While I have worked on music here and there for the last year or so, I haven’t had the time post any new material. Now that I’ve finally made the time for creating music again, I can get back into publishing it.

NEW EQUIPMENT, NEW BEGINNINGS

I’ve extensively and effectively changed almost 90% of my audio setup this year, with the exclusion being Renoise and bass. Almost all of my other tools have been built from the ground up, including my basic computing platform (I switched from 21 years of PC to Mac). I’ve basically had to learn new systems and create an entirely new workflow, which I’m only now just getting down.

Partly I did this on purpose, as there is nothing better than swimming in Awkwardness to really get your creative juices flowing in a brand new way. I can literally feel the new brain pathways and neurons connecting and building, giving me access to new ideas that without changing my setup, I may have never seen.

The time was right to publish another piece, so here it is:

020

SoundCloud version (will change as I update the song):

020 by jsohlander
Version as I posted this (will remain constant as long as this site exists):

This piece came out of my current in-depth study of virtual synths, something that’s been on my music to do list for years. Particularly, I’m diving deeply into NI’s Massive, which in itself is a purely incredible synth powerhouse.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to publish this piece, but after I laid down the synth, the rest of it flowed pretty quickly. A whole new path to create.

I’ve also recently acquired some new bass effects equipment which helped me anchor in cleaner and fuller sounds than I had been able to before. I will delve into some specifics in a future JS Music Update post.

Suffice to say, it’s nice to be back publishing music to the web again. In addition to writing more articles, I plan on publishing music much more frequently as I re-ramp myself into a new music path/career.

Performance is not far behind at this point.

Random Posts

• Public Album Update 9 – First Sample Up! – Renoise Registration – Thoughts
• New Site Direction, Juice Feasting Thoughts, Public Album, More
• Writing Has Started – Plans – Public Album Update

For many years I was almost in a constant state of inspiration. I had an insatiable desire to create and share, mostly through music.

I’ve always been bent more towards the producer end and less of the consumer end of things anyway, but I’ve noticed it slipping more as time goes on.

How and why does this happen?

CONSUMPTION IS RESISTANCE

In times of stress, a lot of us tend to end up consuming a lot more: movies, video games, TV…anything to take our minds off of what we really want to do. This is just Resistance.

With too much consumption, we get rusty and it gets harder each day to get to back to our real work.

With too much production, we stagnate. We also need to be fed a steady stream of inspiration in order to create; this comes from learning Conscious Consumption.

In my experience, a good ratio that works for me is 80% producing to 20% consuming. This ensures that I am putting out a steady stream of work while giving myself plenty of room for inspiration from Conscious Consumption.

My new experiment for the coming next few months is to post something every day on my site. I’m looking to see what quality of work I can produce, what kind of people it attracts, and just to add significantly to my body of work.

WHY BE SO CONCERNED?

Some people who read this are going to wonder why am I so concerned with my ratios of producing vs consuming. Whether you choose to produce or consume is a conscious choice, but I’d wager that these people are probably very content being mostly consumers and only producing for other people when told to (i.e. a job). After graduating from some school, they never really developed the discipline of producing just because they want to. As Tynan said in his post, whether you produce or whether you consume is mostly a matter of preference.

QUALITY OF CONSUMPTION

From past experience, I’ve discovered that I can ramp up my production with very little consumption. For instance, from being inspired by a particular piece of art I can ride a large wave of quality production for quite a long time. An example is when I first heard “Mustaches Wild” from KARP, particularly the first song ‘Dueling Banshees‘ in ’94. Not only did it completely changed the way I thought about and interacted with music, it was the impetus for basically my next three bands before the effect wore off.

Now that is quality consumption.

PRODUCING FORCES YOU TO INTERACT WITH OTHERS

As a solid bonus, producing helps you grow as a person by forcing you to interact with others. Consumption is safe, and often lonely. Spend a few bucks, get a blip of enjoyment and no one but you has to know. You can be in a black hole and consume till the end of time, but with production there is no follow through unless you publish (share) your work in some way.

I can’t even count the amount of people Heidi and I met and the things we learned when we randomly started a health food blog that ran from 2006-2010. We made a business out of it, met so many amazing people, changed our lives and taught ourselves how to write for an audience. Now there are hundreds and possibly thousands of people out there that know my work but I don’t know who they are.

That’s a weird feeling if you’ve never had it.

In the end, producing is not only way more fulfilling than consuming, but it gives you a body of work that continues to grow as you grow, leaving you a legacy and giving you something you can exchange for money to make a career out of for life.

Of course, I could’ve spent all that time just reading blogs instead of creating one…and gotten close to nothing out of it. But I digress…

#####

Heidi has written an awesome piece on fighting for your right to Produce. It certainly was a kick in my ass and got me to write this post tonight even though it’s 3 AM, and even though I’m tired from writing music for the last 2 hours and I have to get up early to take someone to an appointment. Now that’s a love for producing.

Random Posts

• Self-Development
• Tools and Equipment Part 2 – Tracking Software – Public Album Update
• Baseline Your Life.

For the last few days (as I’m ramping up my desires for 2012), I’ve been experimenting with writing a blog draft every night, regardless of how late it is, or how little I want to do it. Especially not important is whether or not I have an idea.

Momentum will eventually happen to you, whether you like it or not. The question is, once it happens, are you going to keep it going, or let it waver to perhaps never pick it up again?

For example, in the last year or so a series of events has forced Heidi and I into a pattern of momentum. This was Unwanted Momentum. At first. But once I had it I knew that if I didn’t keep it up, I would lose it again. So I bridged that negative momentum into positive outlets. Like writing these blog drafts. Like cleaning up the space around me. Like preparing for another round of music writing, etc.

Bridging Negative Momentum

You can either be pro-active and start your own momentum (even if it’s painful at first) or you can wait and let life throw some shit your way first. I prefer the former, but sometimes get dealt the latter.

The trick that most people don’t understand is that once you are pushed into momentum by a negative event, you need to take that momentum and bridge it into something positive before the boulder bulldozes you into a collapsed and exhaustive stupor of inaction.

The act of bridging is taking that energy and rolling into something positive by your own volition. Don’t let the world steamroll you into momentum from only negative events, because it will if you don’t take the boulder and run first.

Take the opportunity right now to get back on top of your life.

Once you do, don’t break the chain. If you do, it’s so much easier to justify stopping the next day.

So whether there is some crazy stuff happening in your life right now or everything is calm and boring, you have the opportunity to create and cultivate momentum right now.

Learn to live your life with momentum as a constant companion and see what happens.

As Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman in the World said: “Do it now.”

“Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!”

~Og Mandino

 

Random Posts

• Making Decisions – Shuffling vs True Extreme Cleaning
• New Song – JS Music Update 18 – 020
• Songs to Hear, Juice Feasting Update, Public Album Update

007 Update

I’ve been working on expanding out 007 for quite a while, not sure where I wanted to take it. You can hear the older version for comparison when I first posted this piece.

007 – Audio

I’m very drawn to the drum work on this piece and listening to it always puts me in a hurry-up-and-stop mindset, which I absolutely love. I’ve repeated the initial bass riff over and over again which to me adds a very ‘wanting’ feeling without having to deal with much of a classic buildup that you find in a lot of electronic music.

The new bass part at the very end was added recently and is way more rhythmic than it is melodic. It’s only two notes but the scattered riff and energy drive the song forward even more.

I’m not quite sure where I want to take this song next, but I have a feeling that an all-out climactic conclusion into a memorable part is order.

16+ Years of Tab

On top of my writing duties, just today I’ve started a project that I’ve been wanting to get at for a long, long time: going through 16+ years of bass tab. Other than audio-only, this is essentially my complete written works. There is a stack of material waiting for me to tackle and I’ve already gone through a few pages of it.

I’m planning on determining what is worth keeping and what I want to toss. When I find something I want to keep, I’m going to record it and then possibly refine it and bring it into this work that I’m doing now. Everything else will be shelved for possible future projects.

My insane mission to go through every inch of my life and determine what is important and essential and what isn’t is gaining a delicious momentum and completely altering every aspect of my life.

All I can say right now, is that it’s everything I thought it would be…and more.

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On another note, Heidi and I have been receiving another stack of curious questions from people asking us about minimalism quest. In fact, I do feel like I’m on a quest for some strange treasure.

These people are fascinated, and rightly so. I’ll keep addressing my journey on this site, but to make it more organized and helpful, Heidi and I are close to deciding to start a site/blog dedicated to this enrapturing subject that we have fallen in love with.

What else can offer more enthusiasm than gaining more and more freedom back in your life?

~ JS

Related Posts:

• JS Music – Update 14 – New Audio (5a)
• JS Music – Update 13 – New Audio (0107)
• Public Album Update 12 – New Track – 007 – More octave effect and playing with drums

5a

Over the last couple months I’ve been spending a ton more time on creating music while I continue to minimalize my life. I’ve written a lot of new material and have further expanded my vision of where I am heading with this musical project.

Today I’m posting a brand new piece that has the temporary title of “5a”. This piece was originally written for another project that was put aside and I’ve come to love the simple crushing sound of it so much that I had to pull it over into my personal project.

5a is a driving piece, using deep/wide synths and more overdrive/octave fueled bass riffs. It’s reminiscent of classic industrial-type beats and drum sounds with an overarching forward-reaching cadence.

5a – Audio

I’ve attempted quite a few different angles for expanding this piece into something bigger and more substantial but have been unable to find quite the right compliment. I suspect that many of these attempts will find themselves tucked into other pieces.

This is a piece that I can really feel when I play it and envision it transferring to performance beautifully. It’s going to provide a huge energy live and I’m sure I’ll look ridiculous while playing it on stage.

Updates, New Songs, and Chaga Tea

I’ve got some hearty updates to 007 and a couple new pieces that have me outright bursting with creative energy on that I can’t wait to share. One of the pieces goes into a sonic realm on the bass that I rarely get into and will expand my audible variety significantly. As I’m writing this right now, I’m feeling the excitement build to work on this piece!

While I’m ramping up sheer hours spent in my minimalist ‘studio’ (post coming soon on that), I’ve been hitting up chaga tea and chaga-coffee drinks quite a bit and am feeling very balanced, energized, and inspired. I can say with absolute certainty that chaga has increased my mental acuity and concentration dramatically. Something I didn’t quite suspect since I’ve only experienced it as an immune and overall body tonic previously.

Heidi and I will do a post on chaga on HealthRebels.com to give you the Ohlander Download on chaga. Especially now that we are getting close to winter, and chaga hunting season is nearing!

SoundCloud

Besides all the writing I’ve been doing in a cramped but well-lit corner of my room, I’ve recently signed up for SoundCloud and so far I absolutely love the service, even more than BandCamp. It’s interface is very slick and easy to work with. I was up and running with all of my material in no time, all with basic (and powerful) features.

The main reason I signed up was so I could post a simple, quality Flash player on the side of this site. Check it out. It plays quickly and fits perfectly anywhere you put it on your site…all this even in the free version, which gives you up to 2 hours of audio to load for free as well.

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At the rate I’m progressing, I’m planning on performing something within 2-3 months, which is very doable at this point. I’ve done a lot of research and put a lot of thought into my live setup, as well as purchased some key equipment. Right now I can say that it will be minimal and powerful…just how I like it.

Someone recently asked me about how I mixed my music after writing it. My answer is quite simple: right in Renoise! The power of this program grows exponentially for me each time I use it, it’s almost like someone downloaded my brain, deciphered exactly the right DAW for me, and put it all together into an ever-growing and easy to use environment. It’s too bad that some people are turned off by tracking software. All I can say to them is that Renoise is miles beyond any classic tracking program, like ScreamTracker from the 90′s, and is growing in powerful features ridiculously at this point.

Related Posts:

• JS Music – Update 15 – 007 Update
• JS Music – Update 13 – New Audio (0107)

My pencil cup: Before

No pencil cup: After

This may seem silly to some who read this, but the above two pictures yield a major breakthrough in my quest to become more Minimal and Essentialize my stuff.

I’ve basically been on a relentless pursuit (for the last decade) to pare my belongings down to the Essential and go through every single item I own. After years of peeling away the layers, I had a recent breakthrough: I have no reason to own or use a pencil cup.

About 15 years ago, I worked at any office supply store and got to know all the office accouterments more intimately than I ever wanted. When I first got my own place, I started to buy some of this stuff to get “organized”. So naturally, I bought a nice looking pencil cup (see awesome photo above), because…well, I needed one, right?

Office Supplies Help You Organize! Um, No Thanks…

Through the years, whenever a pen or pencil would come my way, I’d just throw it in the pencil cup because “I might need it someday”. Even though I have a favorite type of pen that I really love working with (Pilot Precise v5, Extra Fine, Black), I would keep all those crappy pens you’d get from insurance agents, car shops, banks…everywhere. Every once in a while I’d trim that pencil cup mess down and pull out the ugliest pens and pencils and feel good that I ‘organized’ my stuff.

Fast forward to a couple years ago when I first started putting on my new Minimalism glasses and started seeing the world through a very different set of eyes. I’d keep glancing at that pencil cup and knew that even though it held my pens and pencils up oh-so-beautifully, I knew that I would have to eventually tackle this symbol of un-necessity.  Day after day, however, I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of these mounds of free pens and no-eraser pencils.

What finally did it for me was this small but major realization: why am I still using pencils?

At the time I realized that, I only used pencils for one purpose and I quickly realized it made no difference whether it was a pencil or a pen. Honestly, I hate using pencils (and mechanical ones even more), so I pulled all the crappy pens and all my chewed-up pencils out of that thing and felt very, very satisfied.

Once I cleared that out, it became obvious that I had no need for a pencil cup in the first place.

I’ve come full circle since the office supply store days where I would tout the virtues of desktop organizers. The moment I got rid of that pencil cup it gave me such a sense of satisfaction that I felt a need to dedicate an entire post to this process.

As an added bonus, I was able to get rid of an electric and manual pencil sharpener. A reminder to me that each item you own often brings other ‘necessary’ add-ons of its own. How good is a pencil without a pencil sharpener, or vice-versa?

What does this really mean?

Is this post about getting rid of pens and pencil cups? Not really. I just wanted to make the point that once you get rid of the crap around you that you don’t really like, need, or want — you gain a powerful sense of what you really do like, need, and want. Deciding what stays and what goes becomes easier after each success and with that you become more confident about who you are as a person.

Small changes really do yield big rewards and the personal satisfaction that I got from this decade-long quest is beyond profound. My desk is so much cleaner and my focus has increased dramatically.

Update: Since I downgraded my collection again, picture 2 is outdated. I only have one Pilot Precise on my desk and one Sharpie. Now that I’m looking at the pic, I’m wondering when/if I will actually use that highlighter…

Related Posts:

• Becoming Conscious of Possessions
• Who Are You Without Your Stuff?
• What Minimalism Means to Me

0107

I’ve been writing and experimenting a lot since I last posted a Music update.

In fact, when I originally wrote this new bass part (below), I didn’t expect to turn it into something I was going to post online (hence the strange title “0107″). I’ve never done a bass sound using the effects I put on this one, but the appeal was very compelling and the song came together relatively easily.

The sound of the overall piece is very ‘ominous’, I suppose, but I really love the feeling of it, especially while playing it. Not quite sure about the drum fills as they are, but I did want to get one of them to be done in triplets, which helped me learn some more of Renoise.  I’m working on actively pushing myself to develop different sounds with each piece. Learning, growing, pushing, experimenting.

This piece is short but sounds relatively complete. I’m not sure if I’ll be fleshing this one out much besides upgrading the sound, mixing, mastering, etc.

I really like how it builds…

I’ve also recently signed up for Bandcamp: http://jsohlander.bandcamp.com

The Bandcamp backend is very slick and minimal…just my style. Soon I’ll be making a flash-based player that I can slap on the front of this site to make it easy to get a brief overview of my work thus far. Not sure if it will be using the Bandcamp player, as there are so many options.

Not sure where this project is all heading, but I have some very definite ideas on how it will turn out.

~ JS

Related Posts:

• JS Music – Update 15 – 007 Update
• JS Music – Update 14 – New Audio (5a)

What Do You Actually Own?

In my continuing effort to become more Minimal and pare my life down to the Essentials, I recently decided to start a spreadsheet of every physical thing I own.

Years ago, Heidi was inspired to attempt a list of everything we owned to see if we could live with 1000 things. After she spent a couple of nights on it, she realized how annoying and unnecessary it was and promptly stopped the project. She wondered what value she would get if she even decided to finish it.

Since then there are a slew of Minimalism bloggers who are listing what they own and seeing if they can get what they own down to 100 or even 50 things. Most of these lists are just for their personal items and these bloggers are not counting family or shared items. For example, they are not listing each and every fork or pen but will list their personal laptop or clothes. In my opinion, this is a bit of a cop-out. If getting control of your stuff is so important, why not make all of it important and not just your ‘personal’ possessions?

Either way, I’ve become inspired myself to attempt this ridiculous task only because I believe it will help me become fully conscious of my possessions.

It’s one thing to see your possessions sitting in your house or just even know you own something, but it’s another thing to see it all listed on paper that you entered with your own hands and on your own time.

Why Bother Making a List in the First Place?

My personal philosophy behind doing this is, if I’m investing this much of my life in acquiring, owning, storing, etc. all these things, I may as well know what I own.

Seems kind of annoying, doesn’t it? Part of the reason I’m doing this is because it is very annoying. Just as many of my possessions have wasted my time over the years, I’m now reclaiming my dominion over them…and not one of them will escape my list. If it’s annoying to enter this data, I won’t want to do it. Hence, I will think twice (or thrice) about buying that next that I ‘must’ have.

My rule is simple: if I want to own something, it goes on the list. I have to consciously think about putting it on the list and then answer certain questions about why I even own it.

I’m not just listing every single thing I own in some sort of flat, one page list. I want to really dig into the reasons I’ve decided to own something.

So here are my current columns that I need to fill out for each item on my spreadsheet:

• Item Name
• Do I need it or want it? It’s perfectly OK to own something simply because I want it. But I better damn well really enjoy it.
• What do I use it for? In order to become fully conscious of my possessions, I need to know what the heck I actually use it for.
• Can I live without it? I’ve found filling out this column to be extremely enlightening. It’s not whether I enjoy it or not, but can I actually live my life without it?
• What other options are there? In other words, is there some other option, or something smaller or better I can own. I’m not about getting rid of everything I own.

I’ve also recently added a “Does this serve my life or not?” column. Big question to ask, right? If I took all the time, mental energy, and effort to acquire and bring something into my life and am going to take care of it like a pet, shouldn’t I know if it is truly serving my life?

If nothing else, this whole OCD-like process will really hone my ability to quickly determine whether or not something will truly serve me.

What do I expect to accomplish by this?

In the end, I’m not really sure how useful this list will be or whether I will keep it up. I just know that I need to do it at least once. I’m hoping that I’ll be hyper-aware of what I own and have very valid reasons for owning something that is Essential and will truly contribute to my life instead of just taking up space or plan to keep around ‘just in case’.

One more thing to mention is that I do have certain goals and desires in my life. Each and every item is now questioned in regards to those desires.

Now that I’m on a roll, I’m actually beginning to enjoy this.

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Brief Music update: I will be posting an audio snippet or two this week as well as integrating a better audio player and Music section into the site. Personally, I like the new piece I’m working on. Learning more about my software and like nothing I’ve done before.

~ JS

Photo credit

Related Posts:

• For a Minimalist, Small Changes Yield Big Rewards
• Who Are You Without Your Stuff?
• What Minimalism Means to Me

“Being a minimalist isn’t just about what you carry with you. It’s your entire engagement with the world.” – Everett Bogue

What I Really Learned by Going to College

After keeping my college papers and notes for years, I finally went through every single page to see if I wanted to keep any of it.

As I went through each and every page, I asked myself, “Is there any value in keeping this?”

When I started this Minimalism sub-project, I knew I wanted to eventually tackle my college papers. Mostly because there were drawers full of them. I figured it would be fairly easy and that I’d end up scanning and keeping maybe 25-50% of it.

Well, it was a lot easier than I thought. I probably dumped 95+% of it.

What I wasn’t expecting, is a strange feeling I started getting while going through this stuff.

I asked myself why I was keeping it all these years. I couldn’t come up with a good answer.  Eventually, I realized that by keeping all of my college material, I was somehow ‘proving’ to myself that I went to college (and graduated) and that all the time, money, student loans, etc. had been worth it.  Even though I don’t technically or directly use my college degree in my professional or personal life, it did have a large impact on me and I learned a lot in the process.

Once I finally stripped all of this stuff out of my life and knew that I’d never see it again, I realized the strong association that most of us put into defining ourselves by our stuff. It was almost as if my college papers somehow defined part of Who I Am.

Now, I always thought I was very good at being myself and knowing who I am, but by taking this Minimalism experiment to further levels I’m realizing how much deeper it goes.  I would even go as far to say that I’m discovering who I really am for the first time.

Without all our stuff, who are we really?

What You Own Defines You

Every piece of everything around you is part of who you are.  And that’s not a bad thing.  Some of the things I own or information I store is definitely part of who I am, and I’m proud of it.  But when you get really serious about stripping your life down to the Essentials and only allowing the best of what life has to offer fill your space, you will begin to get a larger sense of yourself and your place in the Universe.

Most people think that life happens to them and their past is their story.  When in fact it’s totally optional.  I could move to a different country, burn and erase everything from my past that has anything to do with me and completely start over.  If I did this, no one would have any idea I ever went to college unless I told them or they dug the information up somehow.  If someone asked me to prove I went to college, it would be a little more difficult than just showing them my papers.

As an example, for all the amazing pieces of music Beethoven wrote, how much garbage did he toss?  It’s been said that he re-worked his material relentlessly and tossed old revisions. He could have kept it all.  He could have kept everything he’d written, terrible or not, and then we’d have the ‘Beethoven Terrible’ collection.  But he choose not to define himself by it and only bring into his life his most beautiful pieces.

You are your own biographer, historian, and biggest fan.  What does your stuff say about you?  And if you choose to keep it, what will it say about you once you’re gone?

Will your progeny really give a rip about your college papers?

This is all very interesting to me.  As with most personal growth explorations in life (dietary changes, career moves, new friendships), Minimalism is a road of self-discovery.  And I’m projecting that, for me personally, it will be a sort of Rebirth.

Related Posts:

• For a Minimalist, Small Changes Yield Big Rewards
• Becoming Conscious of Possessions
• What Minimalism Means to Me

My History with Minimalism Thus Far

Since the year 2000 I have been on a quest to clean-up all the things in my life in order to get down to the Essentials. My desire was (and is!) so strong because I knew that I needed to do this to truly live life!  This desire was initially aimed at cleaning up physical stuff: all the junk I had accumulated over my life thus far. At the time I made the decision in 2000, I had a clear vision of what that looked and felt like.  It was a strong vision that filled me with a sense of freedom, expansion, and deep satisfaction.

I wasn’t sure exactly how to go about it, but I knew one thing: to take action and just get started.  I started cleaning my stuff up.

Now, I’ve never been a hoarder or a messy person. I have always been known to be pretty simple in my possessions. In fact, I would say I was just a notch or two below “average” in the amount of stuff I owned for one person, even back in 2000.  But to me, I’m not even close to where I want to be.  Even today when I say “I have too much stuff,” people still scoff at me.

In 2003 I got married to an incredible woman (no, the most incredible woman)…which instantly doubled my stuff.  Ouch.  This put me into a tricky situation where I could no longer make all of my cleaning and organizing decisions based solely on my desires alone.  There were now two people involved.  (I have no children and can only imagine how this would further complicate/challenge this path.)

Why ‘Your Stuff Owns You’ is Absolutely True

I’ve come a long, long way over the years the deeper I’ve gone into this quest.  The biggest lesson I’ve learned through all of this is this:  it’s amazing how much time stuff takes.

Even the good stuff.  Every little thing.  Every scrap of paper, rubber band, email, website, laptop, or car…it doesn’t matter, it must all be:

• Organized
• Cleaned
• Stored/Filed
• Thought about
• Used
• Packed
• Fixed
• Replaced
• Sold/Traded
• Given
• Displayed
• Admired/Hated/Whatever

The list goes on and on and on.

Each time you even look at what you own, that thing has stolen a part of your life away.

Ok, maybe ‘stolen’ is a harsh word to use.  But is it really?  Now, if something in your life gives you great enjoy, excellent!  You have spent your life energy (your focus and attention) in appreciating and/or using that item you love.

But if it’s something you only tolerate, hate, or just keep around to use ‘someday’, or just don’t know what to do with it, it literally owns you.

A lot of people will read past this and be like, “Yeah, I hear that!”  But they won’t truly grasp that incredible concept and probably won’t make any changes in their life.  I would even go as far to say that this very concept is essential to the core of life itself on this planet.

We live in an incredible world of abundance.  Literally almost anything we want is cheap to acquire or instantly at our fingertips (especially when it comes to knowledge).  The old ways no longer work.  We are no longer in ‘survival’ mode where hoarding, owning, and protecting our stuff is essential to survival.

We’re now in a society where the future will belong to those who are experts at Personal Discernment.  They will be able to take a massive amount of input (physical stuff, electronic information, etc.) and be able to quickly and easily determine not only what stays, but what is truly essential and important, now.

The goal is to be left with only those things in your life that truly contribute to your overall joy, needs, and supports your vision of Personal Freedom.

I’ve touched on this topic quite a bit on this site, originally calling this quest Extreme Cleaning.  To some of those who know me in the raw food movement, I’m well-known for talking about Extreme Cleaning and have already inspired a handful of people who wish to delve further into paring their stuff down to the Essential.

Speaking of the raw food movement, I find it equally fascinating how the world of inner cleansing seems to inspire a change in external cleansing.  And vice-versa.  Many in the health movement have told me that just taking a simple fast, cleanse, or even a colon cleanse have prompted them to clean their physical stuff up to an even deeper level.  I have found this profoundly true as well.  Clean on the inside, clean on the outside.  It’s all very beautifully connected.

The Next Step

As I begin to write about this next phase of my journey, I’m taking a bit of a different approach.  I’m not focusing much on ‘minimalism’ as most people think they understand it. A lot of minimalist bloggers are known for their goal to own less than 100 personal items. In my definition, a true Minimalist is actually an Essentialist. It means being ruthless about the things you bring into your life and the things you choose to have around you. This includes digital ‘junk’ as well, which I would argue is probably a worse problem than physical junk.

I’m sure most of these incredible bloggers would agree with me.  Talking about owning less than 100 or 50 things is probably going to turn the majority of people off.  I can’t blame them.  When I was in high school, owning a 100-CD changer was considered extremely cool!  Hey, I wanted the 100-CD changer too…

I briefly touched on this concept in a post a couple years ago called Baseline Your Life, in which I essentially defined what Minimalism is and means to me without using the term ‘minimalism’.

Since that post there have been a slew of amazing bloggers out there who are exploring the cutting-edge of minimalism, which I only recently discovered in the last year or so.  These blogs have had a major impact on me, such as Far Beyond the Stars and Mnmlist.  There are a lot of other quality Minimalism and Simplicity blogs and sites out there as well.  I became fascinated that there is even a group of people out there who are that into Minimalism, and I’m certainly inspired and have learned a great deal myself from them.

Part of that inspiration has taken me to move this site more into exploring and educating about Minimalism along with blogging about my Music and other personal topics.

What I hope to accomplish with this is not only to further my journey on this path, but to help inspire and/or educate those out there who are interested in opting-out of the consumption/storage cycle and opting-in to the discernment/freedom cycle.

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So, what exactly does Minimalism mean to me in the simplest words possible?  Essentialism.

The nice thing about this concept of Minimalism/Essentialism, is that Minimalism can mean a great deal of different things to a wide variety of people.

And they are all correct.

Let’s see where this goes…

Related Posts:

• For a Minimalist, Small Changes Yield Big Rewards
• Becoming Conscious of Possessions
• Who Are You Without Your Stuff?