharper edges of your life.

What do you seek?

Are you seeking the same thing you have sought for what feels like years?

How close are you to reaching the elusive subject of your obsession, your passion, your greatest hope, or even your greatest fear?

You are looking forward or looking up, wondering, if, how and when. Your mind's eye is consistently looking into some other reality, imagined or desired.

But how often are you looking around you?

How often are you absorbing the very environment you are surrounded by, the people within a touching distance, the achievements but a stone’s throw away?

How often do you observe your thoughts and reactions, instead of just letting them play out habitually?

I discover these questions and ask myself them, as I type them out and implore you to join me in switching up your thinking.

When you think of each facet of your daily life, be it your job or your routines, how do you feel?

For too long now in recent months, juggling the building blocks of my life, the elements which truthfully actually keep me afloat, alive and kicking, have appeared to me as albatrosses around my neck.

My short-term hospitality job, maintaining contact with my family in England, the challenge of travels ahead; they feel like weights instead of representing freedom. Freedom that I worked for, fought for and have maintained for two years now.

I advocate simplifying your life and yet I spend my days holding on tight to my painful and negative thinking habits.

I need to de-clutter my brain and massage my attitude.

I need to remember the function of literal minimalism, in my space and my things, and I need to visualize my mind as a place too, needing of a deep clean and some re-organisation.

Do you need to de-clutter your brain too?

The following few things could be deemed resolutions, but since I don't do that shit, they are generally realistic and hopeful intentions...

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10 things I intend to do:

1. Limit time spent on social media. I plan to monitor how much of my day is spent mindlessly absorbed in something that brings NOTHING, well at least very little, to my overall well-being. Too much scrolling of carefully crafted instagram's, banal tweets and repetitious Facebook adverts is taking me away from the important things that build my mental and physical health.
2. Increase time spent talking to my friends and family. Stop using the excuse of being 'busy' to put off those emotions of missing home and feeling like I have to choose between one world, home, and another, the great unknown of travel, the slog of working and the pull of creativity.
3. Watch more brain-food. A favourite relaxation pastime of mine is to watch Youtube, but I know that I am watching things akin to a soap opera; they bring me nothing but momentary distraction and escapism. They don't feed my brain, or my life. I plan to cut back and add in some more food for thought.
4. Truly listen to inspiring people talk. I love words, writing, reading and speaking, but I too often don't let in the words of others who have something important and useful to say. I don't give them enough undivided attention. What I have to say, what I want to express, is only one side of a broader opportunity to grow and exchange inspiration in this life.
5. Measure my daily achievements, not failures. I bought a 2017 diary weeks ago, and I couldn't wait to begin using it to map out my time, but instead of just noting the boring stuff, I am going to write down one brief line about what was so good about that day. Even if I didn't do something I fully intended to do, something I might have needed to do, the focus should be on what I did achieve.
6. Let myself believe that things will be good, great even. I tend to live by the 'expect the worst, hope for the best' because I am always afraid. I am afraid something will go horribly wrong (a lovely symptom of my anxiety) or even worse, afraid it will be so amazing that no subsequent moment could compare. But this defence mechanism doesn't change anything or allow me to miraculously control the future, it simply means my outlook is more fraught and my energy low.
7. Expand my mind about the world. Its a common reaction to our complex and challenging world to shy away from knowing things. But I want to know things. I get the bad, the sensational and the terror thrown in my face constantly, we all do, but I intend to seek out knowing things that empower me and will enable me to help myself and others.
8. Dismiss the need to fill each moment of my day with productivity. The lofty hopes and ambitions of above are all good and well, but not every passing day has to be life-changing. I don't need to try and save the world 24/7, because holy shit, you gotta have some fun and some switch-off time.
9. Embrace the parts of my day that threaten to ruin my mood. Work at 5pm? Great! another chance to build my savings for travels, to meet people, to make customers happy and to broaden my skill range. I need to flip my momentary negativity on its head and see it for the positivity it really is.
10. Having less of a plan and not thinking ahead too much. This is truly a big one for me. I spend so much time thinking about how my current actions influence my future, down to the next day, week or month. Of course its a sensible way to be, but it also limits spontaneity and open-mindedness. It puts me in this little box where I limit myself for some distant goal instead of sucking the joy out of every day. It stops me pursuing friendships, fun and enjoying some of the fruits of my labours. You can plan ahead, but there's a healthy limit to forward-thinking and I aim to balance that.

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So many new years resolutions fail because they are based on moving from point A to point Z with no regard for the part in-between.

Instead of envisioning a better or different future way down the line, or the accomplishment of some long-term goal, envision each day of the coming week.

Envision how today, right away, you can be different, feel different, better, if you pay some attention to cleansing your mind, the true home where things grow, build and come to life.

Come on this endeavour with me, and lets take a moment each week to check back in with one another, over on our minimalism newsletter list.

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Thanks for reading!

Hannah here, one half of NomaderHowFar. I love reading, the beach, proper fish and chips, and a good cup of tea. But I mostly like to chat about minimalism, simplifying your life, the beauty of travel and sometimes I get a bit deep. Get to know us here!

Be social and come follow us across the virtual world!

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Looking for more minimalism?

The Problem With Hygge: A Minimalist Perspective

The Problem with Hygge: A Minimalist Perspective

If you haven’t come across the Danish concept of Hygge, just as I hadn’t until about a week ago (I exist in a full-time working Australia bubble void of social media), it's an emerging trend posited as an antidote to the trying times we find our society in.

Based on carrying out daily routines around creating comfort, cosiness and extracting pleasure from the simpler moments of life, Hygge is gaining lots of attention across the blogging world and is increasingly penetrating popular media conversation.

Search the hashtag and you will find many quotes and imagery across social media with scenes of warmly filtered contentment.

On the surface it seems like a wholly common sense concept around cherishing time spent with family, friends and deriving inner relaxation and happiness from doing so.

Who would argue against that, or, simultaneously give it a hard-to pronounce name that basically means ‘Stuff that feels nice and is good’.

Is Hygge worthy of being a trending topic or a bestselling book? Is minimalism even worth the attention? Probably not, even if some of us could do with being reminded of the peace to be found in simplicity...

And yet many people are jumping onto Hygge and it’s taking on a life that might seem bigger than the actual concept at hand.

As soon as I became aware of it, I felt the need to wade in and understand it, and establish if it can bolster and complement minimalist principles, because on the surface it does feel like it might...

However so far I have found it actually has the potential to take you away from the true essence of minimalism, and yet also, bring you closer towards it…

Buying into Hygge

This article comments on how a crazy amount of lifestyle texts were published on how the Dane’s have cracked the life-code, all churned out in a short period of time, despite Hygge seemingly being something I could explain in 2 or 3 words.

This happening really does parallel the trend around minimalism, the lifestyle obsession predecessor of 2015/16.

I myself even contributed an e-book to the conversation because I think it’s a topic that everyone can have a different take on, or be on a different spot in the minimalist lifestyle spectrum.

Hygge seems a little too simple a concept to warrant you going out and buying 4-5 books on the topic. But people are. And the people who sell the stuff to the people who are, are using Hygge to sell more stuff, as that same article proffers.

I am not so cynical as to suggest that there isn’t some comfort to be found in having a warm quality cashmere blanket, or furnishing your home in a way that cultivates cosiness, but, as a minimalist, I am all about creating a simple and equally Hygge-like life that doesn’t require your debit card.

A More Relaxed Take on Simplicity

Hygge seems almost like a mild resistance to minimalism as opposed to an expansion of it.

So much of minimalism is about having less stuff, commitments, financial burdens and concerns to clear the decks of your mind and your life, so you can place people, love and growth at the centre.

Minimalism fundamentally means having less of the tangible, with the aim of building an entirely individual and intangible 'more'.

It’s possible however that some people would find the process of simplifying a period of extreme restriction and stressful change, with the subsequent need to alter the habits of a lifetime, not a very warm and pleasant experience at all.

For example, in my book, I talk about how to keep your home clutter-free and one of my suggestions, is a 5-minute blitz where each day you quickly tidy your spaces in 5 minutes. The goal is to make cleaning a short activity for those who really hate it or don’t have the time to clean for longer.

Some people might feel this isn’t a very Hygge concept, along with other clutter prevention methods that form much of minimalist thinking. Its possible a minimalist lifestyle can appear too disciplined or rigorous to be enjoyable.

I would however argue that Hygge, and those moments where life feels wholly pleasant and calm, can be the very end result of creating your more minimalist life and home.

A functioning simpler life requires some upkeep outside those hours where you might just drift off on the sofa with a good book.

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Distracting The Masses

This article mentions the dark side of the seemingly light and wonderful rules behind Hygge living:

“The persistent quest for cosiness tends to deny the existence of anything that might ruin the mood, “the place where politics are set aside” — a dangerous state of being, when you think of the many things that do need to be discussed openly in 2016”.

This links back in my mind to how in my minimalism journey, I always viewed the transition as a way of rejecting capitalism and the manner in which is it used to distract the masses from the inherent problems endemic in our unbalanced society. 

I wanted a simpler life, yes, but one that cared more about being part of a broader and wider social change, around environmentalism and other societal progress.

I actually see minimalism as an indulgent and privileged lifestyle concept just as much as it can be part of a wider more noble and aspirational movement.

Hygge seems problematic amidst that world-view.

Accounting for Individuality

A cosy moment or life experience is lived differently by all, just as minimalism can be adopted to differing degrees.

Hygge can be a complementary concept as long as we remember that the things which make us feel good inside can range from running 5k at 6am everyday, to attending a protest, to sleeping in in the morning and having breakfast in bed.

Hygge is fine, any popular lifestyle concept of late is fine, as long as we recognize that life is dark and light, good and bad, hard and easy.

We don’t all need to rush out and buy scented candles, giant blankets and a sack of fire-wood to cultivate moments of our day that make us feel alive, whole and at peace. We don't need to live in a way, 100% of the time, that excludes the truth and injustice of the world just to make our day a little more pleasant.

We don’t need to bandy the word around in our everyday vernacular, bashing people over the head with how badly they need to borrow the 4 books about it on our coffee table. And that can be applied to Hygge and minimalism...

Live as you wish and cultivate your own personal experience, as minimalist or Hygge as you desire, but think twice about advocating a set of basic principles with your debit card. Adopt the best of all these principles in their simplest form, setting aside time for self-care, home, and family, without leaving your social consciousness behind.

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Thanks for reading!

Want more reads like this? You can now find Hannah in her own online space, Good Intentions. Minimalism, mindfulness, conscious living and self-love; all the good stuff centred around being kinder to yourself, and kinder to the world.

Be social and come follow us across the virtual world!

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Looking for more minimalism?

8 Ways To Simplify How You Communicate: Creating Intentional Interactions.

8 Ways To Simplify How You Communicate: Creating Intentional Interactions.

The journey to minimalism is not in itself entirely minimal...there are many facets of your life that you choose to simplify, or not.

For me it went:

1. Clear debt

2. Discard clutter

3. Consume less

I entertained the notion of leading a simpler existence, less reliant of money and things, because I wanted to become a nomad.

At first I very much focused on the visible side of minimalism, the noticeable changes obvious to myself and those around me; I halved my wardrobe, discarded trinkets and random furnishings and stopped bringing in more random stuff.

Over the last two years, I have embraced minimalism wholeheartedly whilst travelling, gradually learning to that I can live happily with less things, and love what I do have more.

I cherish what I have, seek quality over quantity and try to maintain a feeling of lightness and freedom.

An entirely different area of simplifying has only recently come into my mindset.

So, I have always been a rambler. I love words, it’s as simple as that. I love that our vocabulary and language can be ever-changing and growing, something we expand with age and exploration.

But I have come to realize the benefit of stopping, thinking, speaking a little less, and choosing my words better.

In terms of written and spoken communication, the value of less can still very much apply.

Our style of communication can actually hold us back, with an over-abundance of words meaning our purpose and points get lost in a sea of confusion. Sometimes we don't say enough in fear of what others will say.

For example, I sometimes lack assertiveness and directness in how I interact with others and I have been known in the past as the person who might mutter or say a little too much when less would have sufficed fine.

I have tried to overcome this, not by suddenly pulling inner confidence from thin air, but by thinking about how I speak before I do so.

I try to be clearer, more concise and leave no doubt in the mind of the person I am communicating with in what I mean, want or need.

I don’t desire to create drama any more, directly or indirectly, by either letting my words run away from me or by not speaking up enough.

I don’t want to be a mutterer or a mumbler any longer. I don’t want to make others feel like I don’t know who I am or what I mean.

Maybe years of letting others make me feel inferior or insecure in myself has brought me up to this point.

I have come to a place where I want to live intentionally across the board so why wouldn’t I also deal with the issues that prevent me asking the universe for what I want and deserve via purposeful and intentional interactions?

It got me wondering about how can I de-clutter the intangible e.g. from my thoughts to my speech.

How can I realistically still be the fun, chatty and interested person I try to be in a conversation whilst also being less wordy and more to the point? Do I not risk coming across as a boring person void of personality?

I really want to pour my energy into my written words and generally feel a little less overwhelmed in the creative process. I therefore believe its important to conserve emotional energy where possible, and help others understand me even better, to ultimately reach my broader goals in life a little quicker.

That is part of the reason for me simplifying my communication style, but it's also because I want to quell my tendency toward irrational and anxious thinking. I often go from 0-10 on a scale of worry and trepidation and it shows itself in scattered, fast, emotional and unthinking speech.

I no longer ignore how my mind makes me behave and defeatedly believe that my anxiety is a natural thing; I have taken the time to regain some control and assess ways that I can minimize its impact on my daily life, most prominently by fostering more intentional interactions.

I believe that I have developed a clearer mind and an even calmer life by simplifying my communication style; from shorter emails and quicker responses, to facing head on the conversations which make me uncomfortable.

If you feel it's time to find simplify your life even further, for whatever reason, then keep reading:

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8 Ways To Simplify How You Communicate:

Think Whilst You Speak

Apply the age-old idea of ‘Think before you speak’ but put a twist on it, and make it ‘Think before and as you speak’.

You can do this by talking slower, choosing your words carefully, not feeling as if you can’t take a moment to craft exactly what you truly wish to say.

People are often rushing, from one place to the next, from one idea to the next, and never stop to see what fresh inspiration can come from the pauses in breath we take between speaking.

Embrace being able to think through your ideas before and whilst you discuss them because in a conversation, new ideas emerge and your point might clarify even more in your own mind.

Write It Down

If you are struggling with a particular thing you wish to communicate with someone, write down some bullet points with a few keywords on the topic.

Do this prior to a conversation, be it via phone or email, and help yourself be efficient and clear in what you want to say and need to achieve.

Try to avoid mentally forming a long monologue in your own mind and building a sense of anxiety before you talk.

You needn't pour out a raft of information and stumble over yourself, resulting in your original message getting lost in a sea of language.

Appreciate Being Quiet

Celebrate the ability to be quiet and selective with how much you talk each day. We can expend a lot of mental energy if we try to be talkative or engaging every moment the opportunity arises.

Sometimes I prefer to sit and think more instead of externalize my every idea and whim.

Or, I write my ideas down in a brief form and I find I can return to them far easier later on, having not verbally put ideas out into the world that I then forget about.

I embrace how nice it is to just be still and peaceful, even in a world where it’s pressed upon us that we must speak up loudly and proudly.

Don't Paint The Silence

I am especially guilty of talking too much when someone asks me a question, in that as soon as the silence after the answer happens, I try to fill it with even more detail.

I think I'm just trying to stave off awkwardness or believe that the silence is indicative of my failure to get my point across.

I have learned recently that I do not need to fill those quieter moments, and instead realize that a conversation is a two-way thing; if the other person chooses not to immediately respond, let them.

Don't pounce on the quiet moment and recognize it as a natural and important part of allowing others to process their thoughts.

Keep Calm

During any heated or difficult conversation, listen closer, remain calm, and keep eye contact with the person you are speaking to.

We are all human, all afflicted with the same inner crisis and neurosis, it's just that some of us hide it better beneath a veneer of intimidation. But we are all just trying to appear strong to in-turn, feel strong.

The best way to ensure you don’t leave behind a conversation with words unspoken or ideas poorly gotten across, is to overlook the individual you are talking to.

Overlook how they make you feel or how you appear to make them feel. Focus only on why and what you are trying to achieve from the conversation.

What is your desired outcome and can remaining calm and patient help you achieve it more easily?

Don't Neglect Others

Don’t put off replying to those lingering conversations or messages and instead view it as if you having a real life talk, and you simply stop talking, for days on end.

Surely it can be pretty confusing for others, leaving that time for them to build up negative ideas in their mind about you e.g. so and so doesn’t care enough to reply, there not a true friend.

Sometimes we see a message, we put our phone down and it lives our mind completely. Then days pass and the message remains ignored. Often this is accidental, the symptom of a busy life, but other times we simply put off talking to people when we can’t predict how or when they will respond back.

But it’s time to take charge of this and endeavour to provide some kind of quick reply to each message we receive even if it's simply to say ‘I will get back to you later when we can properly talk’. The difference between a simply reply and no reply at all is hurting someone’s feelings or not hurting them.

Our fundamental human need for the interaction, companionship and the attention of others needn’t always be superseded by our supposed busy-ness.

Accept People's Differences

Recognize that no matter how clear and confident you speak others will not always deliver an equally measured response. But you can still retain your calm and concise approach, and you don’t have to lose your control to feelings of anger.

Sometimes a blow up will happen, and it will often come from you, but if we practice ‘Keep calm and carry on’ , on our side at least, we can stop things escalating beyond what we need to be dealing with. Arguments are often fuelled by passion but they can equally be fuelled by using thoughtless, unkind or defensive words.

When you shout, they shout back even louder and when you go silent, they press you harder. By no means should you back down but you should try to argue differently. Argue but argue in a way that is more likely to deliver a better mutual outcome than if you rally someone into agreement.

Life is too short to spend it trying to constantly fight with our loved ones and the change the mind of another when all we should be doing is living by the example of our own values.

Postpone Irrelevant Thoughts

As a chronic over-thinker, an anxiety-sufferer and a generally argumentative personality, I find it incredibly hard to shut my mind off. I find it near impossible to not play out entire conversations in my own head way before they are due to happen.

Newsflash, to myself, I am neither psychic nor do I need to take every thought that enters my mind and give it hours of my life. Neither do you!

I have gotten into the life-changing habit of mentally pigeon-holing a thought or idea. I acknowledge the thought, file it under 'Emergency' or 'Completely non-emergent and just plain silly', and act accordingly.

I don't need to map out conversations I might not even have or don't need to have until some future point. I certainly do not need to act immediately on my every thought because time changes your mind and so much of what we go to say or do is driven by a passing mood or emotion.

Practise acknowledging thoughts and then post-pone them; you can ruminate on any idea you wish, but only when its appropriate and healthy to do so.

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It's easy to feel powerless to the way our minds work, and its harder to change than to stay the same.

The way we communicate with the outside world is more than just sounds or performance; it can be a vehicle through which we positively change the way our brains work.

We can create the space and the peace needed to figure ourselves out and attract the things which make us happy.

It is possible to create a minimal way of life, one that builds deeper connections and more fulfilling interactions; we just have to balance the silence with the noise and equalize the thinking mind, with the quiet one.

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Thanks for reading!

Hannah here, one half of NomaderHowFar. I love reading, the beach, proper fish and chips, and a good cup of tea. But I mostly like to chat about minimalism, simplifying your life, the beauty of travel and sometimes I get a bit deep. Get to know us here!

Be social and come follow us across the virtual world!

Life After De-Cluttering: What Comes Next?

Life After De-Cluttering: What Comes Next?

As nomadic minimalists, we talk about minimalism in a lot of detail; from why you should embrace minimalism, to minimalism for beginners and the basics of de-cluttering:

1. Minimalism Will Make You A Calmer Person.
2. 12 Struggles of Minimalist Beginners: How To Overcome Them.
3. The Minimalist Life Cleanse: Stage 1, De-Cluttering Your Home.

I even wrote an eBook, Minimalism: Cleanse Your Life, Become A Calmer Person, a practical guide to simplifying your home, your wallet and your online space.

We all have different reasons for de-cluttering, and not everybody will want to become fully-fledged minimalists. For some, de-cluttering might have just been a short-term process designed to simplify on a basic level, creating a tidier and more organized home space.

But some newly established minimalists may want to continue to build solid minimalist foundations from which to follow their life goals, and that’s how it was for me.

So it's all good and well, knowing the Why and the How-To for adopting minimalism...

But what about the When? When you are supposedly 'finished'; you’ve de-cluttered, you’ve implemented new routines to make life simpler, and created an environment which will help you work towards your goals.

For me, when I was done with dealing with much of my clutter, I kept on going...I kept on reducing my material footprint and I kept with my mantra of not bringing in more low-quality stuff. I kept clearing my debts, adding to my savings and began to see my dreams take shape; I maintained a lifestyle that was aligned with my long-term goal of travel.

I didn’t enact minimalist principles on a whim; I fully embraced the minimalist mindset and resolved to never let it slide.

Okay, that’s also, all good and well, but what can you practically do to maintain a minimalist and simpler life?

Below are some key ideas relating to maintaining minimalism, for not merely keeping clutter at bay, but to ensure we can better reach our personal, professional and financial goals.

The 4 area's of importance for life after de-cluttering relate to being accountable for our daily choices to remain clutter-free, creating more fruitful and balanced schedules, building healthier passions and interests, and developing routines which help change our bad habits.

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ACCOUNTABILITY:

List your goals in a mindfulness diary.

Through my minimalism journey, I went from being financially fraught and lost, to taking back control and devising a solid repayment plan to clear my debts. To remain mindful during this process and to know exactly what I was spending, acquiring and saving, I began keeping note of all my spending.

You might already do this, and you might already live on a specific budget, but having a mindful diary isn't just about keeping note of the numbers...

I began my blog, which became the place I could stay motivated by sharing my minimalist transition. But you might not wanna do that... which is cool.

Instead, begin writing in a journal.

In the front of your journal, write your 3 key goals, the ideas that are on your mind right now, which could range from the small and daily, to the long-term and life-changing.

Consider these ideas:

• Which hope, aspiration or dream is motivating the decisions you make each day? Do you make choices that work toward these goals positively?
• Do you feel as if you are on the cusp of some major life changes? Do you want to feel more ready and able to cope with the up's and down's of daily living?
• Are you trying to accomplish a financial goal, or move up in your career? Do you have some time limits by which you want to achieve these goals?
• Are you hoping to confront some things about your life that you have been avoiding? Do you want to continue on a therapeutic journey where you can focus on the now and the future, letting go of negative moments from your past?

Without an outlet to explore my own thoughts and establish some focus, I was out-of-touch with what I was doing, why I was doing it and what I actually needed to do to be more fulfilled.

I was the most prone to impulse spending and over indulging myself, financially or otherwise, when I lacked a broader focus, or the means to hold myself accountable for my daily choices. I could walk into a shop and leave with 5 t-shirts and it wouldn't negatively impact my goals, because I didn’t have any!

Stumbling through my life, ignoring my stressors and relying on materialist escapism was certainly harming my health, but I didn’t yet know better.

Minimalism (and a lot of other positive changes) happened because I let new positive influences come into my life, entertaining new ideas and goals for what I could do to change things. I kept a solid note of my goals and these began to shape the way I lived my life each day instead of resorting to habitual and detrimental behaviours which worked against my quest for fulfilment.

Commit to spending a few quiet moments a day with your journal to keep in touch with your goals and quieten the thoughts that threaten to undo your new minimalist lifestyle; each passing day or week, note the various ways your simpler lifestyle and minimalist habits are helping you reach your goals.

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PRODUCTIVITY:

Create days based on balance.

I read plenty of blog posts about organization, simplifying and goal-setting, which talk about designing the perfect daily schedule. These posts outline how you should best use each and every hour of your day.

But often a lot of these posts suggest practises that I feel actually complicate your day a further...

Some of the ideas put forward can be a little unrealistic; setting rigid rules for how to plan and use each day doesn't account for those times where we feel tired, distracted, de-motivated, or uninspired, or those days where we just can't shake our mood.

We then feel bad for not actually wanting to be a productive boss right that moment...

Maybe some people find it helpful to plan out each day and believe it staves off these negative, albeit totally normal, peaks and troughs in energy.

But I believe it can be detrimental to our ability to succeed in whatever our goals are, without burning out, if we ignore the natural ebb and flow of our moods. This mindset can put us into a damaging cycle of perceiving natural dips in enthusiasm as proof that we are doomed to fail in our goals, or that we don't actually deserve the success we are pursuing.

To counter this, I personally aim to create balanced days; I do write 'To Do' lists, but only short ones. I aim to achieve something small professionally each day whilst also tending to my own self-care needs. If I wake up feeling tired and like I want to avoid all my responsibilities, I either take a brief walk round the block, watch my favourite Youtuber's, or listen to a podcast. I might do my laundry, clean the house or read a book on my kindle. I try to take my mind off feeling like I should be doing something else and just do whatever the hell I want.

I try to re-direct my energy to myself, providing the space for my enthusiasm and focus to return naturally; that familiar stirring of ideas and a need to create eventually comes back and I run with it. I might sit down and spend hours on a blog post, or look at my professional goals and set specific targets for that week. I might connect with people on social media or read some inspirational blog posts. I do whatever feels right, whilst also chipping away at my blogging responsibilities and goals.

The important thing to remember is that most of the time, the dreams we are chasing aren't trains leaving a station; they will still be there, in a few hours or in a couple of days. When we believe that we should be maxing out our 24 hours in the pursuit of our goals we forget that probably only a quarter of what we do in that time will yield actual results, especially if we are neglecting our self-care, our relationships or our health.

A balanced day is one where we don't force ourselves to do the tasks that we would usually willingly choose to do, because we falsely believe that our dreams will desert us; we don't turn our passions into burdens by valuing them above our own basic physical and psychological needs.

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FUN:

Embrace healthy escapism and joyful passions.

If you are trying to make minimalism stick, by avoiding temptation to consume or do things which are detrimental to your goals, the biggest issue can be boredom. One of the many reasons that we come to have homes full of stuff, unfinished projects and numerous distractions is because we haven't yet found our true passion.

When we do find a passion, hobby or vocation, we tend to give a lot of our time and energy to it. If we have a sense of purpose each day, one revolving around something other than consumerism, then the inference is that we are more likely to retain minimalist ideas and enjoy the positive side-effects.

But what happens when your hobby involves oodles of things?

There's nothing wrong with having a cupboard full of art supplies or a shelf full of books, unless we don't actually give time to exploring and enjoying these things. Minimalism isn't about having as little as possible, it's about having as little of the pointless and extraneous, so that you can appreciate what you love at your core.

What if you don't have a hobby or a passion?

This was me a few years back before this blog began. I always loved writing and I often wrote poems and songs, but because of the creative energy needed for it versus the energy I was expending elsewhere on crappy exploits, I didn't write as much as my inner creative would have liked.

The fact I was also surrounded by clutter and visual distraction didn't help.

Ideas to consider to help you get back in touch with what you love:

• What did you always love to do as a child, something that might not have left as you moved into your teenage years? I always used to try and command the attention of a room, spend hours writing poems, and I was known to tidy up a lot... in my adulthood these principles have translated nicely into my blog and my eBook!
• Did people ever remark on a particular talent or ability of yours? People often told me I should consider journalism or teaching, but I always felt afraid of these two particular routes. Thankfully with time and research I found the best outlet for my natural skills and hobbies.
• Do you enjoy experiencing the creations of others? I have always loved film, music and reading, but it was only this year that I discovered the awesomeness of podcasts and audiobooks. There are always more ways to explore the entertainment that appeals to your particular personality.
• Do you seek out escapist and simplistic entertainment when you could be seeking out interesting or useful knowledge? For years I visited the same websites peddling gossipy information that I could do zero with. I began to seek out things which expanded my mind instead of filled it up with random useless information.

For many years I felt like there was no wider purpose for exploring and indulging my passion for writing. What is the purpose of doing something that doesn't elicit interest or appreciation from others?

Surely being a part of the consumerist dynamic, partaking in the same expensive and outward pursuits as my peers was a better use of my time?

I clearly lacked a lot of self-confidence and was always trying to fit in with the world around me, pursuing the same paths as my peers instead of nurturing my inner truth.

But I realized later on that when we let ourselves explore our own mind freely, we learn that we have the tools for fulfilment right here within us.

Eventually my love for creating did become a bigger than just a hobby, and now I blog (and all the side stuff that comes with it) more than I shop or watch television. This blog isn't making me rich, but I find it no less satisfying to do; I enjoy doing it, and if I ever did make a profit, but no longer enjoyed it, I would probably stop.

All the little ways that we like to spend our time, from reading, to writing poetry, to taking photographs; we should accept that there doesn't have to be a grander purpose for why we do them. It's grand purpose enough to fill each day with the things that we love, and which love us back; activities which incur no painful financial or personal cost.

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PSYCHOLOGY:

Countering the behaviours which bring in clutter and stress.

This is probably the more difficult and yet most important part of retaining a simpler life; changing the habits which brought in our clutter and problems in the first place.

This article defines a shopaholic in multiple terms, from spending over your budget, to hiding buys from family, to buying more than what is needed, to shopping to eliminate negative emotions. You don't need to have a full-on shopping addiction to exhibit these traits, but even in lesser amounts, these behaviours can be pretty damaging to the simpler living ethos.

You can be mindful, tend to your self-care needs and develop healthier passions, but much of this involves changing your psychology and dominant habits. Habits are very much things we naturally gravitate towards doing without much thought being required.

Alex Lickerman describes the different stages of changing habits and behaviour; if you are reading this post you are most likely hovering between the stages of Contemplation and Maintenance, meaning you are either radically wanting change or you are wanting maintain your newly formed habits.

Hopefully by this stage you have already felt inspired to start some new daily behaviours which might help dissuade your old bad habits.

But our habits are formed and then reinforced, often for years, meaning it's incredibly difficult to unlearn them.

There's plenty of psychological work we can do to change these habits, but it's also important to reinforce new behaviours to form new habits, such as the behaviour of thinking through every purchase we want to make and weighing up our consumer decisions at the point of buying to help us evaluate a need versus a want. This increases our general mindfulness and steers us away from the impulsive habits which take no consideration for the negative results of excess spending.

You could also try to develop better habits around how you use and organize the things in your home to help prevent clutter amassing and items going forgotten and wasted.

We need to create some new go-to thought processes which stifle the negative habits that we want to let go of.

Here are some ideas for overcoming excessive or impulsive consumption that work alongside accountability, productivity and fun:

• Consider carrying your mindful journal with you whenever you are going to the places that usually incur random consumption. Having the physical weight of your goals acts as a reminder will make you think twice before you buy something you do not need or truly want. If we pour our hearts into honest expression and then we literally leave the product of that in a drawer at home, where its message becomes passive, we do a disservice to our inner truth and favour the impulse habits of our pasts and thus hurt our future.
• Anything you do buy each week (excluding food), consider putting in one place, e.g. a basket or box. Make it a habit of putting everything you bring into the home, that isn't a necessity or a perishable, into this box. Place this box in the center of your living space, somewhere that you will walk past it each day. This is a process designed to make you acutely aware of how much you bring into your home. This can be a short-term experiment to gauge the types of things you are prone to over-buy but it will help you confront the reasoning's for why you purchase certain things plus make you accountable for the expenditures you are making. This is an exercise in undoing the irrationality of impulse and over-purchasing; if we are wholly aware of the nature of what tempts us and able to see that we don't need certain things to be truly happy, we can simply stop wanting them, stop seeking them out and stop our bad spending habits.
• Write a list of all the random material desires which pop into your mind day-to-day. If you have been wanting new clothing or some particular gadget, don't sit and look at it online or mull it over, just write it down on a wish-list. This isn't a task that will take a lot of time but it will unload this portion of mind-clutter, allowing you to analyse your relationship to material things. This list might end up representing genuine needs for things that you can't stop thinking about after weeks have passed, your daily life lacking in some way for the absence of it. But it might also make you realize how fleeting your desires for material goods can be, compared to how quickly you usually act on these impulse wants.

By unpacking your thoughts and diverting from the habits your mind will automatically put into action, thus making consumerism wholly mindful, you can change the way you acquire; from buying when you are in a bad mood to wrongly defining a want as a need, you can transform your negative behaviours and leave bad habits behind.

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What comes after de-cluttering is a push to create something new in the physical and mental space that you have given yourself.

De-cluttering can be more than just a one-off act and can be enacted as an ongoing process where the way you live each day is fundamentally altered.

It's not merely about having less and spending less, its about finding something rewarding, real and important, more important than resorting to habits which have proven themselves as damaging to your health and happiness.

What do you do to keep clutter at bay and place your goals at the forefront of how you live?

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Thanks for reading!

Hannah here, one half of NomaderHowFar. I love reading, the beach, proper fish and chips, and a good cup of tea. But I mostly like to chat about minimalism, simplifying your life, the beauty of travel and sometimes I get a bit deep. Get to know us here!

Be social and come follow us across the virtual world!

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I'm writing an eBook... and loving it.

I'm writing an eBook...And loving It.

At the end of 2011 rolling into 2012 I was 21, working 2 jobs, living in a flat alone..

..a misguided move of living with a yucky ex-boyfriend. I was entering my last year of my media degree at Portsmouth University, whilst also trying to pay my rent. It was definitely a juggling exercise! When I wasn't working, my macbook and I were one entity. I was tethered to it, as I tried to create my final year masterpiece: the 10,000 word dissertation that fills all students with dread for most of their degree.

I was overwhelmed, buried in research, surrounded by 10 library books at any given time, trying to pull things together into something good. Something I'd be proud to submit, something that would get a 1st (which is the highest mark). I didn't spend 3 years working hard to not get the top mark. I was an ambitious little one. Growing up my dad always frowned at C and B grades, so I guess he instilled aspirations of greatness, over okay-ness. I am glad he frowned all those times though, because when it came down to results time, I did it. I got my bloody 70% mark and I felt all kinds of happiness and relief.

Me in the middle.

It wasn't just about the grade, it was the fact that I had fulfilled a dream. I had written something of substantial size and length, and someone decided it was not bad, not bad at all. It was a social science degree and included a study, so it wasn't a piece of epic creativity. It was a whole lot of quotes and interconnecting factual conclusions. And yet I felt like I was doing something which fit me, completely. I loved the research side, I got my kicks perfecting my sentences, and loved seeing a mass of words on a page.

Alongside writing something of substance, I also had some blogs of major immaturity and teenage confusion. I wrote about random things, like shrinking my boyfriends shirts twice and how it made me feel (yes really). An excerpt from my first blog (not a chance I am sharing this gem of a blog url):

Writing is my first passion, my main area of study at university and my only real skill (Although maybe I should let you be the judge of that)

I can't remember much of those embarrassing posts but I know that I just wanted to say something. I wanted to write things down and see where it lead me. I was a blogger at heart with no real niche or focus. Until Nomad'erHowFar was born. Now I write a good mixture of stuff that I like to think holds some value. Whether as a curation of my own memories, stories and experiences, or as a source of inspiration for others.

One of the things I have loved writing about the most is minimalism. It's something I brought into my life over the last 3 years, a merger of my dissatisfaction with my life and the meeting of a certain hairy hippy. I gradually began changing my outlook on life, and then changed my relationship with money. I feel confident when I write about it on here because I know it's all stuff I have done, and rituals I stand by to this day. So why the hell not put that into an e-book?

Okay so it's a tricky one, writing something that is instructional, very blog-esque, and nowhere near as creative as fiction. It's essentially self-help. Then again it's the kind of self-help that will tell you to stop filling up your home with self-help books...

I am loving the process of researching, crafting my chapters, and trying to create actionable advice that I would give to a friend during a conversation about minimalism. Helpful and motivational stuff, delivered in a non-pretentious manner...

Anyway, just wanted to say that when I'm not blogging, I am still writing, and I hope you will like the eBook I will birth very soon, kicking and screaming onto your e-readers.

My book is now available!!

Make sure to check it out :]

UK Store / US Store

AU Store / CA Store / SmashWords

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Thanks for reading!

Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at NomaderHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!

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Why You Should Give A Shit About Minimalism

Why You Should Give A Shit About Minimalism

Today I happened upon this video on YouTube,'The trap of materialism'

Its message comes from an ethical standpoint surrounding why materialism is bad on so many levels; bad for all of us and this planet. From the history of capitalism, and its seemingly unstoppable power, to the hippy retaliation of the 1960's, right to the 9/11 terrorist attack.

It is a scary commentary on the world we live-in but it does offer positive solutions that we can all be part of.

Up to now much of my writing on minimalism has been subtle and instructional, but I am about to get a bit more deep and personal...

We write about our travels here on nomaderhowfar.com, because our lives are about travel right now, but we could not have gotten here, without first changing our mindset away from spending our money. To list the most basic benefits of minimalism, available to everyone, I would say that minimalism saves you money, time, stress and gives you back control over your own fulfilment and happiness. Money takes on new meaning because it isn't for satisfying impulse spending urges but its for saving up to reach some bigger goal. It serves a more healthy purpose, and you are no longer giving your valuable time away in the pursuit of a consumerist buzz. Nor are you contributing to the acres of landfill taking over our planet.

Minimalism has seen a rise in popularity among many people in recent years, with numerous books, blog posts and video series based on how to live a simpler life. Alongside this has been the continued promotion of materialism to the younger generation within the blogging and YouTube sphere, through a new type of celebrity, the 'vlogger' and blogger, who share not just their everyday life, but most prominently, what's in their shopping bags. The minimalist counter-movement really resonates with Taran and I. We have both suffered the same disillusionment with the status quo, a dissatisfaction with being ensnared in the materialism trap. 3 years ago, I worked in a job I hated and my only reward seemed to be shopping; I was really quite unhappy with life, but buying things seemed like the only pass-time that might make me feel better.

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And when on occasion I couldn't buy the things which made me feel that i was fitting in, I felt isolated.

But I didn't realize the linkage between the way things are within modern society, and the way I felt.

I simply put my feelings down to hating my job and feeling a bit alone. This was a time where my life was just not that exciting, put simply. I was working all hours in a terrible job, earning crap money, which I then spent on, well, crap. What do I and many of my peers have to thank for this status quo and the resultant negative impact on our mental health, well, that would be capitalism...

I won't paraphrase the entire film. watch it here.

The general gist of the documentary relates to how capitalism developed into something all-encompassing and endlessly powerful; and now has damaging implications for the future of this very planet. Big business has honed its ability to cultivate a culture of desire and envy, via the rise of advertising agency's and their use of our own human psychology against us, in order to get our money.

Some part in both Taran and I, has always struggled with society and its expectations. I might not have been able to label why but I knew on some level that my life would not be as fulfilling and authentically happy if I didn't step out of the 9-to-5 consumerist ring. Taran, since I've known him, has never been materialistic in any way. He has probably not bought a single item of clothing, even when he might have needed to. He really just does not care about fashion or buying new shiny things. He is so in-tune with just embracing what he has, making the best of his things and loving them in a way that the materialistic world doesn't want to you love your things. It wants you to consume more, all the time, and it does not care what the social, environmental and emotional impact is.

And that is why you should give a shit about minimalism. Because minimalism gives a shit about you in a way that materialism intrinsically cannot and never will.

You aren't a kid in school any-more, where being a fashion-conscious consumer was ingrained further into your psyche through bullying and peer pressure. You have the emotional maturity to change things, not worrying about what others think of your 'hippy' ways. You can dismiss the idea of the jones's and the competitiveness of trying to keep up with them. In minimalist thinking, your home is a sanctuary, not a closet, and your hobbies should bring you peace and deep happiness, not superficial short-lived buzzes.

Your whole life course is altered when you embrace minimalism.

If you have less need for stuff, you have less need for the money to buy it. And if you are someone who despises your career or wants to leave behind the 9-to-5, adopting minimalism can help. Some of us are always wondering what our actual passion is, what we should be doing instead of what we are, and we basically stumble on in a sense of constant disenchantment....well I certainly did and I know many people in the same position. And I also know how much minimalist thinking can help. It is so much more than de-cluttering your house or putting a spending ban on yourself. It is a retraining of your thought processes.

For many years you might have become addicted to the short-lived buzz that shopping gives you and so in a way, you are trying to cure an addiction. You are taking on a challenge that sees you give a big middle-finger to much of the rest of society who will frown at you and misunderstand your approach, in a way that might alienate you. But they soon might follow. People simply need to see that there is another way to be happy, and it is sometimes the only way to find it on a deeper level, separated from the stress of money.

Minimalism is not a religion, nor a rigid set of judgemental rules. There is no minimalist heaven, there is just the present, one that you can change, and a future that you can guide.

#minimalism is the key to reversing the damage of #materialism. https://t.co/Niohj7MTBo pic.twitter.com/wdYORxW84p

— Taran & Hannah (@Nomaderhowfar) February 20, 2016

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By the way,before you leave, the original popular series, The Minimalist Life Cleanse has been re-purposed and expanded on, and now comes in the book below, available NOW.

Amazon UK Store / US Store / AU Store / CA Store

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Thanks for reading!

Want more reads like this? You can now find Hannah in her own online space, Good Intentions. Minimalism, mindfulness, conscious living and self-love; all the good stuff centred around being kinder to yourself, and kinder to the world.

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The Minimalist Life Cleanse: Revisiting your journey to a simpler life.

The Minimalist Life Cleanse: Revisiting your journey to a simpler life

Many months ago I shared my interest in minimalism, via a series of 3 posts, giving advice on how to simplify different aspects of your life to achieve a more minimalist life.

What Does Minimalist Mean?

The term has been associated with interior design, and the idea of having simple furnishings, only a few decorative details and a paired-back palette of colour. It was style that was focused on achieving peace, simplicity and functionality within the home.

These days, the word has become synonymous with a movement and a lifestyle choice, not simply a style of decoration.

Legions of people are retraining their thought patterns, steering themselves away from their consumerist nature, and just generally learning to live with less possessions. Some people go as far to apply minimalism to all areas of their life, simplifying everything from their social circle to their career choice.

The minimalism life cleanse focuses on this idea somewhat because you can't really achieve long-lasting minimalism in just one area of your life without giving attention to the others.

The series was launched a fair few months ago so I thought it might be time to encourage anyone who followed it back then, or has only recently found it, to revisit the core message of the series.

So lets take stock of where you're at on your minimalist journey and revisit the steps from Stage 1, 2 and 3.

The Home

• How tidy is your personal space? Does it feel a joy to be in?

• Consider your wardrobe. How many items of the clothing have you worn more than once in the last 6 months? How many items in there have you not even touched in that time?

• When did you last empty out your pantry or fridge? How many items do you have stockpiled which keep getting pushed to the back of the cupboards and never used?

• How many shampoo's and conditioners have you amassed, all with just a little bit left at the bottom? When did you last look in your bathroom storage and consider reducing you cosmetic products down to just your absolute favourites?

• If you previously discarded a lot of your possessions, consider if your spaces remain cleansed, useful and organized. Have certain corners or surfaces begun acquiring new clutter, or are you still yet to remove all the things you originally intended to?

• Are you tidying up more regularly, and if so, is that a sign that you still have a lot of clutter to discard?

Spend an hour moving through your home, and note any areas which need harsher de-cluttering; sort through the belongings slowly, discarding a few items a day in the very least.

Your home can collect clutter amid a busy life, but taking a morning or an afternoon to re-assess your space really can lead to much less stress in the long-run. An ordered space which works well for your needs will not require as much maintenance so will free up some time and energy for other things!

Read about how de-cluttering your home can benefit your mind here!

The Wallet

• It's all too easy to see the process of simplifying your life as an opportunity to acquire more, maybe to replace old and thrown away items.

• However it somewhat defeats the purpose to replace the things you have successfully gotten rid of and are able to live without. You should only be replacing things when the absolute need arises.

• When did you last create a budget, or list your spending? Do you know off the top of your head how much money is in your current account and savings? How far along are you on debt repayments, and are you throwing as much as you can each month, not just making the minimum payment?

• Consider the last five items you purchased (bar food). Where are they now, did they serve a purpose, and will they continue to be useful in the future?  Are your daily spending decisions focused on instant gratification or delayed?

• Are you making bill payments on time, and are you stretching your budget (if you've even made one) to last between pay-day's? Do you dig into your savings to make up unexpected short-falls or to pay for random indulgences?

• Do you feel as if you are getting what you want out of your life with the funds you have, or are you still making frivolous spending decisions that leave you wanting?

The way you view money and the ease with which you part with it will determine so much of the clutter in your life. Financial over-stretching, a home rife with objects and the worry of having little financial security, this can all be simplified and eased with more mindful spending decisions.

Read more about overhauling your spending here!

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The Mailbox

• It might be time to hit that unsubscribe button again, because somewhere along the way you may have given out your email address and are now receiving more useless emails destined never to be read.
• Stop ignoring all those unread emails; implement the 'read, delete, reply or move' rule, which is quite simply going to keep your inbox nice and clean. I created folders corresponding to different topics and I move non-urgent or follow-up emails to those folders, or I delete the email.
• Back-up the thousands of photos on your phone to clear the decks and free up some storage space on your devices. The anxiety attached with losing our phones is only heightened when we allow them to hold our precious memories in an intangible and vulnerable form.

• Review your social media and consider if you are really getting that much out of following so many people on twitter or seeing every post into that face-bay group on Facebook. Streamline your feed and reduce the amount of different subjects and people vying for your precious time and attention.

• Did you stick to the idea of only having the most useful apps on your devices, or have you been pulled in by appealing looking ones which now sit idle and forgotten? Delete any apps you haven't used for a month and move your most used into organized folders.

The nature of our electronic habits can lead to divided attention, split across numerous distractions. If we can reduce the number of outlets vying for our attention across our social media and devices, then we can get back some focus and true relaxation.

Read more on simplifying your online world here!

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The minimalist life cleanse isn't really a one-off act; it is a conscious effort and a way of approaching all areas of your life, that just like an exercise regime or a diet, can fall by the wayside.

Its important not to beat yourself up if you feel that maybe the initial thrill of simplifying has died off, and you are going back to old habits.

But it's also important to remember the enthusiasm you felt when you first followed the steps from stage 1, 2 and 3, when you tackled the many facets of your life which weren't bringing anything good to the table.

You can definitely get back to that mindset, one where your life is not paired down or dull, but enriched with quality objects, interests and interactions.

You can create a home and a daily routine that can be purposeful and peaceful at the same time, building a solid foundation for reaching your goals in the rest of your life.

Next to read: Life After De-Cluttering: Finding Fullfillment In Simplicity.

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By the way, before you leave, I recently released my book, Minimalism: Cleanse Your Life, Become A Calmer Person, available NOW! It's a more in-depth guide to de-cluttering your home, organizing your life, refining your spending habits and simplifying your relationship with your technology:

Amazon UK Store / US Store / AU Store / CA Store

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After more Minimalism Inspiration?

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Thanks for reading!

Want more reads like this? You can now find Hannah in her own online space, Good Intentions. Minimalism, mindfulness, conscious living and self-love; all the good stuff centred around being kinder to yourself, and kinder to the world.

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The Minimalist Life Cleanse Stage 2 [Simplifying Your Online World]

The Minimalist Life Cleanse Stage 2 [Simplifying Your Online World]

In stage 1 of this series, we talked about minimalism in the home..

Focusing some energy on stripping our homes of the things which really add no value to our lives, and only bring mess and stress, you may have began to feel lighter and less weighed down by your material junk.

Maybe you discovered beautiful treasures beneath the clutter, re-lived old memories, or found special artefacts to proudly display in your newly cleansed space.

Hopefully you took the steps put forward, and will take forward an attitude of loving the things you have, instead of bringing new distractions and items into your life.

Of course it doesn't take a day to clear years of amassed bits and bobs, but you have made a start and can continue at your own pace, knowing you have done the hardest part, which is to begin!

You might now feel all the more ready to tackle stage 2 of this series...

THEME: Minimalism in your Technology.

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Social media and the internet influence every aspect of modern life. We live in a world where in many western countries, the government is investing in high-speed internet; it is that much entrenched in contemporary culture, it's no longer just entertainment, its has become a right and to many, a need. 

The world of new-sites and online editorial content, is steadfastly replacing print media, and now most people stay in touch with important news, blog''s of interest and other things which they enjoy exclusively via the internet. It really is at the centre of peoples everyday lives and behaviours.

...so goes the sign-of-times saying “Home is where the WIFI connects automatically”.

Many of us feel anxious when our internet doesn't work, or we go somewhere without wifi.

Temporarily disconnected, literally and mentally, you are sure that you are going to miss out on some vital piece of information, news, meme or dog video.

It's not wrong to feel this way, it just the natural result of our constant repeated use of our devices. I personally hate when the internet fails or I am out of a free wifi zone. I feel adrift and like I am going to be behind on something everybody else is in on.

Why do we feel this way?

Many of us live out our entire lives online, reporting it all in vivid colour and vibrant language, whilst others build a career based on online creativity; the internet is where some peoples whole businesses are founded and maintained.

The net (I feel like I am writing this in the late 90's or something...) has somewhat replaced television for many, with sites such as youtube and Netflix providing an array of entertainment, springing forth a new-breed of celebrities in the form of Vlogger's and Bloggers; the online world covers even more niche's than TV ever has or could. 

The internet is there for all manner of weirdness, hobbies, fetishes, obsessions and escapism.

Despite most people agreeing on the usefulness of the online world, due to its potential for creating connections, fostering learning and of course building commerce, many despair at just how much we have been drawn into the inter-web.

And when you begin to look at your relationship with social media, your mobile phone and the whole world of apps and websites, you will observe the complexity of it, and often, the repetitive and dullness of your daily absorption within it.

I realized recently, whilst scrolling Instagram for maybe the 3rd time that day, that I was skipping past a lot of images. I was not really giving anything any real attention, yet I had chosen to follow these accounts at some point when the person or subject must have been vaguely interesting to me.

But this interest was clearly short-lived, and the result is me now mindlessly passing over things instead of taking a brief moment to un-follow these people, and escape from an endless conveyor-belt of thumbing over content.

So now it's time to bring back some more organization, purpose and clarity to your online life!

By the way, before you read on, this phase of the life cleanse is expanded upon, alongside the rest of the series, in a my new book, available NOW.

Amazon UK Store / US Store / AU Store / CA Store

Deleting Apps

Our phones and tablets will soon contain more contain apps than the actual app-store.

• Count how many apps you have on your phone/tablet.

• Now count how many you actually use.

• Delete any apps you haven't used in the last month.

• Re-arrange your used apps into folders labeled for their theme. I have 'WRITE''WATCH''READ', so I use short names which are fairly self-explanatory.

• Look at your most used apps again and assess if you can now delete even more apps, the ones outside the category you consider most important or worth keeping.

Unfollow

Maybe some of us are too polite (or lazy) to un-follow people, but really, when you look at it realistically, someone's follower count really isn't something you should be giving much worry to...

• Is it really that engaging for you or beneficial for the person posting stuff, to have their offerings ignored and scrolled over all the time?

• Maybe its time to cut-down on the things you give your time and attention to.

• Consider cutting down on who and what you follow....

• Twitter: If you still want to follow someone but are bugged by their updates, then just mute them on your feed! That way you can keep in touch with their updates in your own time.

• Facebook: The same thing applies here – you can streamline your time-line without causing any offence, by simply un-following peoples status updates. No need to see everything they have to say, but you can still check in on them now and again! And as for un-friending, well, I like your style, you're thinking big.

• Instagram: I am so guilty of scrolling repeatedly over the same people, and I never stopped to observe my behaviour. When I finally did I started de-cluttering my account, I un-followed lots of people and made it so I only saw the things most interesting to me!

• Myspace: Go on Myspace, re-activate your account, try to remember the now-defunct email address you used for your login, spend hours trying to locate this address to no avail. But once you do get it, login, and scroll through all your college friends, check out your pictures from those house-parties, and decide on whether that friend is displaying good HTML skills. And change your automated song to something more fresh.

Obviously, we're joking on that last part... how to improve your Myspace is in next weeks post.... :P

Clear Your Inbox

This is the virtual room that you need to de-clutter. It has shelves and shelves of things you have never read, or ever will....

• Yes, you took the time to set-up which incoming junk-type emails to automatically send to your 'Filtered' folder, which is the same as saying “Go here, you will remain in my inbox but I will not read you and you will remain there until the end of the time”. Tut.

• Now it's time to go and actually un-subscribe to those emails never read or which you no longer want to receive. Check the very bottom of the email, you will have an option to receive no further contact. Hurrah!

• Clear that spam folder, and your (now quickly filling up) deleted folder.

• Look at your other saved folders – are you keeping emailed bills from 5 years ago? It should be easy to find lots of things to send into the abyss of deleted emails!!

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If your online activities, or the mass of information stored in your own personal online accounts, aren't adding to your happiness, helping you, or bringing inspiration into your life, then, why are you giving them so much of your time? Time you cannot get back.

Taran has found that deleting the Facebook app off of his phone made perfect sense; he didn't want to keep finding himself on that endless scrolling spree, and so he fixed that quite easily!

You could take that drastic step, or, alternatively, follow the above steps. The more you delete, the more you will want to delete! Editing, refining and creating an online space that meets your own personal wants and needs is such a satisfying process. 

You'll realize that nowhere in this post am I explicitly telling anyone to cut down on their online time; being a blogger and a blog-lover I am permanently in the internet matrix, I never leave.... I am simply offering advice to help you enhance your relationship with your online practises, and make them more fruitful and fulfilling.

And if you happen to find yourself online less, or become more inspired by your new de-cluttered inter-web space, then you've taken a positive if unintentional step towards even more minimalism and simplicity. 

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Thanks for reading!

Want more reads like this? You can now find Hannah in her own online space, Good Intentions. Minimalism, mindfulness, conscious living and self-love; all the good stuff centred around being kinder to yourself, and kinder to the world.

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The Minimalist Life Cleanse Stage 1 [De-Cluttering your Home]

The Minimalist Life Cleanse Stage 1 [De-Cluttering your Home]

The Theme here? Minimalism in the home.

Minimalism is such a broad word for all that it encompasses, the meaning stretching across many different elements of your life and approach to, well, almost everything.

Your lifestyle consists of numerous different habits, routines, behaviours, activities and passions. Some of these become stagnated or so repetitive you sometimes fail to notice that they aren't quite satisfying you any-more, or adding any substantial value to your daily life. That is where stage 1 of the cleanse comes in. 

You are going to bring minimalism into your life, beginning with your home.

Why minimalism you ask? Why is everyone so nonsensically obsessed with this movement, what is so appealing about it!

Well, it's kinda like exercise, if you don't ever do it, you can't fully understand how beneficial it is and how good it makes people feel, so naturally you look at it with apathy and scepticism. And minimalism, well you can't understand the sense of clarity and peace that comes with the practice of de-cluttering your life until you yourself try it. And you learn quite quickly once you begin to de-clutter, how you never needed so many types of items, and so many different versions and options!

A good example for myself, is my nail polish collection...since taking off travelling I have had two nail polishes in my collection, a mint one, and a purple one. I am yet to finish either or get bored of them. And then I remember I have about 25 polishes back home, doing nothing, sat in a drawer. And it occurred to me, I definitely have no real need for that amount of choice when I can evidently be more than happy with less! I don't need 25 of anything. I can be happy with 2. And you can apply this same concept to your stuff.  

Having lots of things, or lots of options, has a lot to do with our commercial capitalist world.

Of course we end up with numerous things in our homes because shopping is a regular pastime for many people that means we inevitably add things to our collections that we already have, and end up with something in 3 different styles or colours. We pander to fashions and changing likes/dislikes in the culture around us, and yet still keep the old, the things we no longer consider attractive.

That leads to a cluttered mixture of things within the home, some never seeing the light of day. The result can often be a state of indecision within ourselves; what do we even like any more! 

We end up seeing our wants, as needs, and this has lead to not simply our cluttered home spaces but a whole host of other issues; overspending and debt, hoarding, being weighed down by too much choice, feeling inadequate in the midst of the commercial world and it's changing fashions vying for our attention and our money.

So, I want to change things. WHERE DO I BEGIN?

TAKE THESE 3 STEPS, AND BEGIN YOUR JOURNEY TO MINIMALISM, SIMPLICITY AND A MORE CONTENT LIFE.

1. Discard

DOWNLOAD OUR DE-CLUTTER CHECKLIST HERE!

• Start wherever you wish in the home. Choose a space to thoroughly declutter top to bottom.
• Put your merciless boots on, you are taking no prisoners. 
• A good way to think is, would I want to save this item in a fire? And go from there...
• Throw away, donate, or sell, all the items that you haven't touched or looked at in the last 6 months (maybe excluding Christmas decorations!).
• Apply the need versus want rule: You might want 10 different styles of sunglasses but do you honestly need them?
• When looking at fashion items, ask yourself, if you saw this in a shop now, would you buy it today?
• You don't need duplicates of items, old worn out items, things you simply ignore the existence of in favour of just never having to actually put the effort into cleaning and tidying!
• Be even more merciless than you have ever been before when you might have tidied your home. You might be holding back a little but you must be committed and positive from the beginning of this journey.

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2. Reorganize

Now you have less stuff, it's time to organize what you do have.

• Do you need 3 chests of drawers or a giant wardrobe any more?
• Could you get by with less furniture, meaning you can add space to your home?
• If you want a less cluttered look to the home, a shelving unit with spaces for storage bins might be a neat alternative to storing items.
• If you want to create an eclectic aesthetic, consider a shelving unit which shows off your most treasured items, books, keepsakes and photographs. Seeing the things you find meaningful each day reminds you why you don't need to acquire more.
• Minimalism needn't mean no art on the walls or rugs on the floors, in fact I cant imagine anything more inspiring and simultaneously peaceful than having only a few beloved furnishings making the home individual and comfortable.
• Try to order your things in the way that you can recall where everything of daily need is, quite quickly. A sure sign that you have too much stuff is needing to rifle through all your storage in order to locate something.
• Seek inspiration for storage solutions on PINTEREST. This is my favourite source of clever ideas which not only work in a minimalist environment but generally make life easier!

3. Regard

You've done it! Well done!

• You have created a space that is not only calm and ordered, but you have also detached yourself further from the practice of acquiring material things. 
• The less you have the less you need; this is a realization you may be experiencing having completed this process.
• Do you feel lighter? Do you feel like it would be easier now to enjoy your space, be creative, or social within it, and if you want to, pack it all up and go somewhere new?
• Enjoy it. Enjoy knowing you are giving yourself and your treasures, the space and the atmosphere to be happy and content.
• Take interest in all those hobbies or interests that might have fell by the wayside in the past. You have far less distractions to split your attention and efforts in your new streamlined space. 
• No need to spend half your life tidying! There's hardly anything left to tidy!
• Find pleasure in your new space. Revel in it. Love the things you have kept and use them well. 

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By the way, before you leave, I recently released my book, Minimalism: Cleanse Your Life, Become A Calmer Person, available NOW! It's a more in-depth guide to de-cluttering your home, organizing your life, refining your spending habits and simplifying your relationship with your technology:

Amazon UK Store / US Store / AU Store / CA Store

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Thanks for reading!

Want more reads like this? You can now find Hannah in her own online space, Good Intentions. Minimalism, mindfulness, conscious living and self-love; all the good stuff centred around being kinder to yourself, and kinder to the world.

WANT MORE?

4 Steps To A Minimalist Life: Nomadifying Your World

4 Steps to A Minimalist Life: Nomadifying Your World

*This is one of our first post's about Minimalism from way back in 2014. We have come a lot further down the road of simplifying, and we did indeed follow our nomadic dreams, and currently live in Australia. For more recent and expansive reading on this topic, check out the minimalism section*

Life is somewhat defined by accumulation; gathering memories of special experiences, meeting people and forming loving relationships.

We accumulate these connections when we are living our lives to the fullest and they are part of what constitutes happiness and fulfillment for most people.

The flip-side to this, is the accumulation of things, material goods and random accoutrements; many people also associate being wealthy and acquiring 'things', with happiness.

I disagree on that point, and so do followers of the minimalist movement. Many steadfast simplifiers come from big money backgrounds, who traded in the corporate lifestyle when they realized it wasn't the key to deep and lasting fulfillment.

An article written by Rebecca J. Rosen of The Atlantic interviews people who changed their lives radically and improved their all-round happiness and stress levels tenfold...

How did they do this? By adopting a minimalist style of living.

I had been thinking about making a blog post about de-cluttering your surroundings and your life, for quite a while, and happened upon this article which perfectly highlights the ideas behind my own changing relationship with consumerism.

The interviewees are consciously selective about what they do acquire, and seek to add only things with meaning and true usefulness.

That's only further spurred on my desire to Nomad-Ify my own life.

Nomad-ify?

Apart from seemingly inventing a word, I really mean, simplifying your surroundings and belongings, so that you are truly prepared for a nomadic travel lifestyle.

And if you aren't planning to travel any time soon, you can still follow these ideas, and achieve the same positive effects for your own life.

Wouldn't it be nice if every time you moved home, it wasn't such a stressful process, because you simply had less stuff to move?

How pleasant might it feel if your cleaning routine took half the time and you suddenly created a more productive day with time to spare?

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Step 1: Time To Off-Load

1. Pick a drawer. Pick a cupboard. Pick a whole room in your house if you like. Just begin somewhere. Choose the space which is stressing you out the most, or, select the smallest space.
2. Question your possessions. For example, go to the kitchen cupboard and question, why do I have 40 mugs, when I only have one mouth? Now go up to the bathroom. Why do I have 8 varieties of shower gel on the go, when all I do is wash it down the drain?
3. Before you try and fix everywhere in your home, really focus on the space you either spend the most time, or the place you go to feel relaxed. For me, that is the bedroom... I love having a minimalist and tidy feel to mine, it creates a really relaxed feeling in there. I have cultivated that by spending months slowly getting rid of stuff. Go over to the wardrobe or drawers....it's time to tackle the clothes. Get some plastic bins or baskets, and label them Charity, Donation and Bin. Charity for the charity shop, donation for those huge bins they have in supermarket car parks where you can donate clothes that are not quite good enough for resale, and then the bin, well, that's for the stained pair of comfy jogging bottoms you can't bear to part with. Of course the clothes you want to keep, put to one side. Also, if you wish to sell some things, create a separate pile for this. Bear in mind that we often set aside clothing we believe will make us some money back and we just never set aside time to actually list them for sale!

We're not just discarding stuff without thought here, we are reassessing it's value in OUR lives and whether these items are useful to US. When the answer is no, then this stuff becomes useful to others, or is just junk, and it's time to say goodbye to it.

RULES: HAVE I USED THIS ITEM WITHIN THE LAST 6 MONTHS? WOULD I BUY THIS IF I SAW IT IN A SHOP TODAY?

If you answer No, then put it in the chosen pile.

Pheww! you are already nearer to the minimalist life.

Step 2: A Shopping Detox

Is it a big hobby of yours to peruse local supermarkets or head into town to the shopping centre, just to mull around, even though you always end up buying SOMETHING. Well, you are now on a shopping ban. Don't worry, you can still buy food, we aren't talking about de-cluttering our bodies here (food is my one spending vice, it keeps me sane).

1. If you are shopping to quell boredom, find escapism or seek that momentary buzz associated with acquiring something new and shiny, could you be using that time and money more healthily?
2. Do you struggle to pay bills or are you unable to repay your debts because of what you spending on random things?
3. Confront yourself. Are you guilty of needless and impulse spending? Are you one of those people who comes home with several shopping bags a few times a month? STOPPPP ITTT. For a while at least. It's more of a bad habit, not a fun hobby; you need to see it that way in order to realize you can stop doing it so much.

RULES: DO I REALLY NEED THIS DRESS? IS IT OF SUPERIOR QUALITY TO ANYTHING I ALREADY OWN? DO I NEED THIS PAIR OF HEELS WHEN I LIVE IN FLATS? DO I NEED ANOTHER THROW CUSHION WHEN ALL I DO IS LITERALLY THROW THEM OFF THE BED EACH NIGHT?

Be honest with yourself, nobody needs eight cushions. 

Step 3: Make Money, Make Room

So you've tidied up, and thrown lots away. Now it's time to tackle the stuff you could make some money out of.

1. List items of quality on Ebay or gumtree (craiglist if you are American) and set yourself a target of how much extra money you want to make selling your things. If you a figure in mind you will feel more motivated to follow through on listing, advertising and selling.
2. Go to a car boot sale (or have a garage sale), and let your things find a new home. Just because you no longer need this item, doesn't render it useless or unappealing to someone else.
3. Consider if some of your things could be repurposed, like old furniture or decorative items, that you could then re-sell at a decent value.

RULE: WILL I BE USING THIS AGAIN ANY TIME SOON? WILL I BE ABLE TO REPURCHASE IT IF I EVER DO NEED IT AGAIN? DO I SOURCE ANY DAILY ENJOYMENT OUT OF THIS OBJECT?

Step 4: Envision A Simpler Life

When I clean or tidy, or throw stuff away, I feel physically and mentally lighter.

Whether it's all in my head or whether its my energy responding to something different in my surroundings, it brings a sense of calm and peace. I feel so much more prepared for my nomadic dreams knowing my clutter footprint is reduced.

The idea of travelling becomes even more exciting to me and the thought of leaving behind what belongings remain, incredibly easy.

As I witness myself saving money and not buying more random stuff, I imagine enjoying a day on the beach in Australia, where my last concern will be for the stuff I threw away; it will just be Taran, me, a towel and the sea.

What do you see when you imagine a simpler life?

What steps do you need to take to reach that? Maybe begin with the above 3.

Possibly it's about changing your attitude towards consumerism.

Maybe you need to take up some hobbies which don't rely on accumulating stuff or spending much money. If we can develop passions that are independent of our financial state, that can withstand times of difficulty, we will learn to be happy with less; less stress, less push for money and less financial commitment, but, more joy.

It's not just about throwing things away, it's a re-imagining of your relationship to material things; your happiness can come from so much more than what's in a shop window. When I felt lost and passionless, I also had massive debts and a huge shopping addiction. I was miserable and misguided in how I used my money. When I fully embraced the multiple benefits of a minimalist life, I did indeed find my dreams, follow them and start afresh.

Your bank balance does not define how full your life can be. It's how you use your money, your time and your energy that will lead to long-lasting fulfilment.

So take control, de-clutter, and Nomad-ify yourself.

Why? Because it feels really, really, good.

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Hey, before you go...

In 2016 I released my Book: Minimalism: Cleanse Your Life, Become A Calmer Person

If you're into minimalism or reducing stress, its really worth a read!

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Thanks for reading!

Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at NomaderHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!

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