Leesa writes:
My Minimalist Life…
May not look like yours. While moving began my journey in earnest, the truth is that the change in mindset began a couple of years ago. Sometimes I am slow to the party. My truest inspiration can be summed up in a few words from my best friend, “We spend the first half of our lives accumulating and the second half purging.” Over the past few years I’ve voraciously consumed all I could find on minimalism. While I’ve always liked smaller spaces and been fascinated by stories of those who have gone to the extremes it has been over the past 2 years that my own minimalist choices have gained definition. The biggest lesson for me in this journey is to accumulate with purpose. A move over the summer of 2013 into a smaller space was a wonderful exercise in evaluating and purging all of my “stuff”. Thanks to bloggers like Miss Minimalist, Be More With Less and Rowdy Kittens I have re-defined and rehabilitated my relationship with consumption.For me, like for many, my consumption was part of a larger emotional crutch issue. The same one that defines my struggles with food. Five years ago I faced the demon of over eating and started on not a diet but a different life course. I recognized my problem, accepted that a permanent fix was needed and that nothing would happen instantly. Now I am 90 pounds lighter. Maybe THAT was actually the beginning of my minimalist journey.
In the interim, I continued consuming but switched my focus from food to things. Always a shop-aholic I now had weight loss as my excuse to buy new clothes. Then I began to realize that my consumption was like a drug addiction, the more I bought, the more I NEEDED to consume to maintain the high. While my weight loss was admirable I now needed to face the bigger problem and re-define what brings me joy and where my focuses should be.
My journey is not over and I have not spent too much time trying to analyze my issues. As my spouse says often, “It is what it is”. For now, I am learning to identify my triggers, reduce my stress through less “stuff” and to make my own happiness by experiencing my life with all of its joys and sorrows.
Learn more about me on my blog, Leesa Lives Life (http://leesalives.blogspot.com).
Real Life Minimalists: Leesa
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Minimalists
