Intentional Living Over Minimalism! Why I Changed My Mind?

Have you heard about intentional living? 

Neither did I until earlier this year. Minimalism was something I’ve been learning about and trying to incorporate in my everyday life for a year now. I tried to find best sources but also ways that I can include it in my lifestyle without it being forced into it. 

I still find minimalism a great way of living a mindful and de-cluttering mental and physical life. I wanted to share with you the reason why I decided that intentional living might be better option for me. 

WHAT IS INTENTIONAL LIVING? 

Intentional living is a way of living where you are looking for an intention behind activity, material thing or something spiritual. It is a way of being mindful with the things that are surrounding you or situations that are happening in your life. This is just a simple and my interpretation of the intentional living. 

WHY I DECIDED TO ACCEPT IT? 

Minimalism was something that I’ve been interested in and tried to incorporate it in my daily lifestyle. Although I knew that minimalism isn’t about getting rid of everything you own I still had quite a hard time getting on that path and that’s why I never called myself a minimalist. 

I also realized that what I wanted to focus more on wasn’t not buying things or throwing away what I already own. I was always a very disciplined when it comes to shopping. I never go shopping just to relieve stress or because I’m bored. I’m conscious about things that I spend my money on. That’s why I usually go shopping when I really need something. 

Another thing that I realized is that I put a lot of intention in the material but also non material things. I always ask myself “Do you really need it?” and “Do you see yourself using it in the future for a long time?” If answers to both of those questions are “Yes.”, then I buy that thing.

HOW I FOUND OUT ABOUT INTENTIONAL LIVING? 

One day I accidentally stumbled upon a YouTube video that mentioned intentional living and then I had that “aha” effect. It was when I tried to learn even more about minimalism. I knew that intentional living is something that is much more natural to me than purely wanting to own less. 

Although I was always very intentional with the things I own, now I wanted to be even more so. Not just for personal reasons but also for the environmental ones. We live in a world where we don’t really think carefully about the intention and what is behind the decision that we make. Living with intention is knowing when it is the right time to say no and to say yes. 

Intentional living is much more than just saying “No” to material things that you don’t need. It is about saying “Yes” to experiences that will make your life and yourself a much better person. 

CAN INTENTIONAL LIVING & MINIMALISM WORK TOGETHER? 

Of course they can. I believe that intentional living and minimalism are very intertwined. Although you may not practice minimalism you can definitely see traces of it while you focus on intentional living. It goes vise versa as well; while you live a more intentional life you will notice that you are also living a more minimal lifestyle. 

It all depends on what you want to focus more on. For some people minimalism is just way too scary and they can’t start to dive into that lifestyle. Others might find intentional living too burdensome. I believe that one of the reasons why a lot of people don’t choose either one of them or start but then soon give up is because they except perfection. They want to live a minimal life in a week or be more intentional over night. The truth is that things don’t work that way. We all know that way too good but still end up caught in the perfectionism trap. 

OVERALL CONCLUSION

I love intentional living and minimalism because I decide the ways I’m going to apply them in my life and I do it at own time and limit. Something that I’m trying to do is to go one step at the time and not beating myself up when I lose focus as that happens more than I would like to admit. Don’t give up before you even started. Get informed and work with yourself and your lifestyle. Don’t follow someone else’s way and then get disappointed when it doesn’t provide result you wanted to. 

Have you heard about intentional living before?

Do you think you would be open to incorporating it in your lifestyle? 

♥

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