For most of my life, I gave little thought to the food that I ate. Whether for a meal or a late night snack, if I liked the taste, I’d eat it. This was the extent of meal planning.
Minimalism actually made me a healthier eater. It brought intentionality into my life in ways I never imagined—health, exercise, and diet included. Recently, I gave up sugar. I doubt the discipline will last a lifetime, but it’s been a helpful experiment just to see what life is like without it and how my body responds.
And my body will respond. It always does. Everything we place into our body has an effect on it—either positive or negative.
What we consume always determines the lives that we live.
We can see this, most easily, with the food that we eat.
But this is a principle with further reaching application than the food we eat. This is a truth that rings true with almost everything we choose to consume: books, music, television, websites, just to name a few.
Think about it. If you choose to read books and listen to podcasts primarily about business and productivity, your mind is going to sharpen its focus on those things. You will begin to see the world in this way and act accordingly.
If you choose to receive your news every evening from the Drudge Report or Fox News, you will arrive at a much different view of the world (and political parties) than someone who consumes their news exclusively from MSNBC. Equally so, if The Daily Show is your only source of world news, your worldview will become defined by it.
Even the music we listen to shapes our minds and our hearts. It carries dramatic influence on the focus of our mind throughout the day.
I think this is important. What we choose to consume determines the direction of our lives. We know this to be true concerning food so we adjust our diet and meal plans.
But for some reason, we are less vigilant when it comes to the other influences we allow into our lives. It is wise for us to pause often and review the influences we are allowing into our mind and our body. Let this serve as a warning.
But this post is not just a warning. It is also an invitation.
We can also use this truth to our advantage and use it to bring about the positive changes we desire to make in our lives.
Are you trying to get healthier? Intentionally consume books and articles that encourage you to do so. Lots of them.
Are you trying to become a better parent or spouse? Surround yourself with people who are trying to accomplish the same.
Are you trying to become more successful in a specific line of work? Absorb as much as you can about the topic.
More specifically, Becoming Minimalist is a community of people who are dedicated to finding more life by owning less stuff. But this approach to life is countercultural. Our society seems built and supported by the complete opposite approach. If we are not intentional concerning the influences we allow into our lives, we make the journey even more difficult.
Are you struggling to conquer the clutter in your home or overcome consumerism in your life? Choose carefully what you surround yourself with. Put down the sales catalogs and the glamour magazines. Mute commercials or turn off television altogether. Read more and more websites dedicated to owning less (I recommend Zen Habits, The Minimalists, Be More with Less, or No Sidebar). As you do, you will find the changes become more and more natural.
The changes we desire to make in life become increasingly possible when we change the influences around us. What we consume always determines what we become—whether for the good or the bad.
Living for consumption alone is the lowest level of human existence. Sadly, it is what many live for.
I enjoy your site. I am also working to promote the same values. Maybe at some point you could also add http://www.hipdiggs.com to other sites that promote living with less.
It really is sad how rarely we stop to think about what’s influencing us. We can condemn this in teenagers who follow their peers and pop culture blindly, but then completely fail to realize that we do the exact same thing. Thanks for the wake up call, Joshua!
This post resonates so deeply. Roughly ten months ago I developed a chronic illness that demands that I pay attention to everything I consume, for food to potential sources of stress like the news. I had already been fairly conscientious about these things, but when it became a matter of life and death, my entire way of living changed overnight. Life is so precious. We need to be mindful of what we allow to fill us.
I love this post! So much truth in what you are saying and something I’m working on bit by bit. Thank you for the inspiration!
Your blog is giving us so much life right now. It’s so easy to let media distort our views of the world, when really, we need a simple reminder that media exists not only to inform us as the public, but to also make money to continue informing us as the public. That being said, media is typically fear-based, and I think that’s where the issue lies. A lot of people haven’t connected the dots and realized many of the stories, many of the “stay tuned” reminders are simply…to keep us watching, keep us consuming, and well, keep us somewhat brainwashed. Although I try to look at the world that cynically! Anywho, we loved this post and we’d like to keep consuming your blog posts! New subscribers here :D
Such a great reminder that every choice we make in life has a knock on effect and impact on another part of life, which impacts another and so on. That is why I am a big believer in lliving by design not accident. Because living bu accident is a hell of a gamble to take with your one and only life.
Hi Joshua,
I have never perceived all these things as consuming. A great perspective for me! Thank you for that. Your attitude will enable me to see more coherently.
All the same, I have disagree with one motiv, which is present in this article. You are encouraging the readers to read much and much about, let’s say generally, the minimalism. From my experience and also my observations on the net, I can tell that it is only seemingly right. Of course, at the beginning it is obvious that the novices want to know much about their new style of life etc. But when you are familiar with the minimalism and you truly feel the sense of it, reading many books and sites can be a pitfall. It may be time-consuming, tiresome and even become another way of escaping from life or just an addiction. For instance, people who pay too much attention to their health, spending hours on watching or reading about it. The same can be with other sides of the minimalism. Nowdays, this subject is quite popular all over the world, also in Europe. There are plenty of sites and books, mainly repeating similar topics. Yeah – the minimalism is simple, so there is no surprise ;) Of course, somebody can say that I’m exaggerating with calling that a potential addiction (in comparision with the serious ones), but we have to always be consious that enough is enough.
Regards!
this is awesome really awesome.. thanks…
Thank you for this post, Joshua. You’ve really boiled it down to the essential actions here. My partner and I declutter homes in San Francisco, and we write about the benefits in our blog as well: http://www.newminimalism.com/blog
An excellent post! Here are a couple of resources I’ve used that can help in the processes further.
“The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo was a great read and has given me the courage and determination to simplify my environment. Getting rid of the weight of things we don’t really love that we keep around too long can be an outward act in the clutter-free process that also releases our emotional & spiritual weights. I enjoyed deep diving into this process with great results.
An offshoot of this led to more awareness of my health and eating habits, along with the ease of stress in my life. If you’re on the journey to natural health & learning more about it, you’ll learn a lot from these experts that is amazing and transformative as well: http://bit.ly/nutruth We are all in this together!
Excelente!! Mil gracias tu publicación; hermoso regalo de Pascuas
I recently wrote an article in my blog on how I paid off $10 k of debt in one year by becoming a minimalist and it was featured in yahoo finance.But I could not have done without other minimalists like Joshua Becker,Joshua Millburn and Leo Babauta.Am still on the journey but whenever I feel overwhelmed by society consumerism and expectations,I always have the minimalist community to bring me back to my senses.
I also have started meditating again and got rid of cable. Lastly I began going room to room in my apartment and I’m getting rid of “Stuff” I no longer use/need. Since I have been “consuming” more of the things in life that allow me to thrive. :( love quotes
I love this entry. I’ve been a middle school teacher in low income school districts for 20 years. And I see my kids (students) only consuming junk- junk food, junk music, junk video games, junk TV- everything is temporary and nothing is real. Even people float in and out of their lives. And I feel so sad about their views of the world. Very little is important to them … But they love “things”. I want to print your entry because sometimes when I try to express this sentiment, I think my coworkers look at my like the Southern girl who could start Bible beating and book burning any second (from the South, live in New Hampshire), when that’s not the case. It’s just that they fill themselves with junk and it changes who they are.
oh i hate newspapers soooooo much, especially the gossipy ones, they really ruin lives of some innocent people by spreading lies etc, i refused to buy them and on the occasion i do read them i think “havn,t” you learnt anything, the news at night isn,t good to help sleep on, i am going back to my hobbies and switching it all of YAY, i need to get a life, and i havn,t had a declutter for ages either, and i feel the urge yes it is an urge, my friend passed away years ago and i was left alsorts of things but i only picked and took away small things, and the thought of someone having to rid themselves of tons of my rubbish makes me feel ill,
lighten the load all round, emotionally, physically and spiritually is definitely on the agenda for me,
thanks for the reminders
Jacqueline
I had a few days away at the beginning of the week & I didn’t switch the tv on in my hotel room once. If I’d been at home, it would have been a totally different story! I didn’t feel as if I lost out, by not being up to date with the news (I usually have a 24/7 news channel on when I’m at home, even if I’m not watching & it’s just background noise.) When I travelled home by train on Wednesday, people were sat reading their papers & I couldn’t help but notice the headlines – to put it bluntly, it was all doom & gloom! So I was rather glad that I’d been too busy doing things that make me happy, instead of being a news junkie. But now I’m back home, I’m starting to fall back into my old routine again – having the news channel on all the time. I did hope that I’d carry on the “less tv” habit now I’m back home, but it’s hard! Has anyone got any tips! Hoping you can help.
#noapologies
I should have dug through this site prior to commenting on the post. Wow, what an incredible resource that you have created here. I’m looking forward to my/our journey ahead.