Mental minimalism: what is it and how does it benefit us?

Have you heard of minimalism? Most likely yes, and this tendency to live with the essentials is gaining more and more followers. Generally, This term is associated with the organization of environments and material possessions, but can also be applied to psychological space. (mental minimalism).

To know if you can benefit from implementing it, ask yourself the following question: Do you usually feel overwhelmed or blocked by the amount of ideas and thoughts that pile up in your psyche? Do you have a multitude of pending tasks and don’t know how to prioritize to take care of them? Do you often suffer from confusion, stress or anxiety? If so, this proposal may be of great help to you.

What is mental minimalism?

Minimalism is based on the motto “less is more”, but it does not refer to eliminating objects randomly or for the mere sake of getting rid of them. Actually, The objective is to select what is truly important and significant, what it contributes; and, thus, make space and be able to enjoy more organized and functional environments.

Transferring the idea to the psychological level, we follow the same line, so Mental minimalism involves putting order and structuring ideas identifying which thoughts serve us and which do not. In this way, we create peace of mind and are better able to face challenges and make decisions.

Definitely, It is about creating and maintaining mental hygiene that allows us to focus on what is relevant and not get overwhelmed or distracted. with waste elements. Since we live in a fast-paced world, receiving enormous amounts of stimuli per minute, this is not an easy task and requires practice and dedication.

How to apply mental minimalism?

To implement mental minimalism, a series of steps can be followed and we can use various techniques. Below we discuss the most relevant ones.

Observe your thoughts

As a first step, we must recognize the terrain. What thoughts do we have? What emotions are we experiencing?

Curiously, Most of the time we are not aware of the contents of our mind. These go unnoticed and become crowded, disorderly and unattended, preventing us from functioning properly.

Therefore, get used to observing them, without judgment, with the mere intention of becoming aware of what is occupying your inner space.

Select and direct attention

The next step consists of identify the internal content that is relevant and positive and which is dispensable or constitute a burden.

Firstly, by focusing our attention on constructive thoughts and emotions, we are able to amplify them and get used to selecting them as a priority. In this way, we disempower negative self-talk or limiting beliefs. Instead of fighting against them, trying to eliminate them, it is more effective to feed those that we want to maintain.

On the other hand, This helps us prioritize. It is not possible to attend to every thought and idea, it is not feasible to have every aspect of our life under control. Therefore, we will clear our mental terrain if we know what is really relevant; By having clear priorities, we can better organize our time.

Each scale or order is personal; In this sense, we would do well to limit the influence that social impositions may have.

For some people, economic stability will be essential, while for others spiritual well-being or harmonious social relationships will be a higher priority. Discover what is truly important to you and take care of it, the rest can wait..

Practice mindfulness

In relation to the above, you should know that directing the mind is a voluntary and active act, it does not happen naturally (at least at the beginning). Generally People tend to wander mentally between the past and the future, to jump from one idea to another. to another in a frantic way. To reverse this trend, it is very positive to practice mindfulness.

Focus on the present moment, in the actions you are carrying out or in the sensations you are experiencing. When your mind wanders to other types of unwanted thoughts, redirect it again.

Simplify and concrete

Mental minimalism consists of simplifying, freeing ourselves from the superfluous and redundant and keeping only the essential. In this respect, it is necessary learn to concretize ideas, be able to express them in a few words in a concise way.

This helps free up mental space and have clearer direction., and to achieve this, we can resort to writing. How do you feel? What worries you? What do you want to achieve? Try to answer these questions in the most concrete and precise way. In the process, you will get rid of confusion and distraction and gain greater mental organization.

Take care of the information you consume

Finally, it is very positive to learn to regulate the information we consume and how we do it. An excess of data and stimulation can block us, especially if these are not of good quality. Therefore, we must be selective with what we nourish ourselves with (something that applies equally to social relationships).

In this era of immediacy, it is common to jump from one application to another, slide content in tenths of a second and never focus your attention. This habit can carry over into our real daily lives and harm us, so staying away from social networks and spending our time on other types of exercises such as reading or painting can be much more beneficial for our peace of mind.

Mental minimalism is a source of peace

There are those who confuse happiness with joy, but this actually has more to do with tranquility. When our mind is clean, calm and organized, we usually reach states of plenitude. in a much simpler way.

So, if you feel stressed, overwhelmed and unable to deal with your daily life, do not hesitate to apply mental minimalism: when everything is organized internally you will be much more capable of coping with the demands of the environment.

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