Why I Choose To Live Mindful And Minimally

My first use of Markdown. I miss the preview feature

* A Birdseye View of Vedauwoo, WY.

Living a minimal life means many different things and like most things, it's quite subjective. It can be as benign as waiting until your television burns out before you upgrade, instead of as soon as the next tech is released. Even simply downgrading from an electric can opener to a manual one is a step towards a more minimal life. I like to define it as living with less than what you currently have.

This should be quite easy for the majority of us American's to do, since according to https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20070426005614/en/Average-U.S.-Household-50-Unused-Items-Worth, the average American household has a minimum of 50 unused items, which can be worth as much as $3100. Considering I scavenge for a living and have acquired around 80% of my worth through selling or reusing the items other's toss out, I believe this claim to be close enough.

The majority of the clothes, electronics, toys and games I come across are in working order. Our collective psyche on average, does what's easiest, rather than what's right. We need to be mindful and control our naturally selfish urge's.

 A secondary beaver dam.This is minimalism perfected. All photographs shown are my original content

Living a life mindfully is something that takes effort. This is not taught in school's, since schooling tends to focus on memorization, rather than learning from being attentive to our surroundings and realising our affects on them. Here is a good article about Mindfulness;

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/mindfulness/definition

I have been fortunate in my 44 years living on this planet to have had many life experiences. I have experienced success, love, hate, homelessness, the threat of death, been caged for extended periods of time and many things in between, above and beyond. I have seen many an idea both fail and become tradition.

All this has brought me to the realization that you will not change the world by words. Reasoning with your peers rarely changes a mind, especially if there is little empirical evidence. It's also impossible to get a person who doesn't care, to change their habits and work towards the benefit of the collective. So you just have to do it and be a role model.

You are only as restricted as your dependencies and fears. If you depend upon yourself and don't fear the threat of punishment by others, you are a free person. I choose to live this way. If you cannot live how you choose as long as you harm to no one while doing it and receive some sort of punishment, that's simply a negative reflection of society. 

 *I stumbled across this magnificent piece of natural art while hiking off trail. The resemblance to an Egyptian Pharoah is striking*

This is why Minimalism for me goes much deeper than just depending on others or things less. It's about achieving complete sovereignty over myself. I have always been independent and growing up in extreme poverty strengthened this. We had very few items, mostly donated. When the radio broke, there was no going to buy a new one. My brother's and I took it apart and fixed it. My life was quite difficult, but it taught me how to survive. Our flathead screwdriver in the house was a butter knife, as an example of using what's available, rather than purchasing an item you cannot afford.

If I don't need money, other's services, roads, protection and I provide all my needs for myself, I have achieved complete freedom and you can as well. This is all I want and I want to assist other's to gain theirs as well. If I can create a clear path towards this in action, others will follow.

While growing up with little has been a huge influence and has helped me maintain a smaller personal inventory than most, it was my rather recent passion of backpacking, which motivated me to minimize my wants even further.

Growing up in Michigan where camping in the National and State forests is very common and accessible, I was always one to be a bit over-prepared. This is easy to do when car camping, but not so much when backpacking.

I call this The Goblin, which is another natural creation in Vedauwoo, WY. I only feel truly free while on the move, miles from any authority. Vedauwoo is one of my favorite places to experience this.

After a friend of mine moved out West and introduced me to hiking in the mountains, I was forced to search for a way to save weight, while still having the gear to handle whatever emergency may arise. This pulled me into Ultralite Backpacking and I started to acquire gear which was light weight and where each item has multiple uses. 

This then spurred an interest in Survival and Bushcraft techniques as a way to further minimize. If I had the skill to build what I need in the Bush from items available naturally and am able to gain a fresh food source, which I now don't need to carry on me, I could get away with less gear. I then started to use this gear in my everyday life and now am very comfortable living with just the basics. 

I am done talking and am now doing. With the invention of the internet, you can learn anything you want with a simple search. The main reason most people shun learning something new, is that they are intimidated by the unknown. If you get past this illogical, self enslaving emotion you begin to grow. You are no longer restricted by imaginary boundaries. 

So, Minimalism isn't necessarily living with less. It's living with just your needs, while being conscious of the impact your needs cause and minimizing it. This has been my method for living a more conscious life. 

The floodplain created by  Beaver's. They efficiently change the landscape to not only benefit themselves, but it benefits all the other elements in it as well. We need to learn from our sibling species, not write them off as less conscious beings.

I believe being more conscious is the key towards enlightenment. You will never be 100% tolerant, but if you are making a conscious effort to be tolerant, you are winning the battle. Minimalism helps you in many ways and psychological health is just one of many benefits.

When you give in to  materialism, a certain level of an oblivious attitude is needed. This can be equated to the herd mentality, others may use zombie or sheop to describe it. Whatever descriptor you choose, it's not a parallel path towards a higher evolved species. 

Here is what some psychological studies have to say on the issue;

"Our appetite for wealth and material goods isn't driven by hardship, but by our own inner discontent. We're convinced that we can buy our way to happiness, that wealth is the path to permanent fulfilment and well-being. We still measure ‘success' in terms of the quality and price of the material goods we can buy, or in the size of our salaries."

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"Research has shown, for example, that extremely rich people such as billionaires are not significantly happier than people with an average income, and suffer from higher levels of depression. Researchers in positive psychology have concluded that true well-being does not come from wealth but from other factors such as good relationships, meaningful and challenging jobs or hobbies, and a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves (such as a religion, a political or social cause, or a sense of mission)."

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/out-the-darkness/201203/the-madness-materialism

"Compared with their grandparents, today's young adults have grown up with much more affluence, slightly less happiness and much greater risk of depression and assorted social pathology," notes Hope College psychologist David G. Myers, PhD, author of the article, which appeared in the American Psychologist (Vol. 55, No. 1). 

"Our becoming much better off over the last four decades has not been accompanied by one iota of increased subjective well-being." https://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/discontents.aspx

"Compulsive and impulsive spending, increased debt, decreased savings, depression, social anxiety, decreased subjective well-being, less psychological satisfaction, and other undesirable outcomes have all been linked with materialistic values and materialistic purchasing behaviors." https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cant-buy-happiness/201403/what-causes-materialism-in-america

Do you agree or disagree with the information presented? Why? 

Have you come across studies, which shed doubt on the information cited here? Please share.

What have been your experiences attributed to materialism?

What are some techniques you use to gauge your need over want?

Any advice you would like to share with those trying to take the first steps towards living with less?

Thank you for sharing your precious time. Please be sure to make the time to get outside, record it to share with others, #PayItForward because someone has done right by you and help keep our area's clean by practicing leave-no-trace principles.