{"id":3437,"date":"2010-05-17T05:14:12","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T09:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becomingblog.wpengine.com\/?p=3437"},"modified":"2010-05-18T12:52:06","modified_gmt":"2010-05-18T16:52:06","slug":"two-life-rejuvenating-lessons-from-two-years-of-minimalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.becomingminimalist.com\/two-life-rejuvenating-lessons-from-two-years-of-minimalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Life-Rejuvenating Lessons from Two Years of Minimalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Two years ago, I got my life back.<\/p>\n

I found minimalism.<\/p>\n

As a result, my life has been energized, refreshed, vitalized… rejuvenated.<\/p>\n

It’s been a crazy ride. What began as a simple, two-minute conversation<\/a> with my neighbor has changed my life for the better in areas I never thought possible. I have learned countless lessons during our two-year journey towards minimalism, but none are more rejuvenating than these two:<\/p>\n

1. Possessions weigh down your life. <\/strong>Possessions are heavy and cumbersome. And more than I knew, they were slowing me down. They demanded my time, energy, attention, and focus. Since I was young, consumerism has taught me that possessions would make my life better. They were wrong.\u00a0Too many possessions will steal your life from you. They need to be purchased, transported, organized, cleaned, sorted, fixed, and managed. They keep us from the ones we love and from living a life based on our values. They cause us to\u00a0lose our life rather than find it. Life is better with less. You become lighter and freer with less material things holding you back from the life you were born to live. If I could go back, I would buy a smaller house, a smaller car, less stuff. And my life would be better because of it.<\/p>\n

2. Your life is far more valuable than the things that you own.<\/strong> In fact, if your greatest desire in life is to own more things, you are selling yourself short – way too short. But unfortunately, society has told us that our greatest dreams should consist of “doing well in school, getting a high-paying job, and buying a really nice house with lots of cool things.” That is a shame because we can dream better dreams. We can dream bigger dreams. Our life can be far more valuable than the things that we own. Our lives can be built on the things in life that really matter… love, hope, charity, relationships, influence, significance, spirituality. Choose to live for the invisible, eternal things of life, not the physical things that will perish, spoil, or fade.<\/p>\n

I was asked recently if I would ever go back to the lifestyle I led before becoming a minimalist. “No way, ” I said, “I feel like I wasted too many years of my life chasing the wrong things.”<\/p>\n

Luckily, two years ago,\u00a0I found minimalism.<\/p>\n

And I got my life back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years ago, I got my life back. I found minimalism. As a result, my life has been energized, refreshed, vitalized… rejuvenated. It’s been a crazy ride. What began as a simple, two-minute conversation with my neighbor has changed my life for the better in areas I never thought possible. I have learned countless lessons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[440],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Life-Rejuvenating Lessons from Two Years of Minimalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.becomingminimalist.com\/two-life-rejuvenating-lessons-from-two-years-of-minimalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two Life-Rejuvenating Lessons from Two Years of Minimalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two years ago, I got my life back. 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