Every minimalist has their approach to minimalism and I am in no position to look down on anyone's approach to finding happiness in living with less because it's impossible to expect every minimalist across the world to live the same way despite having the same goal. Some minimalists are doing more than what we are doing as a minimalist while there are minimalists who aren't doing close to half of our practice and still, we have common goals.
Another thing we need to understand is that embracing the minimalist lifestyle is a choice and decision we made for different reasons and therefore, our practices are sometimes different due to these reasons. Despite our differences, I respect everyone's choices in life as long as they aren't hurting the people around them or the environment we live in.
As a kid, I always heard elders say "A man's food is another man's poison" but I didn't understand very well until I grew up and discovered that my way of life which I rate highly as a minimalist is a mediocre lifestyle to someone else and it's the same with how we rate others just because they aren't doing the exact thing we are doing.
As I mentioned earlier, we can't blame anyone for choosing a different approach to minimalism and what matters is our goal as a minimalist. Let's assume that the goal of a minimalist is a destination, Mr A can choose to get to that destination by land, Mr B by sea and Mr C by air; what matters is getting to our destination.
What am I driving at? There are different approaches to practicing minimalism and we can't expect everyone to live the same way as we do.
Despite not expecting everyone to live the same way, I think there is a possibility of being too minimalist and I have a personal experience.
Some years back, I unintentionally cracked my phone screen and I refused to repair it because it cost a lot of money and the cracked screen was still stylishly functioning. It got to a time when it would freeze or just go blank in the middle of something important but I still didn't see any reason to fix it. Once it starts misbehaving, I would struggle with it until it functions properly. It got to a time when people started complaining of not being able to reach me when it was necessary and it still didn't bother me.
It got to a point when this phone started frustrating me but I never made a move to fix it, it kept freezing or going blank for more than the usual time and I always battled with it just to make it work again.
I reacted badly to the phone freezing at a church program and a member asked why I didn't fix it instead of allowing it to always disturb and even distract me while trying to make it work again. Deep down, I was saving my money but I paid indirectly with the stress the phone put me through always.
I was keen on saving and enduring the stress instead of taking a permanent solution that would relieve me of the stress and pressure I get into while trying to make the phone work again whenever it misbehaved. Finally, I fixed the screen and realised that I had been putting myself under unnecessary stress all the time I was managing the cracked screen.
I started using the phone properly and I told myself that I had gone too far with my approach to minimalism, this prompted me to evaluate my minimalist lifestyle to know how to improve on it. From that moment I told myself that being a minimalist shouldn't cause me unnecessary stress or limitations, it should rather improve my life.
I believe a minimalist can be too rigid with his or her practice when their approach to minimalism is hurting them instead of helping them to live a better life. You can't be hurting yourself with your lifestyle and claim to be a minimalist because every minimalist approach should have a positive impact on them, not the other way around.
A minimalist hurting him/herself can happen in many ways which includes neglecting your mental or physical well-being and there is no way you are minimalist if these things aren't paramount to you.
I have seen a minimalist who doesn't have friends which is different from being an introvert. If a person's minimalist approach causes them to cut ties with everyone around them then something is not right. I get teased a lot when I do my things but my relationship with people is intact and I have successfully influenced many to embrace minimalism. No matter what kind of minimalism a person practices, you can't live all by yourself forever; we need people around us and that's just a natural thing.
Finally, depriving ourselves of the basic needs of life just because a person is practising minimalism is the limit for me and I wouldn't cross it.
As long as a person's approach to minimalism isn't helping them improve their well-being then I believe such person has gone too far with being a minimalist.
The goal isn't just to declutter or live on less, there is a feeling of happiness and satisfaction that comes with being a minimalist and it has helped my life in different ramifications.
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