Minimalism and Greed

From a couple of weeks, we are talking about De-Cluttering and managing your shelf, taking care of your social media accounts by unfollowing unrequired pages, and so on. But till now we haven't talked about why is this magical word "De-cluttering" entered our dictionary as well as in our lives? The answer is extremely simple – Greed. Yes, this five-letter word is running innumerable economies, giving billions and billions of dollars of revenue to many organizations and ruling the world.
Have you ever gone to some supermarket to buy a single product, Let's say you went to buy a jar of peanut butter? While looking for peanut butter, you came across innumerable products displayed on various shelves, classified beautifully. Now you just realized that there is an offer of on a pack of soft drinks – an attractive offer of 'Buy two, get one free'. You picked up a basket and attractively put the pack of soft drinks into it.
Now walking towards the shelf where peanut butter is displayed, a young man smiled at you and come up with an unbeatable scheme on room freshener. You suddenly realized that last time there was no such scheme on room fresheners. You quickly poured a couple of sprays down the throat of your basket.
After buying ten-odd products you finally reach in front of the shelf of Peanut Butter and then walk to the billing kiosk. You smartly take out your credit card and paid for all that stuff.
The question that arises here is, do we require these many products?
Greed has conquered our whole system. The more we accumulate the more we feel safe, happy as well as presentable. The prices ending with lots and lots of number 9 are taking its toll on us for so long. The word 'Sale' gives us unmatchable happiness.
And then when our home is filled with lots and lots of unwanted material, we read hell lot of articles regarding de-cluttering your home and watch videos regarding arranging the stuff properly in our homes.
The source of all problem is greed. It makes us do all that accumulating stuff unconsciously which avoided by you consciously. So, my dear friends, let's wrap up this article with little quick tips to conquer greed and makes us stay stick to our minimalism journey.

1)Don't run behind the conspiracy of the number 9. When the price of something ends with 9, there's a lot of psychology hidden behind it. That's the reason it's called psychological pricing.
2) The word 'Sale' gives you a sense of hurry to buy this or buy that whether required or not. We need o to understand that it is a way of converting one's dead stock into cash.
3) Make a genuine list of what's required and what's not. Don't try to skip that list no matter how much that product cost.

Om Shanti:
Love, Laughter, and Peace
Himanshu R Nagpal
Edited by:- Geetika Nagpal

Minimalism and the Art of Time Management

 

Since my childhood, I have heard from so many sources that Time Management is very crucial for one, no matter who he or she is. And I cannot deny the fact that I have had a very hard time managing my time. You must have also heard about maintaining a time table or write a ‘To-Do List’ in your journal to save time, which increases one’s efficiency and effectiveness of the task. No points for guessing, that I tried all that stuff and failed not once but many times.

So in this little article, I’ll try to cover that what the heck is minimalism and how it is connected with this evergreen concept of time management.

First things first, let’s try to understand what is Minimalism? Don’t worry, I will not give you a definition copied from the websites of the west blabbering about Minimalism a concept originated from the west. I will just write what I feel about this.

Minimalism is something that physically makes you survive on the least resources possible and spiritually it makes your existence lighter.

By the definition, when I say that it makes you survive fewer resources, I mean to say that there are no extra clothes in your closet which you don’t wear anymore or which doesn’t fit you anymore. There are no extra pens and pencils in your pen holder. There are no unused files  (Audio, Video, or images) on your mobile phone. There are no unread and unattended Emails in your Inbox. There are no idiotic pages followed on your Facebook profile.

One of the most time-consuming tasks of every one of us is to stand in front of our closet every morning and think about what I should wear to the office. The reason is very simple because our closet is un-managed and filled with lots and lots of clothes, which we don’t wear anymore, we have actually forgotten what’s actually there in my closet. Our own habit of accumulating things and attachment to them is making our daily chores slow and time-consuming, also it is also digging a hole in our respective pockets.

Have we ever thought that why are we spending a large chunk of our monthly income on clothes and other accessories? The answer is very simple. We believe that we are judged by the clothes and watches we wear at a party instead of the way we express ourselves in a party. As we have discussed in our earlier posts, our clothes, gadgets, and accessories are not our identity.

So there are certain not-so-easy but amazing ways to save time by adopting a minimalist way of living:-

1. Every Sunday try to invest at least 15 minutes in managing your closet.
2. Make a list of clothes which you don't need anymore and then - Donate them.  (Or you can also sell them. There are certain websites that help you in finding buyers for your clothes. Though I haven't tried them yet.)
3. Understand the difference between needs and wants. Needs are of utmost importance for one's well being but unnecessary wants can fill your life with hell lot of physical and mental clutter. 
4. Don't think about what other people will say if you repeat clothes often. It is you who have to pay for your clothes, not them.
   
   So my dear minimalist, these steps are time-consuming at first but trust me, it will save a lot of your time in the long run.
   
   So, I'll see you next week then.
   
   Om Shanti:
   Love, Laughter, and Peace
   Himanshu R Nagpal
   Edited By:- Geetika Nagpal

 

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Quit Social Media? Ha Ha Ha!

Social Media is one of the greatest parts of our daily life. Most of us can’t, even imagine our lives without our cell phones. We love putting our pictures on Instagram and Snapchat. We like to write about how we are feeling presently and what are our opinions regarding what’s in the trend. We bombard our Facebook walls with our posts and with the posts of our friends. We like to follow various celebrities on twitter and it somehow feels that we are kind of connected to them virtually.

My dear friend, I’m writing this post not to guide you or advise you to quit social media. I’m writing this to help you understand how social media can make your life away from simplicity.

Let’s try to understand the basic process. Suppose you are at a party and you clicked some picture of yours with your friends and you decided to upload it on say Facebook. So far - so good. The problem appears when your mind tricks you to check your wall, again and again, to look at how many likes/comments/emoticons you have received under your picture. If you get many likes, you start believing that your picture was so damn good and you should share more pictures of you on your wall. On the other hand, if you don’t get many likes/comments/emoticons on your post, you’ll get into a self-criticizing zone where you’ll be going to curse yourself again and again that you’re not so good looking or presentable.

Our mind loves tricking us. It will push you to do things that will compel you to seek attention. And my friend, we all love getting attention. We all love staying above our league. We all love it when people talk about us. And there is nothing wrong about that, provided we don’t alter our actions with the attention to be acceptable/loved/looked upon. Oh, man! I can’t tell you how bad things can get when people start loving you for your fictitious figure. You can’t get so close to anyone. Your life becomes a piece of fiction that you create yourself. You always remain afraid of people around you and they will be aware of the fact that your life is not as perfect as it looks like- and trust me, it kills something inside you.

So after so much psychological stuff, let me help you to opt for simple living without deleting your social media accounts.

• The first thing you can do is, that make yourself a promise that no matter, whatever happens, you’ll not upload something untrue about yourself.
• You should delete all the pages, people, and groups that are disturbing your psyche. There is no point in growing your friend list when you have no one to have a recharging conversation every night before sleeping.
• You should not post anything to raise an idiotic debate with no conclusion. It only disturbs you mentally and gave you a very vague sense of victory or defeat.

 

I hope these little points help you live a better, stress-free life without quitting social media. There is no harm in staying up to date, provided it doesn’t take you away from who you are, isn’t it?

Om Shanti:

Love, Laughter, And Peace

Himanshu R Nagpal (HRN)

Edited by:- Geetika Nagpal

 

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Connecting with the Mother Earth

Every day I came across many people who always complain. They complain about everything they come across – Be it their job or their home or their spouse or their neighbors and the list go on and on. But in their daily life and routine, they always miss the chance to say thank you to the almighty who has given us innumerable gifts which generally stays out of our gratitude list. So today, I’m going to talk about one of the greatest gifts to mankind – Nature.

My dear ones, every day we have to be conscious enough that our human body is nothing but an accumulation of the five elements or the Panch-Tattvas. The Panch-tattvas comprises of Water, Sky, Earth, Air, and Fire. No matter how much money we earn or many houses we build, no one can add another element to his or her body. In this blog post, we are going to talk about our connection specifically with Earth, because in the journey towards Minimalism, probably the biggest role is played by Earth.

This might sound a bit philosophical, but trust me, in your journey towards minimalism you cannot proceed without connecting with Earth. So sit back, relax and calmly touch your feet to the ground. As you touch your feet to the ground, feel the energy in your body. We need to understand that Mother Earth is the sole provider of energy. Pray to the Mother Earth to always keep us grounded. Pray to Mother Earth no matter how many worldly possessions we might have, one day, we have to sleep forever in her lap. May She never leave her little children alone. Say Thanks to Mother Earth for always carrying our burden on our shoulders. If possible, every morning bow to her for providing us nourishment, care, and love.

I know this may sound foolish in the beginning, but it is very much required. I have seen many people who constantly quote about simple living on social media platforms. But their lifestyle doesn’t support what they say. They are carrying the latest smartphones, wearing branded watches, uploading their pictures while donating food and stuff to the needy ones, and so on. The only reason behind this is they have lost the connection between themselves and the Mother Earth. They are busy polishing their roofs without gaining strength in their roots.

So let’s say that this is the first step in the process of living life simply and effectively.

Though I have missed this point many times, I want to say that I have no hard feelings for the ones who love gathering stuff and filling up their closet with what all they can. They have full right to live their life as per their will and we are no one to guide them or tell them what’s right and what’s wrong.

Let’s conclude this little post on the fact that no matter how many things we have, we can’t take even a penny with us to the other world. I hope this helps you in making you aware of the fact that we shall not run here and there with the purpose of finding God. God is here, inside us, below our feet, above our head, in each and every breath of ours.

Stay Grounded.

and yes, If you haven't read my earlier articles in this series, you can read Here :-)

Om Shanti:

Love, laughter, and peace

Himanshu R Nagpal (HRN)

Edited by:- Geetika Nagpal

De-Cluttering your shelf. De-Cluttering your Life

In the last blog post, we discussed what living simply looks like and what are the various reasons to opt for simple living. In this article, we’ll try to understand the first and one of the most important attributes of simple living and that is Decluttering.

We, humans, are extremely strange being among the ones who are present on the planet earth. We feel contented and happy in accumulating more and more stuff. We love to own the latest Mobile phone, with the features which are going to be outdated in a couple of months. We love buying more and more fashionable clothes so that we don’t have to repeat them in office parties. And the sole reason behind it that we have that feeling that everyone is looking at us, judging us. We have a tendency to try to stay above our league, Isn’t it?  But less do we know that we have a very limited time on this planet. So, we have to take care of what we choose to own, what we choose to be, and how we choose to spend our time.

Warren Buffet put it very beautifully when said that “If you are buying what you don’t need, soon you will have to sell what you need.” Mr. Buffet is one of the greatest investors of the last century. And the kind of life he lives, we can say that he is simplicity personified. He drives his own car, living in the same house for many decades and still one of the richest men living on the planet presently.

So let’s get back to De-Cluttering.

Decluttering is a twin-faced sword. When we talk about De-Cluttering we are talking about controlling our emotions. Buying what will soon not be of any use for us is nothing but our uncontrollable emotions taking a toll on us. So first of all let’s start with clearing what all we don’t need anymore. So the question arises here is how can we classify that what’s required or what’s not required. Now, this might be a debatable topic because our emotions are still ruling our whole system. So I have made a simple rule – make a list of all those items which we haven’t used in the last 90 days. Be it the clothes which don’t fit us anymore but still lying in our closet from so many years, or the old books which we have read and we are not going to read them again, pass it on my dear ones.  There are innumerable people who always dream of the things you are thinking to discard, pass it on.

The other aspect of decluttering is thinking before buying new products. You need to set a series of questions that you need to ask yourself before buying any new stuff and bring it to your home.

• Is this product going to make my life easier?
• Can I afford this product without cutting my basic expenses?
• Do I have enough space in my home for this product?
• Can I survive without this product for more than three months without this product?
• Am I buying this product to impress others?

If any of the above questions make you think that there is no need to buy that product, please don’t buy it.  I know it’s difficult but it’s worth doing it. When you make the decision not to buy that thing, whatever it is, you confront those emotions which are troubling you for so long. And the more you will confront them, the better you will be able to take control of yourself. It will always make you feel light and happy. Remember what you read in the last post? ‘Less is always More’.

See you in the next post

And yes, If you haven't read my previous post, you can read Here ☺

Om Shanti:

Love, laughter, and peace

Himanshu R Nagpal (HRN)

Edited by:- Geetika Nagpal

Make It Simple Silly

Most of us are sitting at home during this lockdown period and must be thinking that when can we finally go out and carry on with our daily activities. Most of us might be getting sick of those funny, yet idiotic tik-tok videos or those silly forwarded messages, which are making fun of this whole situation. But my dear friends, don’t you think that whatever is happening is somewhat is the result of our own deeds? Our Lifestyle was so darn fast that nature was not able to tolerate more. And this is nothing but nature’s warning that we need to slow down. We need to stop for a while a need some time for self-reflection. We need to understand that there is no point in accumulating things and filing our drawers and shelves with the stuff which we rarely use.  As it was once said, “It is enough in this world for everyone’s need but not enough for anyone’s greed.”

So my dear ones, I’m starting with this little series of articles through which you can simplify your life.

Now let’s start with the understanding that what is the actual meaning of this simplification of life.

“Simplification of life is nothing but a natural state of being. It focuses mainly on understanding your wants without compromising your requirements. In other words, it’s a gesture of love towards the other beings residing with us on this planet as well as learning to love ourselves.”

Let’s break the definition now and try to understand it more deeply.

• It’s a Natural state of being

Since we were born, we started accumulating whatever life threw at us. Be it the way we talk or the way we walk, most of our gestures are accumulated. Our Subconscious mind is busy with recording the stuff which we see and we listen to. But when we talk about the natural state of being, we are talking about what’s genuinely ours. To simplify our lives we need to know ourselves inside out. We need to de-clutter those gestures, those emotions, those ideas which we have copied from someone else. Before proceeding in our respective lives, we need to know who we really are.

• Understanding Wants without Compromising requirements

Let’s learn a basic statement of Simple Living – ‘Less is Always More’.  Though I would like to talk about this concept in my future blog posts, For now, let’s try to understand that de-cluttering doesn’t mean that you should sell off everything and live your life like a monk. I’m sorry, no hard feelings for monks, but I haven’t lived that life so I’m not in the correct situation to talk about that life. Every person has certain dreams and requirements. One must think big and work hard towards achieving it. But bigger goals should never contradict your basic personality. In the process of achieving goals, one should not become someone who they are not. So the essence of simple living is the concentrated point between wants and requirements.

• The gesture of Love towards other Beings

This is the high time that we should genuinely understand that the resources on this planet are limited. No matter how much money we have in our banks or how many cars we own, we should always think about consuming as few resources as possible so that we can offer it to other people. So, Its high time to show some love to our neighbors, to our friends, to the animals around us, so that everyone can use those resources. There is another important statement I want to introduce here regarding the topic – “Sharing is Caring”.

 

• Learning to Love Ourselves

My dear friends, there is a tried and tested thumb rule. Though it took me a hell lot of time to learn this concept, and I’m still learning. So sit back, relax, and try to understand this. It is completely impossible to love others without loving ourselves. That’s the thumb rule. You can’t love/care of/ Respect others without first loving /caring for/ respect yourself. When we shed off what’s not belongs to us, we come to that point where we can reach the person who we really are. And that person is holy. That person is lovable.

So my dear friends, let’s start this journey of making our life simple and worth living. Let’s try to learn a lesson from this pandemic that one should stop for a while and devote some time to think that what we are doing and why we are doing it.

I’ll be coming up with more ideas to make our lives simple and happy. Let’s join hands and try to make this world a better place to live in.

Om Shanti:

Love, laughter, and peace

Himanshu R Nagpal

Edited by Geetika Nagpal