Minimalist Living: 7 Reasons Why Living with Less Brings More Happiness
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Our ultimate aim is to be happy in life. However, sometimes we adopt a lifestyle that defeats this purpose. A minimalist living helps not only to attain happiness in life but also to make it more enjoying, less stressful and more healthy. Here are the reasons why living with less is a more sensible and better approach to life. ~ Ed.
When most people think of happiness, they think of a luxury lifestyle with a wardrobe taken right out of Carrie Bradshaw’s home or a maybe red speeding Ferrari.
But if you ask people who won the lottery, money does not make them any happier. In fact, the more possessions you own, the more stressful you are likely to be.
Actually, living with less makes more sense to be the way to bring happiness into your life.
You might have heard of the term minimalism. When thinking of a minimalist, most people imagine people living with just bare necessities. That’s not entirely true.
In fact, that’s a myth about minimalist living and it needs a proper understanding. I’m not talking about extreme minimalist living.
Minimalists are actually people living with less because they realize that it makes them happier. You can have possessions that bring you happiness but “more possessions” do not necessarily translate to “more happiness”.
Here’s how living with less concept works.
6 Reasons Why Minimalist Living Brings You More Happiness
Less is more sounds like a paradox but it rightly suggests that there is value in simplicity and that complicity makes life difficult. Let’s understand how and why happiness is associated with the minimalist approach to life.
The fewer things you have the more you love them
As you start collecting more stuff, you divide your love between your many possessions. You don’t get the time to enjoy everything that you do have. You ignore them mostly because you are focused on earning more to buy more.
Remember the first cell phone that you bought. Whether you bought it from your own money, or your parents gave it to you, it’s quite likely you still remember that moment. And the joy it gave you.
With the second one, you probably didn’t experience the same thing of joy. And this feeling of joy keeps diminishing the more you have the same experiences.
To experience those first few emotions associated with buying the product, you then buy more. But rather than making you happy, it makes you stressful.
This is why minimalist living helps you enjoy life more and be happy.
Having more stuff makes you stressful
Data suggests that the average American family is stressed about the clutter in their home.
People’s homes, especially their garages, are filling with stuff they don’t use. Some even don’t have the space to park their cars!
It’s easier to buy in bulk or be swayed by seasonal sales. But in the end, people don’t know what to do with this stuff. Dealing with all stuff on a regular basis makes them stressful.
On the other hand, living with less stuff and de-cluttering your house and mind will help you attain more happiness.
Indeed, minimalist living does help minimize your stress in life.
With less clutter your space is more cleaner
It might be hard to let go of your stuff, but when you do then your eyes will find the sight so much calmer. With fewer things in the house, you have more space to walk around.
Your mind feels relaxed. You don’t have to go in a cleaning frenzy every time someone announces they are going to visit. You can have guests drop in whenever they like.
With all the clutter gone, now you spend less time cleaning the house. This means more time for yourself and your loved ones.
No doubt minimalist living or living with minimal possessions is the key for maximal happiness in life.
Fewer things mean fewer expenses
Once you realize you don’t need to have ten pants, five coats and endless amount of tees and dresses, you don’t feel inclined to shop more often.
There will always be a sale sign when you hit the mall, but limiting yourself to fewer clothes means that you won’t end up throwing all your income into things that you already have.
You spend less money. You can pay off your debts, and finally start saving. There are lots of options out there but high yield savings accounts are the best way to grow your savings.
That is why minimalist living with less stuff is more beneficial in the long run.
Less stress means better health
In this era of consumerism, people often feel pressured to buy more stuff. They see their friends and family owning and buying more stuff. They feel that they have to do the same, in order to feel included.
But as we scramble to buy more, we need more money. This means putting more hours on the job and spending less time enjoying your life.
Eventually, your stress levels go higher. You end with up with poor health.
Plus, when you have more stuff, your home is a mess. All this mess invites all kinds of dirt and germs to your home. This might lead you to get sick more often.
However, minimalist living helps keep both your house and mind clean and healthy.
You are in control of your life with fewer possessions
If you are one of those people who hit the mall as soon as their salary comes in, you might not realize it but you are letting things to control your life.
You might even end up spending more than you wanted to. You could be running high on your credit card bills. There’s also a chance that you are living hand to mouth because you end up spending all your income before the end of the month.
Once you stop letting your possessions guide you, you get in control of your life. You will see your life running more smoothly now.
Minimalist Lifestyle – You Will Set a Good Example
Many parents complain about how their kids are not happy with all the toys they have. They don’t appreciate all the toys that they already have. They still want more.
Even when they do get a new toy, it gets ignored after the first few days. It ends up in one of the many toy boxes.
The child now wants another toy, and he is going to get it sooner or later. What’s happening is that kids are just kids. They copy the excitement they see on their parent’s faces when they’re buying something new.
If we teach our kids to value the things they already have, we will be setting a good example for them.
You can do that by encouraging minimalist living and kids will follow suit to focus on what’s more important in life – happiness.
Wrapping Up
Happiness is a state of mind. Your thoughts and emotions can bring you happiness irrespective of any physical objects or products that money can buy.
Minimalist living not only helps you contain your expenses, keep your home clean, be more with your loved ones, but it also helps you to mitigate stress and get in control to live a healthy and happy life.
Of course, money is helpful and it can get you things that bring you comfort and joy, but the secret to happiness lies in recognizing the limiting or saturation point.
I hope the minimalist living tips mentioned here are helpful to you to be more happy in life.
You do not need more (that money can buy) to be more happy. You can even achieve that state of mind with less number of material possessions. Living with less is a beautiful way of life.
Over to you –
Do you believe in minimalist living? What do you do to increase happiness in your life and family while practicing living with less? Share in the comments below.
Disclaimer: Though the views expressed are of the author’s own, this article has been checked for its authenticity of information and resource links provided for a better and deeper understanding of the subject matter. However, you're suggested to make your diligent research and consult subject experts to decide what is best for you. If you spot any factual errors, spelling, or grammatical mistakes in the article, please report at [email protected]. Thanks.
I must commend you on your insightful post about minimalist living and the seven reasons why living with less brings more happiness. Your article beautifully encapsulates the essence of minimalism and highlights its profound impact on our well-being.
First and foremost, I appreciate how you emphasize the connection between minimalism and happiness. In a world that often equates material possessions with success and fulfillment, your post serves as a refreshing reminder that true happiness lies in experiences, relationships, and a sense of inner peace. Your compelling arguments inspire readers to reevaluate their priorities and consider the transformative power of simplifying their lives.
I found this article very interesting and helpful with a lot of insight that I haven’t especially come across before. I don’t always take into consideration how much the environment around me affects my life, my actions, my thoughts, and more.
Wonderful! Being content with what you have will genuinely make you happy. Less is more!
From the moment we’re born, we’re told to pursue more. Advertisements from every television, radio, newspaper, magazine, billboard, and website scream to us on a daily basis that more is better. As a result, we work hard hours so that we can spend countless dollars purchasing the biggest homes, fanciest cars, trendiest fashions, most popular toys, and coolest technologies.
But we all know it’s not true. We all know, deep-down, that happiness can not be bought at a department store—more is not necessarily better. We’ve just been told the lie so many times we begin to believe it.
You have beautifully explained how Minimalist is a need of today. We are surrounded by many things which we don’t need, with less things actually one have less stress and more freedom. In recent years I have start loving this concept and integrating it in my life too.
Thanks for this remarkable article.
Romil Rambhad
True living a minimalist life gives you peace and calm . You can really live your life with minimum needs. No need to worry about many things and life is much better.
Absolutely true!!! Leading a minimalist life helps in reducing stress and living a carefree and peaceful life. Thank you for sharing this valuable information.
Very relevant to our current situation as we are stuck at home. And with everyone at home it does get a bit difficult to keep the house neat and tidy. At times I think do I need so many clothes in the wardrobe, gadgets in the kitchen and so on. I have consciously started reducing clutter.
Definitely embracing minimal living
I have been selling lots of stuff on ebay during this lockdown. As Bruce Lee once said “One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always run to simplicity.”
This is a timely article in view of our current world situation. Happiness is our ultimate goal however, sometimes what that comprises clouds our judgment and hinders realisation of what we have already.
Your points:
6 Reasons Why Minimalist Living Brings You More Happiness
– The fewer things you have the more you love them
– Having more stuff makes you stressful
– With less clutter your space is more cleaner
– Fewer things mean fewer expenses
– Less stress means better health
– You are in control of your life with fewer possessions
I find thee points spot on. What I would also like to add is that if we approach our life and our possessions with more gratitude we would realise that we can always do with less.
Living minimally is perhaps one of the most overlooked lifestyle tweaks we can make. It’s easy to do and the outcome is we can live more peacefully. Reduce technology, clean up the clutter and make space for the simple things in life. Easier said than done but a good goal to have.
Living without clutter and more simply can definitely be less stressful and easier. The move towards tiny homes also shows how people are making the move to a more simple life filled with only the essentials. I love how possible it is to live with just the bare minimum and absolutely thrive.
I used to live in a big house with lots of “stuff” or “things” but after giving it all away to travel for a few years, I now find I don’t want to build up that huge amount of possessions to worry about.
I have what I need and that’s it. I also find, it’s possible to have a few, very beautiful pieces instead of lots of rubbish that will break or be thrown away in a few years. I now have only items that I love and will cherish for years to come.
I run a strata cleaning company and I see the full range of ways people want to live. Some like to fit an entire mansion’s worth of furniture into a 2 bedroom apartment, while others have almost nothing.
The nice thing about strata living is that everyone can share the burden of a property and it’s kind of the same philosophy. Instead of each person needing to have everything themselves, they can share with a bunch of people. It means resources can be shared and there is less footprint.
I think, as humans living on the planet where we have caused so much destruction, we need to start to live more simply to preserve what little we have left.
This was definitely a thought provoking article.
Thanks!
Hello Jess,
We could create a greater sense of meaning in our lives, if we can just let go of a lot of our stuff.
We fill our houses with all of the things that we’ve bought and don’t really need, from the clothes pouring out of our wardrobes including the ones that we have never even taken the tags off to the random items that we’ve collected.
Whether you’re feeling stressed, need motivation, dealing with haters or struggling with a challenge or crisis, need to think happy and will help you to move forward with optimism and resilience.
Eventually, thanks for revealing a light on joyful topic.
With best wishes,
Amar Kumar
Absolutely true. The thing being minimalist is not about to get rid of all your luxury and barely have a life. As you have beautifully explained here that more happiness doesn’t require you to possess more but it’s having the satisfaction with what you have.
Thank you for this great article.