Minimalism is king

Introduction to minimalism

It seems that in recent years the concept of minimalism. It is heard in many places. Minimalists emerge everywhere. I don't know if you could say that minimalism is mainstream but it is a relatively frequently used term. Thanks to its rise in recent years, it is beginning to be a widespread and common word in people's daily vocabulary.

Much of the impact of minimalism in society lies in Apple. Although Apple has not coined the term or reinvented it, it is a faithful defender of minimalist design and it can be seen in its products, even in its workplaces, through the aesthetics of its workers. Due to the magnitude of the richest and most influential company on the planet, many people have discovered the genre and adopted a minimalist lifestyle.

Minimalism as an aesthetic trend

Providing an alternative

minimalism, per se , it emerged as an aesthetic movement in the United States. In its origin it was a counterpoint to the hyperrealist aesthetic currents that emerged in the country after the end of the World War II . The realist currents and the rise of pop art, overloaded with ornaments and virtuosity, were not completely satisfactory for some sectors of society, who saw in minimalist designs a new artistic aspect to promote.

Developing independently

This new aesthetic trend had as its bastions some differential features that until then had not been exploited in an artistic sense. The art of achieving beauty with simplicity, separating itself from flourishes and the overload of artistic resources, broke with all the trends established to date. Among the strong points of minimalist aesthetics, still valid today, are:

• Abstraction or dematerialization: The deconstruction of art as a way of creating a new art that, through non-detail, managed to transmit sensations or induce reflective thoughts.
• Artistic economy: A simple and devirtualized use of language, pure colors, simple geometries, predominantly loaded with straight and defined lines and a practical use of artistic resources, marked the patterns to follow in the minimalist works.
• Order: Artistic minimalism, at that time, already promoted an indispensable use of order, as a solution to universal chaos, hence the simplicity and little randomness of minimalist works.
• Passion for detail: A large part of minimalist success lies in the great care of small details and finishes, putting virtue in what used to be left most neglected. Minimalism makes the difference in taking care of even the smallest detail instead of adding more unnecessary details to demonstrate more artistic ability or expertise.
• Simplicity through the synthesis of concepts: This is without a doubt, the most important and subtle point of minimalism. It is common to find among people who do not know or follow minimalist art or styles, the recurring thought that minimalism is simply removing elements, stripping minimalist works, styles or spaces of details to make it simpler and more minimalism compliance, thinking that minimalism consists of not transmitting anything, confusing synthesis with shabby or meaningless. Minimalism tries to transmit emotions, feelings, thoughts or ideas through synthesis, that is, simplifying art so that instead of being able to disperse the memory in unnecessary details, you only have the essential details so that you can interpret what you want to transmit. . Therefore, minimalism is not about eliminating aspects but rather about synthesizing concepts and reducing ideas to their maximum expression to strip them of everything unnecessary.

Minimalist art, due to its intellectual, analytical and synthesizing nature, did not remain just another artistic movement, but also became a new lifestyle.

Minimalism as a lifestyle

Minimalism as a lifestyle is nothing more than a projection of the factors that it promotes as a cultural trend, applied both to real life and to other arts, philosophies or sciences. It can be said that minimalism is the philosophy about how each person exercises their praxis in life.

A minimalist life is a life based on eliminating unnecessary or redundant elements, synthesizing problems, ideas and thoughts and letting yourself be carried away by the pleasure of getting rid of everything unnecessary for the life you want to lead.

Minimalism does not mean austerity

There is no defined pattern in an exact way to lead a fulfilling minimalist life, since it depends on each person's personal objectives and interests. As with art, there are those who think that a minimalist life is living in an empty house. In that house you will only have a mattress on the floor and the day's food in a refrigerator. It is not like this. Minimalism consists of keeping the bare minimum to live, taking into account the life that each person wants to lead, getting rid of all the material that prevents you from achieving the life you want to lead . Nor is it the absence of material goods, it is limiting the material goods that hinder your path. Minimalism is about how to reduce the limits and barriers to your happiness.

As examples, having a big and beautiful house does not have to be at odds with minimalism; It depends on your goal in life. If your goal in life is to lead a calm life, with a stable job and raise a family, probably having a big house is compatible with a minimalist life. On the contrary, if your goal in life is to live adventures, great experiences, travel as much as possible and lead a less structured life, buying a house can limit your path to happiness, in the sense that it anchors you to a place in which you live. the one that you don't have to want to be there always and that may entail a great financial cost that makes your adventures or trips around the world difficult.

A simple and very defining text, taken from hypertextual , about the minimalist life is the following:

Minimalism as a lifestyle is a trend that focuses on simplification. It is a lifestyle in which you seek to have only what you need. What you love and inspire you, at least from my point of view. It is a revaluation of your priorities. I believe that the definition adapts to each person and, furthermore, changes over time. At first you may see it as decluttering that room, but as time goes by, you start to find the philosophy behind it.

Finally, and to finish the article, I leave you below some points about what a minimalist lifestyle entails. a priori being at the expense, obviously, of its application or adaptation to the life that each person wants to live.

Keys to a minimalist life (existential minimalism)

1. Existential minimalism is a life design and existence optimization technique. It's not a life goal, it's how you live the path.
2. More is worse. Tending to accumulate (things, thoughts, information) is to complicate your existence.
3. Less is better. Tend to keep only what is strictly necessary in your life.
4. Important things should always be done first.
5. Try to anticipate any situation, don't expect things to just happen.
6. Choose the best tools for the job you have to do. If you only have a hammer, you will treat everyone like nails.
7. Values ​​come before goals.
8. Possessions possess you, having fewer possessions will give you freedom.
9. Think small, small is beautiful and everything great starts with something small.
10. Don't compete against anyone, prove your worth and she will speak for you.
11. Systematically distrust the media and advertising, what we see does not have to be true, do not let them manipulate you.
12. Will is the key to converting intention into results.
13. Choose yourself through your values, not those they want to impose on you.
14. Do not buy impulsively, before making a major purchase, wait 7 days and think about whether it is still necessary to make it.
15. Diversify your identity, don't try to fit into a certain group where you have to assume labels, you are you.
16. Learn when you should innovate and when you should follow paths already explored.
17. Fail a lot and well, failing will make you learn faster and better than any other means. Your learning begins when you make a mistake about something.
18. Experience and intuition always win over theory.
19. If you become a prepared student, you become a teacher.
20. When your work has significance, you stop being an invisible man.
21. The only engine of ambition is creativity, you will never achieve relevant goals without being creative.
22. The key things in life are those in which you smile, breathe calmly and do things slowly.
23. The correct order is health, love and money. Without health you cannot love as you should and without love money is useless.
24. NO to revolution, YES to evolution.
25. Rest is as important as effort, the worse you rest, the more you are harmed at all levels.
26. Learn to disconnect so that your head doesn't necessarily do it for you.
27. Don't confuse complexity with an obstacle.
28. Your house and your physical environment have to be in harmony with your interior design, take care of the details.
29. Before embarking on achieving a goal, make sure it does not contradict your values.
30. Sometimes the best action is to do nothing, do not try to solve everything, there are things that have no solution.
31. Future objectives should serve to guide your action in the present.
32. Try to be aware of your beliefs and their origin to decide if your beliefs are beneficial to you or you should abandon them.
33. Your professional success is measured by what you can contribute to other colleagues. Your individual value contributes nothing.
34. Simplify things as much as you can, but not more than they are.
35. Don't let the accessory divert you from the essential.
36. Freedom goes hand in hand with responsibility.
37. He who has pending cases is not free.
38. Love what you do and do what you love
39. Apologize before permission, the experience will give you more than the fear.
40. Here and now, give your best at every moment without thinking about future tasks.
41. Never recommend to anyone something you don't believe in.
42. 90% of everything is garbage, learn to differentiate what is important to keep it.
43. KISS (Keep It Soft and Simple)
44. Don't waste your time on things that don't contribute anything to your life.
45. Memento Mori.
46. The best way to be a problem solver is to be a creative person.
47. Be realistic with optimistic tendencies.
48. Your rules have to guide you, not limit you.
49. Your aspirational mentality should not be based on what you know how to do but rather based on what you want to know.
50. Intelligence is a state, not a property.
51. Keep your head in the clouds, your eyes on the horizon and your feet on the ground.
52. People first.
53. Take care of all the legs of your life so that you do not wobble.
54. Excellence is not optional.
55. When you feel that the people around you are better than you, you are in the right place.
56. There are no shortcuts to success, if there were everyone would succeed.
57. The best way to achieve success is to learn from who you surround yourself with.
58. Do not trivialize sex, it is essential for a healthy mind.
59. Resting, eating, playing sports, socializing and meditating should not be negotiated.
60. Experimenting and making a fool of yourself will be your best teachers.
61. Control your attention to control your life.
62. Remember that you can't control everything.
63. Learn to delegate.
64. Emotional self-management is the most complicated part of life to carry out.
65. Be careful not to diminish the brilliance of the familiar to be dazzled by the reflection of the new.
66. Opportunity cost, you always have to give up something, there is nothing free.
67. Nobody is going to pay you for what you work, but for what you contribute.
68. Have simple tastes and a complex mind, not the other way around.
69. Gain the support of others with logical reasoning, not coercion.
70. Getting into debt is selling your freedom.
71. You can't do everything well, detect what you are good at and exploit it.
72. No skill comes from not working at it.
73. Learn to distill what you perceive through your senses.
74. New experiences enrich and expand horizons in your head.
75. Self-esteem and self-confidence come from your job. They depend on your contribution to your environment. It does not depend on self-praise or overconfidence.

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