When I was a young boy, I had a limited number of clothes, but I was very happy with them.
Before the arrival of any festival or on the occasion of any special function, my parents used
to get new clothes stitched for me. Whenever I got to wear new clothes, I could not contain
my pride and happily showed my new clothes to my friends around me. Today we see
around us that most of the children have a lot of clothes and they do not look happy in that
too. We have been taught since childhood to consume things wisely and economically. This
indicates the concept of minimalism.
Minimalism is a style of living with few possessions or few resources. And, simply put, living
with a minimum of things. It is a lifestyle that is being adopted by people in many countries.
Our country India has a very large population as compared to other countries. It is heard that
in 2023 itself, India will overtake China and will become the number one country in the world
in terms of population. Many poor people in a developing country like India or in any
backward country live in poverty with less assets or less resources in compulsion. Is this
minimalism? There is really no compulsion in minimalism, it is a matter of choice. A choice
that a person makes and decides of his own free will that he will use only the most
necessary goods, even if he has the ability to buy more expensive goods. That is, a person
with a conscious mind decides to be the minimum. Here the meaning of taking a decision
with a conscious mind is that habit of a person in which the person carefully observes the
use of things, habits, behaviour etc. and makes necessary changes in his behaviour.
If a person understands the concept of minimalism properly then I can say with confidence
that he will change his thinking, living and life style for his own betterment. Indian culture has
been distinctive because of its philosophy of life, personality and community characteristics.
In Indian culture, the importance of sacrifice is also found in enjoyment. Absence of greed,
presence of goodwill, charity and self-satisfaction are considered to be the main qualities of
life, in which there is no primacy of sensualism, there is primacy in thoughtful spending or
dealing. Thus, we see that the concept of minimalism is very close to Indian ancient
traditions. Indian culture leads to the art of living a better life with minimum consumption of
material goods.
The concept of minimalism moves from the idea of “Simple Living High
Thinking” to “Quality Living High Thinking with Thoughtful Frugality”.
If we adopt the concept of minimalism in our daily life, then it has many benefits to us, some
of which are as follows –
1 – By adopting the concept of minimalism, resources are consumed economically, by which
we save our money and also save our wasteful time.
2 – When adopting the concept of minimalism, we rely on quality, not quantity, and pay more
attention to the quality of things used, which enhances the quality of our lives. Due to the
focus on quality, waste will be minimum.
3 – By adopting the concept of minimalism, when we remove cluttered processes and
cluttered (redundant) things from our life, then we also organize our mind, which makes our
conscience pure and only good and positive thoughts arise in our mind.
4 – Adopting the concept of minimalism is very beneficial for our environment, social
environment and sustainability as we leave less carbon footprints, generate less waste,
which is also very beneficial for us and it will definitely give us self-satisfaction and improve
our lifestyle.
In the end, I would like to say one thing that we should not only adopt the concept of
minimalism, but also make efforts for the awareness of this concept so that more and more
people understand and adopt the concept of minimalism and in return human lives lead to
full of quality and also sustainability.
Better environment and sustainability is the need of the hour and by adopting the concept of minimalism we can promote sustainability in our daily lives.
Authored By
Keshav Ram Singhal
Switcheko Blogging Competition Winner