Recently, because a friend changed jobs and had to move, I called a few friends to help.The moment I walked into the room, I always felt a cramped and depressing feeling. The room was not small, but it was extremely cramped and narrow because of the various items that occupied it.The clothes alone were packed for nearly five or six hours.Coat: long section short section waist as well as red green yellow black brown and other various styles of colors are available.Sweater: winter spring fall round neck V-neck high collar en ……

Pants: long pants shorts high waist low waist cloth denim black white ……

package: single shoulder double shoulder crossbody small bag medium bag large bag ……

There are also up to dozens of hair bands, dozens of pairs of shoes and socks of different colors and styles, cosmetics and various chains from ears to neck to hands to feet ……

After packing up the stuff, it was almost dusk, we were already exhausted, close to the state of deficiency ……

I can’t help but feel that life is not easy, ah, behind every shiny individual has paid an unexpected amount of time, energy and money.

On the way home, I’ve been thinking, does beauty really need so many things? Is that dear one as rich and shiny inside as the things she has?

As a girl, we always feel like we are missing a dress. Faced with a kitchen full of clothes still worried about what to wear and how to wear? Even sometimes because of rushing to work or to attend an important meeting, panic, in the face of a closet full of stuffed, do not know where to start, so easy to pull out a few seasonal models, but still feel wrong. When you return home with a tired body after a busy day, you look at the messy clothes and pants lying capriciously on the sofa, floor and every corner of the house, and your mood hits the bottom…

This seems to be a vicious circle, the more messy the more tired, the more tired the more messy. This is actually a projection of the state of the inner chaos of the self.

Why are you so tired? It is because we have become slaves to our “wants” and have given up the awareness of our “needs”.

In fact, Carine Roitfeld, the former editor-in-chief of Vogue France, has a very insightful summary about fashion:

“It’s important to see trends for what they are: a game.” In Chinese, this means “Buy only the clothes that you plan to keep forever. It’s important to see trends for what they are: a game.”

I read online that Matilda Kahl, the beautiful creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi, decided to make a drastic change to her closet after she was late for an important meeting to pick out her clothes on her first day on the job. From then on, she only wears the simplest white shirt + black pants on working days. To avoid monotony, she will work on some details, such as using leather cords to tie knots on the collar, and thus wears her own style, instead of being more sought after by the elite.

It is not necessary to have too many items that we can have and make full use of and enjoy. By removing and reducing unnecessary items, and constantly stripping ourselves of the items that enslave us, we can more easily focus on the few items we have, and seriously feel and experience their true value and meaning. Only then will we be more perceptive and transparent.

When it comes to minimalism, we have to mention Steve Jobs, who was deeply impressed by his minimalism and perfectionism when he read the popular “Steve Jobs Biography”. From decades of dressing style to furniture products to the Apple business empire, are a good interpretation of what is minimalism.

For example, to buy a sofa and a washing machine, he would discuss with his wife for a long time and then compare them. When buying each item they would constantly ask themselves, what is the real use of this item? This seemingly crazy paranoia reflects the seriousness of his needs. Most people buy on impulse, but he repeatedly studies the philosophical issues in the sofa, the essence of things.

“Less is more” is the philosophy that Steve Jobs always insisted on. Even for the details of life, he did not compromise. It is because of this pursuit of minimalist perfection almost paranoid. It was only because of this almost paranoid pursuit of minimalist perfection that he was able to withdraw from the many distractions and become more sensitive to products and business, and find the inspiration to change the world with the Apple product style and corporate culture we know so well.

Of course minimalism is not simply throwing, throwing, throwing as well as living a humble and shabby life. If we can’t figure out the real meaning behind it, we can easily fall into the illusion that the whole world is brighter when we throw it, as if the whole person is relaxed and transparent, but after a while we start to feel deprived and empty, so we open a new round of embarrassment while throwing and buying.

Therefore, reducing things is not the purpose itself, but the “important things” that you have to prioritize after reducing things is the purpose. If you take minimalism as the purpose, what awaits you after achieving the purpose is the same as the result after your material desires are satisfied, the same endless emptiness.

Noritoshi Sasaki, the author of the book “I decided to live simply”, defines a minimalist as

1. a person who truly knows what he or she needs;

2. a person who reduces the number of items for the most important goal in life.

The purpose of reducing the number of items is to help each person find what is really important to him/her in life. In order to focus on pursuing the most important things, one has to eliminate other unimportant things, which is the way of streamlining.

Minimalism is not about despising and disliking things, nor is it about being an ascetic. Rather, by cutting out unnecessary items in our lives, we learn to slowly discover what we care about and what we value, to perceive our own existence, and to re-examine and construct a true self, instead of being enslaved and held hostage by items.

This minimalist lifestyle is actually a redefinition of the self.

This seems to return to a very serious philosophical proposition: to know and see oneself.

After stripping away all the irrelevant objects, social life and complicated information, one can mindfully perceive and refine what one has. In this simple and orderly relationship to create and experience a more personal but relaxed and enjoyable way of life.