Happy Valentine's Day everyone! With today being ALL about love, romance and relationships - I thought I'd key in on a few ways to help you [myself included] make more room for all that love has to offer in our lives.
No Lights Challenge - One Month in the Dark
In October I picked up the book, No Impact Man. I had heard about it a long time ago and added it to my book list to read one day, but just hadn’t gotten to it yet. For some unknown reason, it popped back into my head and I decided it was time to read it and see if it could help me take my environmental lifestyle to the next level.
What One Year of Minimalism Has Taught Me
It's November, which means right around this time last year I stopped using #EmbracingMinimalism and decided to just start calling myself a Minimalist. The three years leading up to that decision had laid a solid foundation that would lead to this inevitable change.
For three years I had focused on buying less and saving more. What started as a focus on money & debt lead to getting rid of clutter, coming face-to-face with my anxiety, becoming healthier and learning how to live with less. This year has lead to a lot of changes and a lot of realizations that I couldn't possibly sum up into one single blog post, but here's my attempt to do so anyways.
Minimalism - A Documentary About The Important Things
Last Tuesday, Carl and I went to see The Minimalists’ new documentary film. It was released for one day in many theaters across the country. We both thought it was a great film and highly recommend it to anyone interested in pursuing an intentional, meaningful life. Check out their website to keep up with when the documentary will go on sale.
Without giving too much away, here were my biggest takeaways…
How-To Shop Like a Minimalist... Sort of
Are you new to simple living and minimalism? Me too! I’m somewhere around my 5 month mark of making this lifestyle an official decision. It’s been really wonderful so far, but last Saturday I did something for the first time since making this thing official.
I went shopping. At the mall.
[Insert moment of silence.]
You did what?!?
I know. I know. I know. THE MALL?! Isn’t that the last place a minimalist should go?! AHHH!
Alright. I’ll tell you all about my ill-fated plans. Here goes…
So Long Netflix
Yep. We cancelled Netflix. For almost two months, we’ve been TV free, for the most part. I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant when Carl first suggested canceling, because canceling meant taking away one of the last sources of distraction we had left. That was scary. It meant, no more excuses. Without TV, we would be gaining about 12 extra hours a week to work on our various projects and goals. That idea was exciting, but not having an excuse to fall back on made me uncomfortable and brought up old thoughts of not being good enough. What if we gained these extra hours and I worked on my projects and I put them out there and no one likes them? What if people think I’m not any good?
