Flexibility is Key

Life is not just one thing. Don’t let yourself get locked into arbitrary obligations.

Especially in our complex, interconnected world, you often have to address one issue before you can account for another. To illustrate, many people struggle with mental health issues like anxiety, yet fail to implement positive change because they can’t “find the time.”

If you are unable to carve out time from work and other commitments for proper self-care, you likely need to make some adjustments. You need to give yourself more flexibility.

Everybody deserves to live a happy and fulfilling life. Yet, positive life changes are very difficult to make if they aren’t grounded – very realistically – within your daily routine.

To truly live within this world, you have to make it work for you. Happiness and fulfillment are rooted in participation.

While modern life affords many comforts, it also bombards us with distractions. In fact, modern consumer culture is a culture of distraction.

How the information of our culture is conveyed is infinitely subtle, yet the messaging is plain as day:

Work hard
Buy things
Repeat

Yet, concepts like modernity, globalism, and technology are not inherently bad. They just are.

You can be a conscious person while still enjoying modern society. The two are not mutually exclusive. Life is not just one thing.

The key to engaging modern society in a meaningful way is detangling the narratives of consumer culture from the back of your mind. It requires a critical self-inventory of needs versus wants.

When you have a crystal clear understanding of needs versus wants, you will have room to discover the personal fulfillment you’ve been looking for – while also having your material needs met.

Hidden deep in the cracks and fissures between your needs and wants, you will find the little bits of spaciousness required to make real-life changes.

Real change requires real dedication of time. There is really no way around that one.

Luckily, we get to be creative with how we spend our time. There are no rules to this.

Life changes should always be realistic. Even better, they should be rooted in a feeling of spaciousness.

It’s simple math, really. Before you can “put something in,” you have to “take something out.” Does this sound like an exercise in decluttering to you?

Minimalism is defined as: “a style or technique (as in music, literature, or design) that is characterized by extreme spareness and simplicity.”

When most people think of minimalism, their minds wander towards material possessions. Of course, decluttering your space can be extremely healthy. However, minimalism can also be used as a lens to analyze the necessity of daily obligations.

The idea is two-fold:

Clearly understanding needs versus wants opens a doorway to having meaningful experiences.
Stepping out of your routine provides a new vantage point from which to assess your life.

I first stumbled into minimalism by accident.

After parting ways with an ex-girlfriend, I decided to move into a small pop-up camper instead of renting another apartment.

At the time, I wasn’t really sure where I even wanted to live. But there was something much deeper happening at the time that I didn’t realize until much later.

I had a lot of soul-searching to do.

The longer I lived in this tiny camper, the more I realized how little I actually needed. On the inverse, I saw how having so little created so much space.

While my original motivation to walk this path was “taking some time to figure out my life.” Interestingly, the process of “figuring out my life” eventually became my life.

There lies the kicker: When you take the time to look inside and ask the bigger questions, life tends to work itself out. My personal processes of healing opened the doors to a whole new way of living.

You would be amazed at how big a change you can make in your life by simply dropping something that isn’t necessary. Whether it be downsizing your apartment or working a hybrid job, every time you drop an unnecessary expense or obligation, you get a bit more freedom back.

You get more time for having meaningful experiences.