Minimalism: less is more in the way of simplicity

“When the birds sing and the flowers drop their petals, even solitude can be a contentment for the soul.”

This oriental proverb reminds us that existence is full of small details that make it beautiful and worth living, despite the inevitable moments of despondency or loneliness.

The meaning of the experiences we have depends a lot on perspective from which we view events. If it is true that things look “pink” when we feel happy and rather black and gray when we are sad, this suggests that to some extent we can change our moods. It all depends on the attitude we adopt.

Mental openness and good emotional disposition are always positive factors to maintain an optimistic attitude.

“Whoever does not enjoy his happy moments cannot be called lucky; he who feels happy in difficult times he is truly a sage”, a Chinese text reminds us.

Indeed, Everything is in the mind. Even what we consider to be more material, such as the body and its sensations, does not cease to belong ultimately to a consciousness state.

The pleasure you can give have an ice cream in summer It cannot be explained by looking only at its chemical components. In the same way that being sad about watch the sports team lose with which we identify does not have a very clear logical basis. In both cases it is mental and social conventions in which we believe, but which do not cease to be subjective.

Let us take advantage of this psychological relativism to see the positive side of things, even when they are not pleasant. EITHER let’s give a chance to apparently less fortunate life situations so that they show us their kinder side or serve as learning.

existential arithmetic

In the past it was considered that receiving a basic education consisted of learn to read and writeto which was added the four math rules: add, subtract, multiply and divide. That may seem like a small thing today, but it is still true that these simple instruments allow the development of the entire complex cultural fabric that we know

Reading and writing make it possible to understand and represent the world, while elementary arithmetic describes the dynamics of existence.

We have on one hand operations that we could consider Yang (addition and multiplication) because increase or expand the quantities, and on the other the Yin (subtraction and division) that the decrease or contract. But if these operations serve us to calculate on paper, it is no less true that our actions are based on transformations who obey those four rules learned at school.

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No one thinks that one of these operations is more important than the others, all are equally necessary. But curiously, we tend to value as positive what it implies to increase something quantitatively and as negative what it means to reduce or make smaller parts, when in real life cyclical processes usually occur that use those four possibilities.

Thus, every gain entails a loss.. To reach a certain place we must abandon the one we occupy now, in the same way that to be adults we lose, so to speak, our childhood. To obtain a benefit, for example, economic (add or multiply money) you have to invest effort, life time and capital (which is equivalent to subtracting or dividing).

The greatness of the small

Thus, the idea that “more is more”, repeated indefinitely, runs into reality. To keep moving forward you have to stop and rest sometimesin the same way that economics requires not only adding and multiplying but also subtracting and distributing benefits.

It should not be forgotten that smallness and slowness are also often convenient. Hence Sometimes, less is more”, although it seems a clever but unreal phrase. Isn’t it true that to receive you have to give first? Humility is a quality that magnifies those who possess it.

In the medical field there is a current, initially arising in Germany, called “Information Medicine”which demonstrates experimentally that the organism responds to a therapeutic through very small stimuli of an energetic type (electromagnetic and light frequencies).

Homeopathy also uses very small amounts (infinitesimals) of medication to specifically stimulate the body’s defensive reactions. In addition, it can sometimes “delete” certain pathogenic information that hinder the balance (homeostasis) of the organism.

Forgetting is also a vital necessity, we cannot process all the sensory information that we continuously receive and neither can we store it (neurology comes to say that knowledge does take place in the brain). As for unpleasant memories, it is convenient on the one hand that serve as experiencebut at the same time they must be surpassed and even forgotten in the sense of do not spin continuously to that pain of the past.

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Distinguishing needs from wants

In these difficult times, the stoic philosophy It is a healthy reference, as it reminds us that we must distinguish between needs and desires.

How would senecaone of its highest representatives: “It is happy he who is pleased in the present circumstances, whatever they may be.” And in the face of the obsession with wealth: “The one who has a lot is not rich, but the one who wants little. It is not poor who has little, but who wants a lot.

It is often forgotten that in the world there are two kinds of misery: that of extreme poverty and that of wealth or well exaggerated opulence. Both ends they distance themselves from human dignity.

For the vast majority, who are neither poor nor rich, the back to some simplification it is also convenient. It’s about valuing things from an optic of essentiality: what is really important in front of the most superfluous. And not only with respect to consumer objects, but also in terms of people and beliefs.

Better appreciate what you have instead of longing for what we do not possess. Consider –life is rather short–, what really makes sense to one’s own existence.

The bliss of simplicity

There is a simple life for not have the material possibility to complicate things. This is the case in the current indigenous populations and it was normal in our rural societies until very recently.

There is also the simplicity or simplicity of the one who can have many things but prefer to settle for less. The latter is what happens in our consumer culture when someone voluntarily avoids excesses.

Whatever the reason, we can lighten the emotional and material baggage by including the “less is more” in our accounts.

The first step is get away from the big media spectacle which reality tends to become. not the tv screen the one that should dictate the rules to us, nor is everything that glitters gold. The West has developed a culture based on the full –forgetting the fullness of the void– and on noise that depreciates silence.

Containment is another useful virtue. In fact, the elegance of the “zen” aesthetic of certain couturiers or architects often lies in having reached a sophisticated simplicity that avoids the superfluous.

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There is containment practices available to everyone and that strengthen internally: make a day of fasting or silence, meditate for a while without moving, watch less television, walk or ride a bicycle without haste… The contact with the nature it is a way to renew our mind and emotions, often too saturated with contradictory information.

In addition, simplicity sometimes means realizing the subtle: “One should see the shadows of flowers in the water, the shadow of bamboos under the moon, and the shadow of beauty behind the curtain of a door.”

The needs of the human being

can make one basic needs classification of human beings according to the three levels in which we live. Let’s see them:

Physics. They are related to the body and its maintenance: food, water, a house that protects from the elements. They should be inalienable human rights and accessible from birth, or in any case the possibility of a job that would allow it. The sexuality participates both in the physical and in the feelings.psychic They belong to the field of love and affections. We all want to love and be loved, that’s why they are important partner, family and friends. It is also important to feel recognized at work and in society. The feeling of belong to a group or a country is also necessary, as well as enjoying art and beauty.spiritual. It is about our relationship with the transcendent reality, that which gives deep meaning to life and allows to contemplate death with hope. believe in something highera kind of religious instinct, is inherent to the human being and it is good that it be cultivated.

This division that we could call three-dimensional does not imply that there is a total separation between these levels. It can also be seen as the same trend manifested in different fields.

Finally, so true is that to have transpersonal experiences (of self-actualization according to Maslow’s pyramid) there must be solved before the primary needsas the opposite: that approaching the spiritual dimension of oneself facilitates do without certain material goods.