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Thankfulness and Minimalism


“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

 

-        Eckhart Tolle

 

 

 

 

 

By embracing minimalism, we actually reinvent our lives to reflect the items, belongings and values for which we are most thankful. Thankfulness is about valuing our possessions and expressing gratitude for those things in our lives which we currently have. In minimalism, we highlight those things that we value most by getting rid of all the things that we value the least. Whenever we choose to live simpler lives, we find ourselves less likely to complain, more likely to be thankful and overflowing with the joy of recognizing the value of what we already possess.

 

 

Thankfulness does not come naturally to most people. Our brains are wired to focus on the negative. Think about it, I’ll bet out of the five most vivid memories you have, I would wager at least three of them were either negative experiences or traumatic events. Our minds are structured in such a way as to protect us from imminent danger, emotional harm or to avoid any negative or unpleasant stimuli. We are far more likely to have our moods impacted negatively by an upcoming dreadful circumstance than we are for the anticipation of an expected pleasant event.

 

 

While everyone has some ungrateful tendencies to a certain extent, some personality types are simply prone to be less thankful than others, sometimes for specific reasons. Similarly, there are also three distinct personality types that are generally opposed to minimalism more so than the typical individual. For the purposes of this method, I have identified each of these as named in this section. Let’s take a look at the three personality types that demonstrate how interconnected thankfulness and minimalism are to influencing your living space: searchers, hoarders and organizers.

 

 

 

 

Searchers

 

 

MBM definition: a personality type who is constantly looking or searching for happiness through the pursuit of acquiring new possessions; typically through making purchases of material items from a store, mall or online retailer.

 

 

So, what does minimalism have to do with thankfulness? The fact is that the more possessions you have, the more possessions you want! Once you journey down the rabbit hole of attempting to find happiness through acquiring new possessions, you will discover that no amount of personal effects, valuables or “stuff” will ever be enough. When you purchase that great new gadget or the new hot item that everyone wants, you will feel that new purchase rush for a little while. Over time, the “rush” diminishes and all you will end up with is another trinket on the shelf and less money in the bank. In order to feel the “rush” again, you must continue to make future purchases. I refer to those individuals who attempt to find happiness through acquiring material goods as searchers. These “searchers” have an insatiable appetite for the latest and greatest items on the market. To be clear, no amount of clothes, new iPhones or shiny new toys will ever be able to fill the hole inside of you. You must search for deeper meaning in life than what retail has to offer. To break free of a “searcher” type of personality, you must discover that your happiness cannot be bought. Happiness is temporary and based solely on your circumstances. Choose to seek joy over happiness. By seeking joy through reducing or eliminating the overall volume of items you own can actually help the seeker personality break free of the materialism trap that ensnares so many people in our consumer-driven culture. Through minimalism, you can learn to be thankful for what you already have and stop searching for happiness and fulfillment through your credit card.

 

 

 

Hoarders

 

 

MBM definition: a personality type who is constantly collecting, hiding or storing far more material goods than they actually need; usually out of habit, fear or compulsion. At times, this person may not even know why they feel the need to collect such an abundance of material possessions.

 

 


During the Great Depression era, it was vital for one’s survival to be very careful not to throw away any items that could possibly be reused in the future. People would store items that, by today’s standards, might be considered junk. For some, the “hoarder” personality type might be a generational affliction of the extremely elderly who either actually lived during that period or, far more likely, was raised by a parent or grandparent who survived through the depression-era economic upheaval. However, many others simply have a well-known affliction known as “hoarding disorder.” Such a mental state renders a person nearly helpless to avoid stuffing every closet, unused room or empty space with any item that they can get their hands on. Many others simply grew up in poverty and know that the fear of not having their needs met is the reason why they keep the items that they do. Sometimes, people acquire emotional attachments to an item, a vehicle or even real estate that reminds them of a specific past event, a relative or their own youth. Many of the hoarder personality types never fully embrace minimalism. However, for the few that do, being freed from a life of being buried alive by one’s own possessions gives them an opportunity to be thankful for those items that they choose to keep, the organized space they now enjoy and the lessened stress from the chaotic nature of their home space after such a massive purge.  

 

 

 

 

Organizers

 

 

MBM definition: a personality type who collects numerous possessions and chooses to store and orderly arrange these items in specially designed closet spaces, shelves and drawers. The highly systematic storage system utilized by this individual is typically for the expressed purpose of being able to effectively maintain the current level of possessions and collect even more items at a later time. This individual acquires far more material goods than they actually need; usually out of habit or compulsion.

 

 

Fact: you can completely de-clutter your home and not have a minimalist approach to your living space at all. The “organizer” personality type will effectively make your home livable by purchasing specialized drawers, having companies come into your home and rebuild your closet and even rent highly ordered storage units to maintain your entire collection of worldly possessions. Sounds pretty good, right? Now, what if you must consider one or more of the following scenarios in your near future? Imagine you must relocate for your job on short notice. What if your parents are “organizer” personality types and one or both of them pass away suddenly and you are left to deal with the estate? What if you lose your job and must quickly downsize to a smaller living space that does not have the same volume of storage available? What if there is an economic downturn and the storage units that you have been paying through the nose for can no longer fit into your household budget? If you are still collecting items even though you can hardly store all of your belongings, then chances are that you are not truly thankful for any of them. You likely take your material wealth for granted. Placing you on a minimalist trajectory will increase your thankfulness and joy while giving you a much more pleasant living space to call home.



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