The essence of minimalism : All I have is a backpack!
It’s been almost 2 years since I started living a minimalist lifestyle. After downsizing, and getting rid of lots of my possessions, I now literally own less than 60 things in my life. And except for my bicycle, everything that I own now can be fit into just 1 backpack (the backpack ahead has books and a blanket).
Yes, you read that right.
Many of us grow up in a reality where excessive consumerism is the norm. A world where having a bigger house, faster cars, and fancy stuff is often associated with happiness and success. I used to be deluded by this fact as well. But I soon realized that there are only so few things that I really do need in life, and the lesser things I own, the happier I would be. Not the other way round.
And now that everything I own fits into one backpack, it has removed from me the burden of ownership which I felt was always holding me down. It has given me freedom.
Everything in our modern life seems to place large amounts of pressure on the average person. There is a continuous pressure to compete with family, friends and colleagues and then there are also the incessant marketing campaigns of large corporations and businesses who are doing everything in their ability to keep common people in debt.
Millions of people believe the lies which are preached over radios, on television and also in the printed media. The result is that people can no longer survive without their credit cards or other forms of hard finances. This leaves us in a position where we continually have to over-exert ourselves just to cope with the pressures of everyday living.
We are constantly coming into conflict with one another because of our selfish desires and ambitions. On top of that, it always feels as if we are falling behind and that leads us to make foolish mistakes along the way, from which people never recover in many cases.
When we discard all those things which are not really necessary in order to live, we actually set ourselves free because there no longer remains a need for all those foolish competitions and accumulation of all those possessions.
Now I focus on the barest essentials, the things with truest values, and when I have reached this important stage, I have finally started to realize what living is really about.
