How To Embrace Minimalism In Your Life

Learn what minimalism is and how to embrace minimalism in every area of your life. It all starts with becoming aware of your situation and get clear about where you want to go and why. I will guide you through a very practical step by step method that will help you get started in your journey and find ways to communicate with your loved ones in a healthy way. Are you ready?

Transcript

How to embrace minimalism in your life?

So before embracing minimalism in your life,

The first step is understanding what is minimalism.

And this is a great question because minimalism can mean something different for everybody.

But minimalism basically means identifying your priorities,

Identifying what's important for you,

And making those things a priority.

Once you understand what's important to you,

That's when you can look around and you can decide what stays and what do you need to let go of.

And I'm not talking only about physical things.

I'm talking about emotions,

I'm talking about habits that don't serve you,

I'm talking about all the things that are no longer serving you.

They are no longer helping you create the lifestyle that you want to have.

Once you identify what's important for you,

You create that life vision.

That lifestyle,

Ideal lifestyle that you want to create for yourself.

And minimalism allows you to really prioritize those things,

Letting go of everything that no longer serves you,

Everything that no longer helps you create that lifestyle.

And then by doing that,

You can create a more fulfilling and you can bring more joy into your life.

How to do it?

How to embrace minimalism in your life and where to get started?

The first step is becoming aware,

Awareness.

What's happening in your life?

And it's important to maybe separate life in different areas because that way is not as overwhelming.

But the entry point to really understanding where to get started is by understanding what frustrations are you experiencing right now.

Right now,

What are you experiencing that is frustrating you?

What is something that you want to change?

Why do you want to change that thing?

If you could snap your fingers and create something different,

How does that look like?

By understanding this,

By really allowing yourself time and space to really understand these things,

To really get clarity,

That's going to allow you to prioritize,

To assess,

To identify what's important.

Once you identify what's important,

Taking the action is going to be easier.

The decision making of deciding what stays and what can go,

It's going to be easier.

You being able to communicate with the people that you love,

The people that are around you,

The people that you live with,

What you need and why you need it is going to be easier.

And by doing this,

You are also encouraging them to share how they feel,

To share the frustrations that they may be experiencing.

And when it comes to communication about something that is common,

Like could be a house,

Could be how to use the kitchen,

Could be how to manage your time with your children if you have children,

It could be how to use the garage,

It could be so many things that involve the decision of several people,

That communication becomes essential to be able to create what you want to see.

But the first step is always awareness,

Always understanding how are you feeling right now,

Understanding the frustrations that you are experiencing and really understanding what is that outcome,

What is that desired lifestyle,

Desired result that you want from this process?

How does it look like?

What are you going to be able to do once the process is finished?

How do you want to feel?

Understanding all these things is really,

Really important to help you get started in the journey of embracing minimalism.

Okay,

Once you start embracing minimalism,

It's very helpful to divide your life in different areas.

This can look a little bit different for everybody,

But some of the main areas that we all have are your body,

So what you eat,

How much you exercise,

How much you sleep,

Like just taking care of your physical body,

So to make sure that it's healthy and that you have energy,

Your mind,

The mental health aspect,

The self-care,

Making sure that you are in a good mood,

Making sure that you are taking care of your mental health by doing self-care activities that nurture you,

Self-care activities that help you relax,

That help you express your emotions,

Activities like meditation,

Painting,

Going for a walk,

Could be physical things that also allow you,

Allow for your mind to relax.

In my case,

For example,

When I go and play squash,

That's a physical activity,

But it's also really good for my mind because it forces me to be present,

It forces me to be in the moment,

Right?

And I have the ability to kind of forget a little bit about what's going on in life,

Just take a break,

Right?

You can do this by activities,

By doing activities that are nice to you,

And that's going to look very different for everybody.

For some people,

That's going to be reading,

For some people,

That's going to be going for a run,

For some people,

That's going to be watching a show that makes them laugh,

For some people,

It's going to be juggling.

It doesn't matter what it is as long as you understand what activities make you feel well.

So you have your body,

You have your mind,

Then you have your family and the relationships with people in general.

That's a huge area that affects us a lot,

And that's an area where we can either improve,

Change,

Try to meet new people to do different things,

Different activities,

Or maybe try to remove how much we are doing because we are stressed or because we don't know how to say no.

That communication that needs to happen,

Creating the healthy boundaries,

Learning how to say no,

Protecting yourself,

Expressing your needs clearly,

All these things fall into like family and relationships,

Right?

And those are really,

Really important because that can be the source of a lot of frustration,

A lot of unhealthy boundaries that are draining you,

Maybe you end up doing something that you don't feel passionate about because you didn't know how to say no or because you didn't want to make the other person upset.

You get where I'm going.

That's another huge area for all of us,

Right?

The other area is work.

The majority of us,

We work,

We spend a lot of time working,

Normally eight hours a day.

So work is a huge category that we can all look at and say,

What's causing me frustration in that area?

How can I use minimalism to improve my work,

To make it more efficient,

To make it more enjoyable?

And then you look at staff,

Physical belongings.

And I also put finances in this one.

If you want to separate them,

You can.

But anything that has to do with physical things,

With money,

With like all the physical belongings that allow you to facilitate the activities that you want to do,

The stuff that we need,

Like a bed to sleep on,

A table to sit on,

All the kitchen utensils,

All the tools that you may need.

If you like sports,

All the sporting equipment,

You get the idea.

Anything you want to do,

You may need some staff to be able to do those things,

Right?

So managing that,

Storing that,

Like keeping your home tidy,

Keeping your home functional.

This can be a huge source of frustration for a lot of people,

Too.

Physical clutter.

And another one is like giving back.

It's like making sure that you are having time to give back,

To do something like be joined yourself,

Do something for your community,

Do something for a good cause that you believe in.

And by doing that,

You are nurturing your self-care.

You are feeling better.

You are maybe being active and physical.

So these are some of the areas that for some people,

Spirituality and religion is a big one,

Too.

So just think about your life,

OK?

Think about the things that you are currently doing,

Think about the areas that you want to improve and why,

And then think about the areas that you maybe are not doing anything about,

But you want to integrate them in your life.

Maybe right now you are not doing any hobbies,

But maybe you feel like,

I would love to make time and energy for do painting,

For sewing,

For exercising more,

For learning how to kitesurf,

For whatever that is for you.

You decide what that is.

So once you come up with those life categories,

Then you can use the awareness that we did at the beginning.

How do you feel in that area?

Try to rate it on a scale 0 to 10.

0 feeling really,

Really bad about it and a 10 feeling great about it.

So write those areas in a piece of paper,

Write the name and then rate them.

How do you feel right now in that area?

What number do you fall into?

Is it a five?

Is it a seven?

Is it a three?

What is it?

By you doing this,

You are putting all this in paper.

That allows you to reflect,

That allows you to really think about what's happening here and why.

This will allow you to,

In the future,

Look back at what you did,

Look back at how you felt and then you can compare it with how you feel right now.

Maybe you see improvement.

And then below that,

So you have the area of your life,

Could be body,

For example,

And then you have the rating 0 to 10.

Maybe you have a six in there.

And then below that,

You write a few bullet points of something that you need to change,

Something that you would like to do,

Something that you would like to stop doing,

Whatever that is for you that will make that area better.

Okay.

Once you have those bullet points in there,

That's how you embrace minimalism in your life.

That's how you embrace minimalism in that specific category.

For example,

Let's say that we are looking at mind,

At your mind.

That's a category for you.

Let's say that you rate your mind as a four.

You are feeling,

Not really great.

Okay.

So you have a four in there.

And then you start reflecting with yourself and thinking,

Why am I rating this as a four?

What's happening here?

Am I feeling frustrated?

Am I feeling overwhelmed?

When?

And then start asking yourself questions,

Right?

Start trying to finding out what's going on there.

Once you figure out something that you could do to improve your situation,

That's when you will write it down as bullet points.

For example,

I know that if I meditate 10 minutes a day,

It's going to help calm my mind.

By me being able to calm my mind,

I'm going to be able to look at life a little bit more differently,

A little bit more with more patience.

I'm not going to take this personally.

I'm going to be nicer to people.

For example,

That could be one example.

So one bullet point will be meditate 10 minutes every day.

And then you figure out when am I going to do this,

Right?

Am I going to be doing this in the morning,

Middle of the day,

At nighttime?

And then you try to make it actionable.

So you do this for every category of your life.

And then for some people are able to do all of them at once.

Some others are like overwhelmed and they just want to focus on one.

This is your choice.

You decide how to do this.

The order doesn't matter.

The most important thing is that you get started taking action.

You get started embracing the minimalism in every area of your life by assessing your current situation,

By becoming aware,

By defining what do you want to try,

What do you want to change,

And then try to take action.

Because at the end of the day,

The most important piece is taking action,

Changing something.

Because likely the behavior,

The routines that you have right now are not working.

They are no longer serving you.

So you need to create new habits and new routines to be able to create that change.

So that's how you start integrating that in the different areas of your life.

So just think about your energy.

So you have resources,

Right?

You have time,

24 hours a day.

You have energy.

You have decisions.

You have different things that you need to take action on.

And your resources are finite.

So how you use them,

It is your choice.

But you have to become aware of where are my resources going?

What is my time going?

Where is my energy going?

Am I liking what is going or I want to change that?

And by you reflecting and questioning that,

That's when you start making intentional decisions.

So once you understand what you need and you know what you want to start changing in your life,

You have to create the time and you have to protect it.

If you don't create the time,

It's not going to happen.

So you have to put that task in your calendar.

Maybe it's the meditation for 10 minutes a day,

Or maybe it's going for a run twice a week,

Or maybe whatever that is for you in a specific area of your life.

You need to put it in your calendar and you need to protect that like a doctor's appointment.

It's so important that you have to make sure that that's a meeting with yourself,

That nothing gets scheduled there.

Of course,

Emergencies happen,

But don't let anything get in the way.

Try to create that time and try to protect it as much as you can.

And then remember that the communication with the people that you love,

The communication with others is really,

Really important.

It's important for them to understand you,

For them to understand your needs,

And for them to respect you.

And then you can do the same for them.

Also,

They can keep you accountable.

You can let them know,

I am trying to do this.

I'm trying to change this specific thing.

I'm trying to create this habit.

Do you mind checking on me?

Do you mind sending me a text message,

Giving me a phone call,

Sending me an email,

Whatever communication you prefer,

But use them as accountability bodies,

Right?

And maybe do that activity together with them if you can.

So that's another option.

Use help.

You don't have to do this alone.

Help can be in the form of a family member,

A good friend,

A professional organizer like me.

Could be in so many different ways.

So you don't have to do this alone if you don't want to.

Okay.

And once you have this,

Once you have decided what you want to do and why,

And you are trying to create that routine,

That habit,

That's when the maintenance plan comes in place.

What is a maintenance plan?

A maintenance plan is a plan that you create to make sure that you are taking the required action to create the new habits and routines that you want to create.

Because by you repeating those habits and those routines,

Those are going to create the new reality that you want to live,

The new lifestyle that you want to create for yourself.

Okay.

That happens by having a very clear maintenance plan.

For example,

Let's say that you,

One of the areas that you want to work in is keeping your house tidy.

For you,

Keeping your house tidy means going to the kitchen,

Having empty countertops,

The dishes are always in the dishwasher or put away.

Maybe the food is always in the fridge.

There is a shopping list created of anything that you need.

So that's maybe what you want to see,

Right?

So your maintenance plan is to make sure that maybe once a day,

At the end of the day,

Maybe once every couple of days,

You make sure that the counters are empty,

You make sure that everything is put away and then the kitchen is,

That's the standard of the kitchen when it's finished.

That would be a maintenance plan that you will communicate with the people that you live with.

Together you will decide,

Okay,

What is the standard for the kitchen?

What is our happy balance on how the kitchen needs to look like?

And then you together decide on how that looks like.

You together define if the counters need to be empty or not,

How does the fridge needs to look like,

Etc.

You understand the idea.

You come with the standards and then the maintenance plan is going to remind you of once every two days,

I have to make sure that the kitchen looks this way.

In my personal case with my wife,

Samantha,

We alternate days.

One day she cooks and she takes care of the dishes.

The following day I cook and I take care of the dishes.

And our standard is that by the end of the day,

The kitchen needs to be clean,

Dishes put in the dishwasher or the dishwasher unloaded if it's clean,

Countertops empty,

All the food put away in the fridge.

And that's it,

Right?

So when it's my turn,

That's my thing.

I have to make sure that the next day when it's her day,

She is starting with a clean kitchen and vice versa.

That's our happy balance.

That's how we both feel well.

In your case,

You need to find what your happy balance is.

If you live alone,

You have to ask yourself.

If you live with others,

Make sure that the communication flows.

OK,

And guys,

This is how you can embrace minimalism in your life.

This is the recipe that I invite you to follow.

I hope this was valuable.

We can dive deeper into every area way more,

But the schematic is the same.

The structure is going to be the same in every area.

Defining what is minimalism and really understanding how powerful of a tool it is,

Becoming aware of the situation.

What's happening right now?

What do you want to have to change?

What do you want to see?

What is that transformation?

OK,

What is your life vision?

What do you want to see at the end of the process?

The communication.

Make sure that you communicate that with the people that surround you.

Then take the action,

Declare it,

Let go of everything that no longer saves you and organize things,

Create systems,

Create new processes and then involve others.

Don't forget to involve others and always ask for feedback.

Get help if you need it and then create a maintenance plan to make sure that you are repeating the habits,

The routines,

The new habits and routines that you are talking about.

The new habits and routines that you are trying to form and they will take a few weeks to become automatic.

For some people it's going to be 21 days,

For some other people it's going to be 90 days.

The longer you have been doing something a specific way,

The longer it may take for you to let go of that and create something new because you are so used and so familiar to that specific process that starting something new is not going to happen automatically in a day or two.

It's just going to take a little bit of time and that's when accountability,

That's when having help,

That's when having that visual reminder of your bullet points with how you feel,

How you rated that area of your life,

The things that you wanted to change is so important.

Because you can look at that,

You can reflect about it,

You can remind yourself of why you wanted these things and then you can hopefully keep pushing through the discomfort of creating that new habit.

Okay?

So guys,

I hope that this was helpful.

Let me know what's coming up for you.

Let me know what your biggest takeaway was about this lesson of today about how to embrace minimalism in your life.

My name is Emilio Jose Garcia,

Here to serve you.

If you need anything,

You know where to find me.

Adios,

Guys.

Reviews

Some good helpful tips. I will listen again when I’m more motivated. 🙏

Thank you 😊. I am deeply grateful to you for the work you do. I have been using your talks to listen to with my morning tea. There's always something to consider that starts my day right. I am working towards a life that doesn't include overwhelm and your talks are helping me get there. Thank you.

Emilio: Bien cocito. My balance: A home should be clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy. 😀☯️

Happy balance! That is what I am looking for! Thanks Emilio ⭐️ 🌞

That was awesome thank you so much!

I've been a habitual straightener, purger, reorganizer all of my life. Mostly it serves my family and I well. Its gratifying to have, enjoy and to get positive remarks from visitors to our home.
My only 'complaint' is that it can become an obsession and disturbing when not done!
My family strives to maintain this standard too...its gratifying to hear them them say to others, that I 'hold the bar high'....but gently or it becomes admonishing.
Praise to minimalism!
Thank you for addressing this topic. I have at least two good friends who could benefit from a listen....hoping it leads to action!

Thank you 🙏💚

Thank you, this is very enlightening ❤️

Excellent organizational help. Thank you. ☮️💟🕉

Thanks for the inspiring talk and great strategies to get started!

Nice tips, encouragement & especially the time frames!

I wish my hubby and 14yr old daughter would care enough to follow a maintenance plan. Getting them to close cupboards and at least get dishes into the sink is a power struggle daily around here. We did recently move, and a lot of stuff “magically” disappeared. Like half our dish ware 🤷‍♀️. Now it’s, wash the dishes or there aren’t enough for dinner service 😋