minimalism and healthy living go hand in hand



There are various ways in which minimalism and healthy living go hand in hand. These include exercise, ways in which you can avoid a sedentary lifestyle, yoga and meditation. We will also discuss nutrition. Let’s get right to it. Exercise: Doing Something You Enjoy The first topic we’re going to address is minimalism and exercise. Just take a minute and think about what comes to your mind when you think the words – “working out”. Even if it isn’t obvious, I’m certain that a few things subconsciously affect the way in which we view exercise. I’ll tell you what times to my mind: I tend to think about wearables. Do I need an activity tracker to figure out whether I’m reaching my work-out goals? Am I burning enough calories? How much did I end up exercising today? This week? What about clothes – I need gym shorts, high-tech fabric that will ‘breathe’ and enable me to have a fantastic work out. I need all the gear to ensure I do it right. I need to think about protein shakes – do I need protein shakes? How about a smoothie recipe ready to go after workouts? And maybe before workouts? Now I need to start thinking about where to go – do I go to the local gym and work out by myself? Nah, that way, I give myself too much slack, too long breaks between reps, so it’s not effective. Let me think about gym classes instead? I heard there’s a fantastic spinning class next week. What about boxing? That sounds pretty cool. How exhausting was that? I might be the outlier here in terms of overthinking how I need to work out and what I need to have in order to be effective. But there are a number of people who share at least some of these thoughts on a sub-conscious level. I used to think this way before I applied the minimalism lens. You see, minimalism to me is also a state of mind. When I got rid of all these prerequisites to working out from my mind, I felt free to work out in a more effective way. Instead of thinking about what I need to have, and what kind of venues and classes
are available to me, I looked inwards and thought about what really makes me happy when I think about working out. I took some time to analyze this carefully and came to the conclusion that I like swimming and I like some light weight exercises throughout the day. So, I gave away all the fancy gym equipment and gear, and decided not to go for fancy classes and pay hefty fees. Instead, I opted to keep my activity tracker, because tracking my exercise have me a moral boost. And I kept some of my dumbbells at home. So, now, I made it a point to go swimming for at least 40 minutes every day. Instead of spending all that time pondering about what to do and how much to spend behind working out, I know what’ll make me happy and I just go and do it. And then I get back home and do some reps with my weights, which take about 20 minutes. An hour a day, which accomplishes both my goals, and my personal interests. It makes feel good about working out, and I feel less stressed about what to choose as I had to before. Also, my specific preferences meant I could save on a lot of money. The minimalist in me basically helped to do the following – strip away all the pre-requisites in my mind that I needed to have in order to work out effectively. And it allowed me to do something that made me happy. Instead of being all over the place, I narrowed down what will fulfill me, and I just did that. Yoga and Minimalism I’ll cover this topic in two parts. First, we’ll talk about how yoga got me in the minimalist mindset. Second, we’ll talk about some of the yoga principles make it a great enabler for minimalism. First off, yoga (and meditation) helps us to focus, breathe, and relax. Think about all the strategies we’ve discussed in the previous chapters. They all require us to reflect – to really think hard about what’s important to us and what matters to us to most. In order to this this effectively, I find that I need to have a calm mind first. Otherwise, the exercise of reflecting on my situation and myself doesn’t work out well. And the best way to calm down, for me at least, is yoga and meditation.

I’m not saying that every time you think about decluttering or simplifying, you always first take a few minutes to do yoga. However, doing yoga on a regular basis does help to calm you down and enables you to reflect better on your current situation. Try it out for a few days, and then think about what you really need to have a fulfilling life. Yoga helped me to get into the minimalist mindset by helping me to reflect on current-self better, and so my hope is that it will do the same for you. Next, let’s think about some specific principles of yoga, that lends credibility to the minimalist movement. One principle of yoga is "Asteya[16]", or non-stealing. This essentially means that a yogi should consider reducing their physical needs as much as possible. The idea leans to a belief that if a yogi gathers things they don’t really need, they’re essentially thieves. Another principle is "Aparigraha[17]", or non-hoarding/collecting, which highlights that a yogi should not hoard or collect things they don’t need immediately. This is interesting as it alludes to the fact that minimalist principles can lead one to inner peace. I thought these principles would be interesting to highlight, and in fact help to us to validate why yoga is important in the minimalist lifestyle and mindset.
minimalism and healthy living go hand in hand minimalism and healthy living go hand in hand Reviewed by mohamed on 6:04:00 AM Rating: 5

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