What you want will probably not bring you happiness. That’s one of the key messages in the documentary Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things available on Netflix. In the film, stars and authors Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemus explore the deficits of a modern material culture and how having less may ultimately lead to happiness and better relationships.
As many of us move out of college into our careers, we are thrust into a material culture that places pressures on us to accumulate things. Our lives become increasingly complicated and focused on work at the expense of family, and, dare I say, creativity. Many of us lose ourselves in the pursuit of riches and the act of appropriation, which never fulfills our basic need for belonging and meaning.
In his 1943 paper, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Abraham Maslow proposed a set of needs that humans are motivated to achieve (see image below). As one’s physical needs are met, he/she moves up the pyramid to psychological needs and then to self-actualization and self-transcendental needs. Self-actualization/transcendental needs include creative projects like writing and spiritual endeavors.
In the U.S. today, we have achieved a standard of living unheard of in the history of civilization. Despite this, many people are not happy and lack a sense of purpose. Using Maslow’s framework, one could argue that our modern materialist culture has promised self-actualization through an accumulation of status and possessions and left us empty and desiring more, more, more.
For myself, writing fills this existential void. What is profound about the application of minimalism is that it supplants the materialistic schema telling our brains that more things equal more happiness. Once this schema is removed, self-actualization again becomes achievable through self-improvement, art, and spiritual pursuits.
I’m not sure if I am cut out to be a true minimalist; however, I do believe in the idea of quality over quantity; that the best things come in small packages; and you can’t buy true happiness.
Image Credit:
The Writings of Jame Agapoff 