The Essentials

I have been thinking a lot about what means the most to me and with that, have taken up the idea of living minimally, but not in the way you would typically think.

This idea came to me when I was talking to my friend An. She discussed with me how she doesn't like to have things that aren't necessary. And I could see it every time I saw her. We would shop and she would refrain herself from getting tempting, yet unnecessary things. She would respond to my dilemmas short and meaningfully, to the point where I never felt offended and if I did, it was truthful and enough for me to understand what I need to fix. Even the way she dressed reflected her minimal lifestyle.

Ever since then, I would reflect on what she said whenever I came home to my messy room or felt stressed over the amount of school work I needed to complete. It wasn't a great feeling to come home to. Whenever I got home, I would collapse on my bed and ignore my responsibilities. The way I lead my life wasn't healthy, and it didn't help that I kept beating myself up that I pass by hundreds of job opportunities every day, always procrastinated my tasks, and hearing all my friends getting these amazing internship and job opportunities.

Not only did I make my life dull and unmotivated, life threw a bunch of depressing and complicated situations where I was at the point that I wanted to stay idle and not do a damn thing anymore. But in the end, I couldn't do that to myself. I'm still alive, aren't I? But I was dying for something to change.

One day me and An had lunch and afterwards, we walked into a bookstore in Soho/Nolita.That day was the day where I discovered the essentials issue of Kinfolk and immediately fell in love with it. It is simply a beautiful issue that discusses the essentials in our lives and what brings us back to our cores. Something so very important we tend to forget when we get lost. I showed An the issue and that day, we both bought a copy. Until this day, it's a constant reminder of the life I want to achieve.

And then it hit me. This is the necessary step in life I need to embark on next. Essentials means letting go of what you don't need and focusing on what you actually need. Right when I read through the issue, I knew I had to let go of things I don't need. This includes material things, unnecessary thoughts and all that has any unnecessary baggage. Negative thoughts being the strongest out of this pile. Your mind is a power tool and we need to learn how to take care of it and use it the right way.

It won't be an easy, but the reason why I want to do this is because it feels good. As long as I remind myself of how I'll feel afterwards, it will be worth it. It's kind of like working out, isn't it? I've even had thoughts where I don't want to have floral or polka dots in my wardrobe/room interiors. Seems kinda ridiculous right? Maybe eliminating those may be the best right now.

Changing to this feels good. Getting out from a lacking motivation feels good. So here's to finding the essentials to my life and getting where I'd always hope to be - being the best version of myself and accomplishing my dreams in the Big Apple!