We often think of being a minimalist as an identity. You can find minimalist communities online, hear people say “I’m a minimalist”, and so on and so forth. But when it really comes down to it, being a minimalist is really just a place that you “arrive at” after the snowballing effect of asking yourself real questions and being courageous enough to give yourself real answers.
Continue reading “How to be a minimalist (Minimalism, part 2)”How to look at a philosophical idea
“There is no past or future. Only the present moment truly exists.” “There is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Everything is part of god.” “There is no ‘you’ or ‘me’. There is only one, separation doesn’t exist.” Have you ever heard any of these things? (Or maybe you believe them too.) I’m all for new ideas as well as new age philosophies, when they help. But sometimes, I’m not sure how much they help.
Continue reading “How to look at a philosophical idea”Learning about luxury
There have been a lot of wonderful advances in society as of this modern day. More than ever, the everyman lives an exceedingly comfortable day to day life. It is wonderful that so many people can afford to not only survive, but also have things they want- not just the things they need. And more and more we’re continuing to make advances so that these comforts are more accessible to others, socially, technologically, and logistically. This is great, and we should continue striving for that. But there is a problem.
Continue reading “Learning about luxury”Make your life harder (in order to make it easier)
I thought I’d give credence to a funny little idea today. Not for any particular reason, but I like what it says, about habits, about life, and about our personal power to control our own destiny.
Continue reading “Make your life harder (in order to make it easier)”How to actually become better
There are so many things that you can do in order to improve your life, and sometimes it can get a little overwhelming. It’s easy to see where we fall short. We look at how far we are from our goals, and it becomes discouraging. That’s exactly the feeling you should be trying to avoid.
Continue reading “How to actually become better”What is intuition, and how useful is it?
So many people talk about intuition. You ask how to know something that would be a very important piece of information, and they answer, “You just know.” That’s an unhelpful answer. And it begs the question, “What is intuition, really?”
Continue reading “What is intuition, and how useful is it?”Live your life on purpose
There are many ways to go about living life. Between all sorts of philosophies and lifestyles, it’s really hard to make a black and white assessment of what’s “good” and “bad” in terms of how to be, how to spend your time, and what to work toward. But one thing stands above all the rest, in my opinion. And it’s not what you do, but it’s if you do it on purpose.
Continue reading “Live your life on purpose”The difference between thankful and grateful (and why it matters)
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Thoughts that Bind! There are a lot of us pondering the concept of being thankful right now, whether it’s due to location or life situation or shared global experiences, it’s a poignant topic. And I’m one of them as well, for many reasons. So we’re going to talk about it it today, because recently I learned something new.
Continue reading “The difference between thankful and grateful (and why it matters)”Make your New Year’s resolution today!
It’s getting to be that time where we start talking about “the holidays”. And you know what that means. Pretty soon, everyone’s going to be talking about New Year’s resolutions and “new year new me” and all sorts of things about bettering yourself. Things that this website seems to talk about all the time. You’d think that I’d be excited about it, but really, as usual, I’m kind of frustrated. Not that my personal feelings really matter much compared to the general consensus of how we perceive this time of year, but because I have this platform, I just thought I would talk about it.
Continue reading “Make your New Year’s resolution today!”What is closure? (And do we need it?)
There’s a concept that’s been on my mind recently, called closure. Although we all come into contact with the idea of closure from time to time in our lives, I can honestly say that I hadn’t really tried to work out what it meant to me until very recently. And as usual, it was one quick sentence that sparked this realization.
Continue reading “What is closure? (And do we need it?)”