expiatiste: simple goals

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Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

“

—

– Leonardo da Vinci

I said I was going to blog tonight, but I ran out of steam.

I’ve had a ‘bad’ two and a half months. Things were going so well, and then they weren’t and it all just snowballed.

Food, depression, lack of exercise etcetera, etcetera. All of my usual daemons, with all of their usual intensity.

Despite this, I have made some major progress and taken two or three huge steps in my life. I’m holding on to that at this point, holding on and hoping my fingers don’t cramp.

Trying to get back to my three basic goals (to be Independent, Minimalist & Prime), I started going through my RIL list for inspiration.

The above quote is from The Lifestyle of a Minimalist Digital Nomad - and Why You Don’t Need To Be One. It made me feel powerful, I hope it can do the same for you.

This is the makeup/beauty pile, all spread out and ready to be dealt with.

I am wondering how to progress from this point. I am done with culling, I need to figure and way of directing (?) usage so that I am able to use-up the ten bottles of face cream, but not all at once!

It is not a minimalist dream, but I am proud of my progress. There are 13 mini-piles-of-crap for me to work on over the next 13 days, but it should be sorting and storing rather than culling.

In the last two years I have reduced my possessions by around 85%. There is still a long way to go, but I am hoping that much of it will happen through natural attrition (clothes, makeup, shoes, notebooks etc.)

I loved the ‘one day, one thing’ concept, however it was causing me too much emotional distress. In the end, making the decision to donate a mass amount rather than attempt to sell/gift/donate/repurpose item by item was the right one for me.

One of the outward signs of my depression has been a type of hoarding, collecting anything and everything from my life to prove that it really happened, thus providing a sense of accomplishment and/or self. I am no longer so afraid that I will not remember without paraphernalia. Ridding myself of my ‘collections’ is like stripping away layers of paint to reveal what is really me.

Minimalism means different things to different people; it is helping save my life.

Can I do it before midnight?

This is what happens inside my head when I forget to take my sertraline hydrochloride : exterior mirrors interior.

2010 10 27

Two nasty, scratchy sweaters.

2010 10 26

Cute angel-kitten with warm pink patches for paws and big, round, two tone blue eyes. I’m going to need to figure out how better to take a picture of him.