Will A Minimalist Lifestyle Make Me Happy?

Want to learn how to live a minimalist lifestyle? Will a minimalist lifestyle make you happy? You have come to the right place. Simple living can be transformative to your happiness in life, and I'll explain three easy things you can do to adopt a minimalist lifestyle.

Please note: This audio is ripped from a video blog.

Transcript

Will a minimalist lifestyle make me happy?

Well,

As someone who practices minimalism in my daily life more and more these days,

I have quite a bit of insight to share with you on this topic.

Great question.

And welcome to Jaren Lucas live.

This is my live show on YouTube.

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Hit me up in the chat.

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Click the notification bell so that you catch future episodes live and can chat with me there.

And thank you everyone who's tuning in now.

Let's do this.

So where I want to start off with today in this episode is I want to give you a few Taoist quotes from Lao Tzu.

Because Lao Tzu and Taoism,

For those of you who maybe haven't studied it yet,

I know this is something that it really took me a long time to start to take it seriously,

And I kind of found out that it's like the entire truth based on my own personal meditation experience.

So Lao Tzu says,

Simplicity,

Patience,

Compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and thoughts,

You return to the source of being.

He also says in another quote of his,

By the way,

I'll put a link after the videos over to the entire Tao Te Ching,

Which is only about two hours long to listen to,

And it's really good.

It's really all about how to live a happy life and be an honest leader.

So he says here in dwelling,

Live close to the ground.

In thinking,

Keep to the simple.

In conflict,

Be fair and generous.

In governing,

Don't try to control.

In work,

Do what you enjoy.

In family life,

Be completely present.

And that right there,

I think gets to the heart of what anyone who's starting to practice minimalism is trying to achieve.

And it also provides some,

Some simple rules in getting there,

Right?

It actually kind of starts off that way.

So anyone who is practicing a minimalist lifestyle is generally doing so for one of a few reasons,

First off,

There might be the more economical reason,

You know,

One of the trends that's really been growing on YouTube lately is financial minimalism,

And I expect that that trend will only grow if and when,

And I can't even say if,

When another recession happens,

Financial minimalism will grow.

It's really going to force people to reconsider their lives and what they're striving for,

And that starts to lead into another reason why people often practice minimalism,

Which is to get rid of distractions and live according to simplicity,

Be happy all the time,

Kill all these things that are causing you stress in your life.

That's one of the main reasons why I do it.

And I'm going to go into that more in this video,

As well as something to be aware of as you start to practice minimalism,

You can,

There's,

There is a wrong way to practice it too.

And so we're going to talk about both,

You know,

How you can live a new minimalist lifestyle in a positive way that brings you happiness,

Has all these major benefits for you,

But also how you can live a new,

Minimalist lifestyle that brings you happiness,

Has all these major benefits for you,

Allows you to be free.

That's really what this is about.

What a lot of people are talking about in make money,

Quick videos on YouTube is like find financial freedom and financial freedom is important,

But one of the easiest ways to do it is actually to stop trying to impress other people and live simply,

Stop buying things.

Eat all the food that you buy.

Eat all the food that you buy.

And so that's what minimalism is.

It's part of a minimalist lifestyle.

And even if you have the money to do otherwise,

What you find,

What I have found is that as I live more and more simple and I'm finding more and more ways to live minimalistically.

I don't think I've actually heard someone ever say that word out loud minimalistically.

It sounds kind of nice,

Right?

It's just that what you're doing is you're going through your day and you're finding like,

How can I stop using so much packaging that I'm going to throw into the trash?

That's like one of the best ways,

By the way,

If you're just starting to think about living this way,

Give yourself a challenge.

This is what I've done.

And what you do is you just kind of go throughout your day and you look at like,

Okay,

Like,

Could I,

Like when you go to the grocery store,

I know I learned from my parents that I would always put the fruits like bananas into a plastic bag to keep it clean,

Even though bananas by nature come with something that keep them clean.

Um,

So just like get rid of the plastic bag,

Don't use it.

Um,

And then as you start kind of going more and more,

You're,

You're really looking at like,

What can you get rid of one of the,

The great rules that people live by,

I mean,

This is,

This is extreme minimalism here.

If you want to live extreme minimalism,

Uh,

I don't quite live extreme minimalism,

I just live minimalism.

But,

Um,

You can say,

You can look forward 30 days.

Am I going to use this in 30 days?

This is for any item in your house.

You say,

Am I going to use this in the next 30 days?

And then you say,

Have I used it in the last 30 days?

And if the answer is no to both,

You throw it out or give it away or whatever.

And that's pretty good.

Um,

I think my year,

My rule is two years,

So a little bit different than extreme minimalist,

Uh,

But you know,

There are so many things,

Just go look through your house and see how many things that you haven't used in two years and you won't use in the next two years and,

Uh,

Clothes is a great place to start.

But as you go through all of these things,

What you're,

You're,

You're getting rid of these things that are holding you down,

Their,

Their attachments as,

Uh,

As you hear people talk about in,

Uh,

Belief systems like Buddhism and Hinduism and Taoism and pretty much all the,

All the Eastern philosophies talk about this.

And,

And attachments are very important.

I'll probably do another video on that soon if you're interested.

So,

Uh,

First,

Let me know in the comments,

If I should do a video on that.

Second,

If you're watching this video,

Thank you,

Hit the like button.

So more people see it.

That tells Google's algorithm to show it to more people on YouTube.

And finally,

If you're watching live,

Uh,

Talk to me in the comments,

If you have opinions,

If you're living minimalistically and,

Uh,

Or,

You know,

If you just want to say what's up.

So we've covered two things so far,

Two ways that people,

Um,

Like reasons why they live minimalistically.

So one is financial minimalism.

Graham Stefan on YouTube is talking a lot about that lately.

Second is finding inner happiness.

And the third is more around having the ability to travel,

The ability to have a physical freedom.

And,

And that's very powerful too,

Because,

You know,

When you have a lot of things and they cost you a lot of money,

Um,

One,

It is harder to move for longer periods.

And two,

You,

You start to say to yourself like,

Okay,

Well,

I'd like to go spend two months in a tropical place,

But I'm paying $1,

200 for my car and $5,

000 from my house.

It's not how much I'm paying for my house,

But that's an example.

Um,

The,

You know,

You,

And you're paying all this a month.

It's hard to justify going to these other places.

So it,

It,

It starts to tie you down.

And then that's the seed of unhappiness because now you've got this desire to travel,

Which by the way,

Getting rid of desires is all kind of part of this too,

But you're,

You're planting these seeds of negativity that are going to grow.

So I think,

Well,

Not I think history has shown for thousands of centuries that simplicity,

Minimalism work and,

And like Lao Tzu says here in dwelling,

Live close to the ground in thinking,

Keep to the simple.

Those are,

Are very powerful.

And,

And the first really comes down to how,

How do you live in your own life?

One of the things that,

Um,

Lao Tzu talks about in,

In Taoism is this idea of,

Of this idea of not having desires.

And,

And that's really getting to the heart of maybe something to strive for as,

As you're practicing minimalism.

So it's,

It's,

It's not even something to strive for.

It's like a fundamental part of it.

Right.

Because,

Uh,

What you're constantly doing is you're saying,

Like,

Instead of saying like,

I'd rather have that other person's house,

Like the other day,

To be completely honest,

I used to be jealous of people who had more financial success than me.

And that was a painful place to be in because at the time there's nothing that I wanted more,

You know,

I've been an entrepreneur for about 10 years.

I was an investment banker before that.

And,

Um,

You know,

Especially in those early days when I had nothing and I was.

Striving to be this billionaire who,

You know,

Wanted,

I wanted prestige and all these things and Lao Tzu really talks about getting rid of all of those desires.

Specifically,

It's actually funny when you read the book because,

Um,

Those are he like,

He names them out and,

And that,

That means like,

You know,

Maybe you felt this,

Those of you who are watching,

But it means that they're very common.

So most people are living in a state,

If I,

If I can extrapolate from how I felt back then,

Most people are living in a state of constant disappointment with them,

With themselves,

They're living in a state of not having enough.

You're there's always,

They're looking at.

What did their friend get that they did it?

Or what did someone achieve that they haven't achieved?

And,

And are they even worthy as a person because they haven't done everything that a human can possibly do.

And what we find is that a lot of those people at the top,

They're in that same struggle,

They've achieved a lot,

But they're still,

This is,

This is why I've been thinking about doing a video called our billionaires happy,

And it's something I've been studying because I w I wanted to find out,

You know,

Kind of enter the mind of,

Of some of these people.

And understand did money for them.

I mean,

If you have a hundred million dollars in the bank,

You,

You do have fine pure financial freedom,

But financial freedom is something it's a feeling.

You could have a thousand dollars and you could have financial freedom if you are feeling free and,

And that's the place where meditation can take us.

So a big part of living a minimalist lifestyle is meditation.

And in particular,

I recommend transcendental meditation,

Although you can practice many kinds,

But the most important part of it is getting to this point of pure consciousness where,

And this is a big thing that you hear a lot of people who practice minimalism talk about.

You get to this point of,

Of infinite nothingness.

And if you've ever,

If you've ever felt that before,

Let me know in the comments,

But what you find is that people who are practicing a lot of these really more like transcendental meditation,

I find people who are practicing that experience this more than Buddhist meditation.

Although there are many kinds of Buddhist meditation,

So I don't want to take that.

I don't want to be unfair,

But when you get to that point,

What you start to see is that I have everything I need.

I am great where I am.

You become thankful for everything you have.

So instead of looking at what are other people's successes and start beating yourself up over why you don't have them,

You start looking at what are other people's successes and start beating yourself up over why you don't have them.

Now you begin to not only be happy for them,

But you begin to be thankful for,

For where you're at.

You just enjoy the experience that you've been given.

And there's a lot of stuff that's outside of our control.

There's also things that we're supposed to learn.

The reason why we're actually here is this minimalism is all part of the process of growth so that we can have fulfillment in our,

Inside ourselves.

So when we're,

When we're striving,

Striving,

Striving,

Striving,

We,

Nothing's ever enough.

There's always someone who did something wrong.

It could be an employee or a partner or a boss or anyone.

So there's the striving element of it that causes never ending suffering.

There is the,

You know,

You are always comparing yourself.

So you're comparing yourself to what,

To others,

You're comparing yourself to what you should be.

So this is,

This is really all a mentality of getting,

Getting rid of that and practicing that in every part of your life.

So when we go into minimalism and the minimalist lifestyle,

You know,

We're,

We're in a practice of,

Of letting go of things that are hard to let go of.

And in doing that,

We,

We become happier.

The set,

It's a relief.

You know,

The second you actually let go of that t-shirt that you haven't worn in five years,

Just do that today,

Please,

For the love of God,

You're never going to wear it again.

And when you do that though,

You,

You feel the freedom that,

That that's really what,

What it's all about.

You know,

Taoism also talks about,

Taoism is like something I'm doing a deep dive on right now.

So you're going to hear me talking a lot about it on this channel right now.

They talk a lot about not striving for success.

So it's,

It's,

It's kind of like the person to the person who constantly strives for success,

Success never comes.

And to the person who doesn't strive for success always has success.

And,

And I just want to point out like,

You know,

You,

Yeah,

You could say that,

Um,

You know,

Okay,

Someone who doesn't strive for the ultimate success may never become a billionaire.

And,

Uh,

But maybe they will.

I know,

Uh,

Lots of very conscious people who,

Who achieve great things.

But when you look at the majority of them,

They're clearly not,

They're clearly not,

They're,

They're always talking about,

I mean,

I,

This is something I've I've spent quite a bit of time studying.

And when you listen to most billionaires speak,

They are saying they're comparing like they own an NBA team because it,

It was kind of like a trophy in a way.

It allowed them to dominate life.

It allowed them to show other people how great they are.

And,

And that,

When you really enter the mind of someone who's living that way,

It doesn't mean they're a bad person.

And it also,

They also may be more generous than the rest of us,

But,

But those are the seeds of unhappiness because as soon as someone has more than you,

As soon as someone has a bigger yacht,

Or as soon as you've met anyone in the Royal family who's worth $1.

5 billion,

Trillion dollars,

The Royal family of Saudi Arabia is worth $1.

5 trillion dollars.

And that number is from a few years ago.

So it's probably higher now.

You know,

There,

There's a big ego game that people play in business.

That's all around,

Like,

I want to do a bigger deal.

I want to buy the biggest companies.

Think about if you're in a private equity or something like that.

And you're saying like,

I got to,

I want to,

People are in private equity right now or buying casinos in Las Vegas right now.

By the end of this decade,

I'm sure they'll all be owned by Wall Street.

The,

But when you look at that,

Like those are people like to be able to say that they own those things.

And the problem is,

Is it's never enough.

So you live your whole life achieving these,

These things that when you're in the moment,

You look at if life is just a stream of moments,

You're not,

You're having very few moments that actually make you happy.

Whereas if you did thing a little,

If you did things a little bit more like the Tao Te Ching,

Which is the book of Taoism by Lao Tzu recommends,

Which could,

Which could also be called a minimalistic lifestyle when you live life according to that way,

You're embracing simplicity,

You're spending your time instead of thinking,

Thinking,

Thinking,

You're just looking around you and enjoying everything that is in the way that it is.

And,

And even if you're in like the slums,

You know,

You're looking around and you are appreciating the fact that you're appreciating that for what it is.

That's something that I've really been working on practicing in my meditation lately too.

And when,

When I say meditation,

These are more like the fringes of my meditation.

Like 40 minutes a day are like pure,

Really like transcendental meditation.

But there are other times in my day where I'll be like,

Oh,

I'm going to be thinking for like two hours.

There will be other times in my day where I'll just like walk for 10 minutes and I won't be thinking.

There will be other parts of my day where I will kind of try to feel connected to everything and recognize that I am part of the same consciousness as everything.

So I'll look at like the mountains that are by my house.

I'll look at,

I'll recognize that not only the mountains are conscious and,

And I'm not going to be able to calculate my tax return next year,

But they,

They have a low level of consciousness.

Well,

They actually have the same level of consciousness.

They just don't have a way to,

They haven't gone through an evolutionary process to turn it into cognition.

So when you're looking at kind of side tangent,

But that,

That's a side tangent way of saying that like,

You can literally just spend an hour looking out in front of you and recognizing that like that is you.

And,

You know,

If you're,

If you're stuck in the corporate office all day,

Doing private equity deals or whatever it is,

Building widgets and making that your life,

Making a 2% increase in three months of selling more widgets.

If that's your core focus on life,

Then you're not focusing on these other things.

And so that all brings it back into minimalism because you're letting go of the attachment to growth for the sake of growth.

You're looking,

You're,

You're getting rid of,

Uh,

Making money for the sake of making money.

You are getting rid of,

Uh,

Growing a following on Instagram for the sake of having followers and,

And people seeing that you're getting rid of all of that.

And in that you're also getting rid of,

Um,

Possessions that you,

You might have.

It that's part of the process.

And so as,

As you're giving it,

Giving that away and you're spending more time allowing yourself to be simple,

Mentally free,

Like,

Um,

One of the best ways to make it difficult for yourself to be mentally free is to have a lot of debt.

So what can we do to make sure that we don't have debt?

And,

And in addition to that,

Even,

Even if we're debt free,

How,

How can we make sure that we have enough cash so that we can actually go do things that make us happy?

So all of this is interplaying and it's all about like how in a younger age and certainly,

Um,

Anyone who knows me knows that like,

I haven't always been perfect with this by any means,

But especially in my past,

You know,

It's like,

Okay,

How can we get people in their twenties to stop spending all their money and instead hold cash reserves,

Keep their freedom,

Um,

Teach them how to start a business for really cheap and hopefully if,

If that's what you even want,

Like,

Uh,

You know,

You,

You will tell yourself,

But it's,

Uh,

It's really about giving yourself the opportunity and ability to,

Uh,

Follow your passions wherever they lead you.

So whatever that is for you.

And,

Uh,

That,

That is really for,

For those of you who are watching,

That's why I'm doing this video.

That's what I wish for you very,

Very deeply is that you can,

You can practice some of these things that,

Um,

Cultivate inner happiness,

Meditation being very important one,

Minimalism being a very important one and.

But there's something to be aware of and that is taking minimalism too far and too fast.

Don't beat yourself up for not being minimalistic enough.

It's a process and it's,

It's just like a meditation,

You know,

We're,

We're staying centered perfectly still in like mental darkness,

Nothingness when you're,

When you're getting to some of these deeper levels and then you have a thought.

Don't beat yourself up over having the thought,

Just come back to the stillness.

That's the practice.

Recognize the thought,

Come back,

Don't waste time and energy.

There's a lot of energy wasted when you are hard at work.

You can feel it.

So don't say same thing in minimalism.

Um,

If you find yourself throwing away an aluminum can,

Make sure you recycle it,

But don't beat yourself up over these things.

It's,

It's a process of just trying to go further and further down,

Down the path.

And,

Uh,

It's honestly very difficult to live in a city and,

Uh,

Not buy things with packaging.

Like you go look at the grocery store,

Like unless you're buying a hundred percent from bulk containers,

Like you are probably buying things from packaging.

So do your best.

That's my message for you today.

And,

Uh,

Lao Tzu's message for you is simplicity,

Patience,

Compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.

So we'll leave it with Lao Tzu,

Tao Te Ching.

If you liked this video,

Make sure you give it a thumbs up so that YouTube shows it to more people.

We actually had more people watching today than,

Uh,

Like in,

In a consistent stream than we have any other day yet.

So,

Um,

My goal is to get to a hundred people watching concurrently by June 1st.

And,

Uh,

Let me let you know in my,

Um,

My minimalistic ways that if we don't reach it,

I'm okay with that,

But,

Um,

We're,

We're,

We're,

We're,

We're,

We're probably going to surpass it.

So thank you so much for tuning in.

If there are any other topics on minimalism,

Taoism,

Um,

Meditation that you would like me to cover,

Let me know in the comments as well.

Uh,

Those are all very interesting topics and they're ones that have really helped me a lot in terms of,

Uh,

Finding that inner happiness.

That's something that.

And mind you,

I've only been meditating for almost a year and a half.

So the change that happened was drastic.

And,

Um,

I mean,

I really used to be someone who really cared about a lot of these things that I'm talking about,

Like,

Um,

Having more comparing myself to others.

Um,

You know,

Am I worth it if I've only achieved this level,

Which wasn't nearly the goals that I had in my mind when I was 21 years old,

Um,

You know,

And,

And it's like,

I'm really happy.

So,

Um,

You know,

Third moments in there where,

You know,

I have to,

There's like a battle that happens,

But the,

The,

What I can tell you is that the practice of meditation,

Transcendental Meditation in particular,

Um,

Really gives you a tool to just like be,

Be content sitting,

Doing whatever being fulfilled it,

No matter what's happening around you.

And that's the definition of true freedom is not having external sensory perceptions impact how you feel inside.

So that is,

I think what anyone watching this video,

Um,

This whole way through is striving for.

So I'll be covering,

Uh,

I'll probably do another video tomorrow too.

I,

Uh,

I've been under the weather this week,

So,

Uh,

I didn't do videos,

Uh,

The first half of it.

So I'm probably going to do another video,

Um,

Tomorrow on,

Uh,

On probably a Dallas minimalist,

Uh,

Topic.

So make sure you subscribe and until tomorrow,

Stay visionary.

Reviews

Great episode! Touches on a lot of areas of my life that I've been working on.

Really loved these words‼️ thx

I found this to be quite helpful, as I have been striving towards becoming more minimalist as time goes by. It's difficult in some respects, when there is much disability-related medical paraphernalia involved, but I'm doing the best I can, slowly, but working on it.

I'm not certain that the title provided here, "Will a Minimalist Lifestyle Make Me Happy?" was directly addressed as such, but it was - albeit a but obliquely, I think. Nevertheless, listening to your journey and how meditation can support this intention was very helpful for me. I don't regularly watch the channels on YouTube I have subscribed to over the years, but I may look yours up so it at least appears in my list when I do go there. I feel there is more in your library already that may be helpful and supportive to me in my own journey.

Thank you for sharing this with us here on Insight Timer. I see the light in you. 🤲🏻❤️🤲🏻

Thank you very informative.

I really loved the speech. Look forward to hear more on minimalism. You did hit it with 'infinite nothingness' 🙏 Are you vegan, by the way?