The best things in life are free. I really believe that. Would you rather have a brand new BMW or a deep felt relationship with a gorgeous, smart human being? OK, the BMW might increase your perceived status and make you look more attractive but you’re still miles away from finding your soulmate.
Are you really a wealthy person when you can’t sleep well most nights? Or when you are bloated every time you eat?
In visual arts, music, and other mediums, ‘Minimalism’ is an art movement that began in post–World War II Western art. Today’s minimalism started becoming more prominent since the banks led economic crisis of 2007-8, resulting in the Great Recession. But it actually emerged in Japan in the 80s, as a way to create a Zen like space at home, in response to the chaos and clutter of emerging urbanisation. Minimalism is used in pop culture as a term to describe people who are fed-up with the habit of owning stuff they don’t need, of working for consuming and wasting most of it soon after.
We all share a history of scarcity, food scarcity and scarcity of goods. And now we’re making up for it. Thousands of years of deprivation in a lifetime of eating the fridge. A lifetime of buying anything shiny that grabs our attention, anything that promise a bit of joy.
Consumerism encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. It’s at the core of our economic system and particularly in North America. Consumer spending accounts for a majority of spending in all advanced nations and in the US it rose from about 62% of GDP in 1960 to 71% in 2013. You can easily understand if people reduced the amount of stuff they bought, the economy would hurt, so the system is geared towards maintaining and growing consumption.
This comes at a cost obviously, not just monetary but to the environment. A shirt you might be using for a summer starts as a cotton ball in a field in India or Uganda. A lorry will take it to a sweatshop like factory where industrial dyes from another factory, labels and buttons from a third, will complete the product. With thousands of other shirts it will be shipped to Hamburg or Rotterdam. One more lorry journey to a warehouse in your own country, on to a retail shop. 2700 litres of water and a lot of fossil fuels later, you’ll wear the shirt maybe 10 times before throwing it in the bin. The average American makes about 37 Kg of textile waste per year. And, this is shocking: roughly 50 percent of all food in the United States is thrown away. Half of all food produced is bought and trashed.
Zen and Stoicism are philosophies somewhat close to modern minimalism. Marcus Aurelius a stoic Roman emperor, could have indulged in maximum luxury and all sort of over-consumption, yet was known for sobriety and simplicity.
Being enough with little gives you strength. If you need less, you’ll be more independent from owning things, you’ll feel richer with less. Someone who brought this concept to an extreme was Diogenes, a Greek philosopher who lived with nothing at all. Alexander the Great, the famous and powerful King, one day wanted to meet Diogenes, also known as Diogenes the Cynic. He found him relaxing in the morning sunlight. When asked if there was any favour he might do for him, anything at all, Diogenes replied, “Yes, stand out of my sunlight”.
This seems trivial, yet I lived in London for many years and particularly in winter, rarely got any sun exposure at all. The sun is free and according to Vitamin D deficiency stats, a rare commodity for a lot of wealthy, hard working people and clean air is not enjoyed by everyone either. I lived in some rather nice properties in Harrow and Marylebone, London and much prefer my current simple bungalow, surrounded by lush jungle with a beautiful sea view, on a clean and sunny tropical island to any London property.
If you watch videos, short movies and documentaries on minimalism, you’ll notice most show trendy hipster types with eccentric haircuts sipping organic fair trade coffee in urban cafes. Well… nothing wrong with that but again, not what I have in mind. The most prominent Netflix documentary in particular was clearly sponsored by Apple. Real minimalism puts substance over style, although style and good taste don’t have to cost a fortune and can certainly be included in a minimalist lifestyle. I like value for money and would never buy an overpriced piece of technology when I can get similar quality with a cheaper brand.
Minimalism doesn’t mean I don’t like earning money, but I don’t give up my whole life for it. It is a way of perceiving the world, a state of mind, an attitude in life. The attitude of being lean. My brand of minimalism involves free time. And that’s the real luxury of this lifestyle model. Difficult to achieve? Certainly frowned upon by mainstream society, where the basic model involves exchanging (a lot of) time and energy so you can own stuff. There’s more to it obviously but it’s true people work very long hours and spend most of what they earn or more, again, particularly in America. Debt is the ugly brother of consumerism.
As a nutritionist I really can’t avoid drawing a comparison between overeating and over consuming. Processed, addictive food full of fat, sugar, salt and dozens of ingredients. Looking at America again, people’s waistlines are out of control, many are on antidepressants and painkillers and a majority on prescription medication. From a purely rational perspective, would you rather be fit and psychologically sound living with less, or cash rich and constantly stressed and depleted?
Some science might say long working hours in aseptic cubicles and an attitude to self-medicate with over-consumption don’t lead to pain and depression. Likewise, some research might say there is no causality between drinking soda and obesity. That doesn’t mean these are not strong contributors to an unhealthy lifestyle. Retail therapy – shopping with the primary purpose of improving the buyer’s mood or disposition, is no therapy at all and can become an addiction.
My personal choice is a sort of minimalism which values what’s already existing and free of charge first. Nature is the ultimate luxury and living on a beautiful island with lots of spare time is a rich choice for me. Being and feeling enough, naked and lean, in Nature is liberating. You should try it yourself.