How do you become a Minimalist?

March 6, 2018

While trying to decide on Theme and Contents for a blog I just started: Aminimalistcaribbeanlife.com I came across this one blog, left untouched for 5 years...
A lot happened in this time frame; A new home location. 4 grandchildren. One teaching job for one year.

I was led to downsize and become a Minimalist; to explain what it is in a blog is a lot more complicated than I thought. How do you explain a process naturally occurring to you?
How do you state step by step so-called requirements to reach a simpler way of life?

One day I woke up with this realization: what I own owns me because I use material things as a placebo and a proof that I exist as a 'normal' person in a 'real' world.

I did try though, between 2010 and 2011 to buy absolutely nothing but food items. I occupied my time walking, swimming, reading free books on my Kindle. Spending hours on Amazon.com, reading previews of free books of every genre. Finding my niche eventually. When I say hours I literally mean hours a day spent between selecting a book and reading it, like 6, 8 hours...
No work, no income, minimal expenses.

Life doesn't work that way. I needed to see friends or make friends: others are mirrors of ourselves in many ways. I belong to the human Tribe, whether I wanted it or not.

And so one day I went out and tried one of the work I had dreamed of doing for a living decades ago, before I concentrated on Communications/advertising/marketing- which took 3 decades of my life.
I became a French teacher.

Minimalism was put to the test and somehow placed aside as a priority.

How do you stay a Minimalist faced to the necessity of making a living on a small island?

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