Relishing the Minimum

I’d been coming from home to school every day last year. It was a real challenge since the school I’m in at the moment is in another city. This year, however, I moved in with a friend temporarily while my Hostel space(dorm allocation) was getting ready. Then the brief holidays began and now I’m back in school, moved fully into the hostel a couple of days ago or thereabout.

I can’t exactly give a rundown of how less is more affected my life previously since I was at home with everybody. The chances of more being just right were not unexpected at all cause everything was available and somehow, when everything is available, waste could more or less be inevitable. But now that I’m away from home, away from things being in abundance from food to clothes and everything in between, the concept of less is more, whether or like it or not, will be on a full roll.

Luckily for me, I usually lived a life of less being more while I was at home so I don’t envisage it to be much of a hassle to apply here. Starting with the packing. It got darker sooner than I expected and my camera isn’t really great to take pictures when there isn’t adequate sunlight but I’ll just tell you briefly about it. When my sisters helped me pack the things I’d need into the hostel(mostly clothes), I looked at it in the end and I knew it wasn’t going to work.

I mean, sure the clothes are okay if you’re planning on going to places every other day but for someone like me who’s more or less an introvert and prefers staying indoors to whatever excitement is happening outside, I immediately reasoned that some of those clothes wouldn’t be out of the box till I got back home. So, I started downsizing, ticking off the necessities and mentally picturing myself in school, what I’d be doing, where I’d be going and taking that image down to my clothes and just cutting off from there. I went to school with a lighter box and I was really happy about it.

Then to the other aspects. I woke up this morning and felt renewed. I didn’t have problems sleeping which is usually something I deal with and I’m sure others do too when they’re in a new environment. So I woke up and before today, I’d done a bit of journaling. Aside from writing my goals, I wrote down my routine. Morning routine, evening routine and even Hive routine.

The morning routine included waking up, working out, reciting my daily affirmations and all of that. And I can say that through it all, I felt really nice as a person, and felt really responsible too. I can boldly say that having a routine and being disciplined enough to stick to it gives you a satisfaction that is not talked about enough. I did all I needed to do, took a shower and bought the food they were selling at the hostel(bad advice anyway) and when I was done ticking everything on my list, I sat down and smiled. My life felt perfectly in order.

You may not see how less is more is coming into play but I’ll tell you how in a bit. It’s just like when you’re going camping or mountain climbing or desert hiking(if that’s a thing). You see that you’re working with the bare minimum and from there, you realize that not only do you have to make it work but also you have to make it work in a way that you’re not living in deprivation. It seems something out of the box but it is really simple if you think about it.

So I’ve got working for me my little six spring bunk bed that is the only thing available here on campus which invariably means I’ve got where to sleep and I’ve got my box of clothes, which might I just add is the smallest I’ve seen from anybody else so far so let’s just say clothing is covered. And, I have another bag accompanying it where I keep my groceries(temporarily) since cooking of any form in the dorm isn’t allowed. That means I’ve got food to eat. I do have money with me so I can go buy food to eat. Simple feeding twice a day that I try as much as I can not to compromise the dieting plan I’m on.

Suffice it to say that if there’s any place that would bring less is more to life, it’s got to be a trip to a remote place or the hostel and since I’m on the latter, my daily life(so far) has been panning out quite nicely. I love the fact that the #kiss initiative looks for ways to let us reflect on things and a topic like this is no exception. For all that is true of minimalism, a less is more life is simply the best, least cumbersome way to go.

Jhymi 🖤

_{Image is mine.}

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