You don’t let your desires control you; rather it should be the other way round
Switching from consumerism to minimalist lifestyle has been the wisest decision of my life.
According to Mary Ellen Edmunds
“Wanting less is a better blessing than having more.”
A complex consumerism life is full of desires, lust, and greed of things that are not even essential for you. It leads to chaos once you are completely indulged in worldly things.
Your purpose in life is something better than that of purchasing and owning things which you desire. You simply cannot spend all your life worrying about the things that are of no use to you.
To change from a consumerist lifestyle into a minimalist one may seem quite complex and it indeed is complex. However, with proper guidance and adhering to some strict rules, and do’s and don’ts, etc, you might be able to pull yourself out of living this scum life anyway.
Why shouldn’t you opt for Complex Consumerist Lifestyle?
There are many disastrous effects of consumerism on your life. You won’t even know that the things you own have started to control you. This is how consumerism is going to eliminate happiness, joy, and pleasure from your life.
Some important disadvantages that you must know of living a consumerism life are as follows:
1. Consumerism Leads to a Complex Lifestyle:
Consumerism does lead to a very complex lifestyle and I am going to justify this statement by quoting some examples from my personal life.
In the start, my consumerist mind compelled me to purchase things that didn’t even matter. So, I worked very hard in training myself to let go of the urges. However, there was always this looming desire to not getting fed up with the things I already had.
This mindset led me to many complexities. I was unable to give proper time to my family, and friends and other close people associated with me.
Not only that, but I was always greedy for more and more. There was hardly any space left for accommodating new accessories, yet I couldn’t put stop to the temptation.
That’s how consumerism makes your life so complex.
There’s always a constant battle going on between you and your inner desire to get more and more worldly and materialistic things.
2. Consumerists Spend More Money on Things They Don’t Need:
Well, consumerists spend more than they earn on things that they don’t even need in their lives.
While trying to adopt a minimalist lifestyle, they just fall into the trap of buying expensive things that are not even beneficial for them in any way.
This creates an imbalance in their lives. They get indebted and the level of their debt keep rising as they are spending more than what they earn.
As Rogers has also quoted in this regard, He puts it like that, “Too many people spend money more than they have earned. They do so, to buy things that they don’t want, and to impress people they don’t even like”
This quotation, in short covers, the disastrous effects of consumerism on the lives of people.
3. Excessive Consumption Causes Stress, Burden, Pressure, and Depression:
Another important disadvantage to which one should pay heed to be that consumerism is eventually going to cause many problems in your life. The world is already sinking at an alarming rate deep into problems such as hypertension, depression, over thinking, stress, and burden.
All such problems arise when a person starts excessive consumption of things he doesn’t need in life. Keep in mind that, the extra possessions that a person has got are going to haunt him sooner or later.
So, what are the consequences? People fall prey to serious issues such as anxiety and depression. They are too dumb to realize they aren’t going to find any happiness or joy just by owning a lot of luxurious things. It’s more about satisfying one’s ego rather than satisfying his/her need.
4. Lust and Greed Start Owning a Person Living a Consumerist Lifestyle:
Lust and greed are considered as deadly sins in different societies. The lust and greed of owning more things will lead to damnation in the end.
With a complex consumerist lifestyle, you are going to suffer more and more. In fact, lust and greed will finally take over you and you won’t be able to see the things that give value to your life.
You might’ve seen many people who love their possessions more than their family, friends, or their relatives. Why is this so? That’s simply because consumerism has made them greedy and lusty about life as the only thing that matters more to them are worldly gains and nothing else.
You will eventually end up being materialistic and your life’s ultimate goal will be to achieve more money and possessions only.
5. Things will own You in Consumerism:
One of the major disadvantages is that things will start owning you. Sounds dangerous, right? Now you might be thinking how can a non-living thing control me? Well, things do control you if you give them too much importance.
While I was living a lavish life full of luxuries, I was too afraid to survive without the possessions I had owned. In fact, this fear got into my brain so much that, even the thought of spending a life without the luxuries I was used to of started giving me goosebumps.
You might be experiencing the same thing right now if you are too afraid to leave a life full of worldly possessions. Isn’t it something that’s controlling you indirectly?
They are! In fact, you are just too afraid to leave those luxurious possessions to spend even a simple day living anywhere else.
And being dependent on worldly possessions isn’t so cool, as they can be snatched away from you anytime.
How to Acquire a Minimalist Lifestyle from Complex Consumerism Life? 10 Simple Steps:
The disadvantages of living a consumerism life are plenty. However, there’s no need to worry as we have you covered.
I have got some simple tips for you to switch from a complex consumerism life to simple minimalism one.
Let’s talk about those life-changing tips one by one:
1. Admitting is the Start to Achieve Minimalism:
I have seen many people make this one excuse that minimalism is not something they can acquire because they cannot live without the possessions they own.
This mindset is not helpful at all. You’ll first need to compel your mind on one specific direction, that’s getting rid of the things that are of no value to you. Just admitting that you are doing wrong isn’t going to help you.
Yet another practice that you can do is to follow and take inspiration from popular personalities like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. They are the most famous and rich personalities on earth, yet they have a minimalist lifestyle.
So, following up these personalities and observing their lives from a close view will help your mind to get on the train of acquiring minimalism easily.
2. Traveler’s Mentality is a Perfect Mentality for Minimalism:
You might be an avid traveler and travel to a lot of places. So, what do you do first? Of course, packing comes first. However, have you noticed that you won’t pack each and everything? You will only pack the things you need.
Hence, I want you to work on acquiring this mindset if you are serious about switching to minimalism. It can help you in a lot of ways. For instance, you will think about spending your hard-earned money on things that are not useful to you.
In short, adopting this mindset will surely benefit you if you are just quitting from a consumerism life to simple minimalism.
3. Owning Less Has Got Many Benefits than Owning More:
Embracing life with owning less is, in fact, the best feeling ever. You will have more freedom to value the things that really need your focus and attention. Owning less is always better than owning more.
In fact, with less possession of materialistic things, you will be more powerful and free from any external influences. Things won’t be able to control you. You will live a peaceful life without any worries.
There are much more benefits to a simple and uncomplicated life if you just start enjoying life with few and simple things. It’s never late to start with a minimalist lifestyle.
4. Becoming Aware of Consumer-Driven Society is Necessary:
Have you ever wondered why there are so many people into consumerism? If not, then let me tell you that our society is preaching consumerism. Be it a brand promotion, discount sales, or advertising, there will be different traps in which one can easily get stuck.
So, it is necessary to be aware of a society driven by consumerism. You will find very few people who are actually living a minimalist life. Therefore, make sure that you limit yourself to excessively watching television or indulging in discounted deals, you end up buying things you don’t even need perfectly falling for their trap.
5. Compare, NOT!
It is in human nature to compare. You just can’t deny this instinct as everyone tries to compare himself with someone better than him.
Theodore Roosevelt, a famous American Politician, and Conservationist were, in fact, very true to say that, “Comparing is a thief of joy”.
Therefore, the motive should always be ‘self improvement’ if you happen to compare yourself with another person.
Compare yourself with a person who is living a life below your standards is also a good way of acquiring minimalism. However, comparing yourself with someone ranked well then you are, in fact, going to cause a lot of problems for you.
So, taking an example from less privileged people who are living a worse life than you and are still happy with what they have would be a great idea to focus on.
6. Considering an Overall Cost of Our Purchases:
Considering your overall cost of purchase is also a wise thing to do, which includes maintaining, cleaning, mobilizing, and, your time consumption.
What most of the people do is, they just buy a specific product without any prior consideration of how much time it’s going to get activated, cleaned, or to get an upgrade.
Believe me, you will think like a thousand times before you make a purchase if you just start evaluating the overall cost of that product.
7. Experiment and Test Your Limits:
Trial and error is another great tip we have for you.
Give yourself different challenges and experiment with them. You should make your own challenge as not visiting the shopping mall for at least a month or two until and unless there’s urgency.
Try to make do with things or simply recycle your old commodities.
Making these kinds of challenges will help you to achieve your goal of acquiring a minimalist lifestyle easily. In fact, your obnoxious cycle of shopping too much and spending lavishly on shopping sprees will eventually come to an end with such challenges.
8. Sell or give away!
Selling the things that you don’t need is a better idea as it may generate you revenue. However, I would still recommend you to give away your possessions to needy people without any price tag.
This is going to help you very much. You indeed will feel lighter and happier for sure.
The feeling of helping those in need also brings you happiness.
9. Stop Copying Other People:
Many people copy the dressing style of other people mindlessly for e.g., their friends, classmates, colleagues or neighbors just to look cool or show off. You should never copy other people. Everyone has got his/her own style.
You have your own unique personality which is different from others. You have your own life, your own rules, and your own goals.
You don’t have to live anyone else’s life to stand out and get noticed.
Once you make happiness, joy, and pleasure your utmost priorities, you won’t focus too much on worldly possessions.
10. Understand Your Weaknesses:
Understating your trigger points will help you to overcome your weaknesses. Ask yourself: what is compelling you so much to buy the specific product? Is it a new hot trend? Is it because of a low price tag or your obsession with shopping?
Making a list of your trigger points will help you watch out and ultimately switch from consumerism to minimalism.F
In the end, I would like to quote Marry Ellen Edmunds who says that, “Wanting less is, indeed, a better blessing than owning more”. Going from a complex consumerist lifestyle to extreme minimalism is never easy.
Thanks for reading!
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