Steps to become a minimalist

Hello my friends!

I am often asked to write about "why" and the "what it gave me" to become minimalist...  people need to be convince that I am happy... not missing out on stuff... and somehow, they need a reason for me to have done that in order to understand... because this is SO out of the ordinary.  It is becoming a more and more popular trend but it still goes against the main current and against what society expect from us.

And somehow I feel like I have said enough about they "why" and gave enough justifications and good reasons to be a minimalist... Today I wish to share with you a few tips on how to give it a try... because only if you try it you'll be convince of the good it can bring you.  Enough talking and reading about it... it is not time that YOU give it a try!  And I can guide you...

Here are a few steps you can take to help you out...

1) Figure out what matters MOST to you. Because minimalism is not voluntary simplicity, there is room for a little more in that movement...  but not everything.  Therefore you need to find out what matters more to you...  It could be books, going to coffee shop with friends, art, cooking, clothes, electronics...  it could also be "doing" something, like trips, activities, theatre and shows...  YOU choose... it is your life. Now, once you know what you really truly care about, you can purge the rest...

2) Identify what minimalism is to YOU. Minimalism is not about a given number or look... it is about living with with what you love, the life you choose and not clutter your life with anything that you do not really truly care about.  Some minimalist live in 200 sq.ft apartment and others in 1200 sq ft houses...  some will do with 33 items if clothing and other have walk in closet...  or then again, almost no furniture versus more...  and we all know that guy who lives with 100 items! This is not for me.... and it may not be for you... Also, be open to have your definition of minimalism change with time. I thought, 7 years ago, that I could never live the way I live now... but I can.  It will change with time... as you take smalls steps, you may go further then you even imagine... or not even close!  What matters most is that you are comfortable with your level of minimalism.

3) Start the decluttering.  At your own pace.... Now that you know what matters most and where you want to go, start slowly... one room after another.  Some people will suggest that you start where there is the most clutter.... I would tend to say the opposite... overwhelming yourself in a very crowded room or area is not easy and it may seem to difficult... by starting slowly you will see results rapidly and will be encouraged by them. You can set yourself the objective of one room per week...  and slowly but surely you'll get it all done...  within weeks or months...

4) Use common sense. Be patient. Be forgiving. Giving up stuff you had for years or all your life is not easy...  not always anyway.  Sometimes there are sentimental issues and these can be hard to deal with...  in those cases, you can keep the item for a while longer even if you know that in the long run it needs to go...  give it time...  and do not be too hard on yourself....  I have done this for many years now and some items, even though I knew they would stay in a box for years to come, useless really, but they had their use... I needed to grieve something related to those objects...  Some I have just really recently let go off...  And that is OK!  If you cannot let go of something because of sentimental issues but yet cannot stand having the item clutter a room, you can start a box with those items and put them away in a wardrobe or in the addict or garage... when you are ready you'll get to those.

I could go on and on... and there are many list on different blogs on how to go about this... some are very long... and others like mine are shorter and more to the point...

The important thing to understand is that there is no point in making minimalism complicated! That would be silly...

You keep what you love and use... you toss the rest. That is the ONLY rule!

One last thing, do not forget to look at ALL areas of your life...

Stuff - easy to look into...  we all see it all the time... but do not forget hidden place in your home!
Agenda - are you too busy???  Declutter your agenda too...  THIS was the most beneficial to me!
To do list - do you really need to do ALL those things?  Really???
Social medias - can be a HUGE vwaste of time...  look into it... keep those with added value only.

I hope this will be of some help... and that you will finally get started on your minimalism path!
And if you need more convincing on WHY...  and WHAT it will give you, you can have a look here at any post labelled "minimalism"...  There are more then 100s of these...  you should find what you are looking for!  And if you don't well just ask me in the comment section at the end of the post!

love&peace,
nath
xox
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living "well" with MS

This is no longer a secret.... I have MS.
I've had it unofficially for 18 years....  and 12 knowing it...

Why am I writing this today?

Because I am struggling a little lately...

No crisis...  no major symptoms...  no need to go see my doctor or start taking my medication again....  I have not done so in 8 years and not planning on going back to that!

But I know my body... it's sending me warning signals that I cannot ignore and I need to rest and calm down... and most importantly let go.

All that said, MS has been with me all my adult life...  or most of it... and it will always be there...

I deal with it well 95% of the time...

NOT BECAUSE I AM LUCKY like some people say... because I take extremely good care of myself...  I do almost everything right to tame the beast...

I eat a vegan diet
I have recently switched to 97% free of process food diet
I sleep well
I do yoga
I practice meditation
I work part time
I live in a relatively low stress environment
I manage my stress
I do not drink alcohol (nor smoke of do drugs but I never did that anyway)
I keep away, as much as possible, negative energy in all it's form

This makes me pretty happy and healthy!

Now, I need to work on eating more organic... switching to a deeper more meditative and spiritual form of yoga... as well as let go more of things I cannot control!  Control freak and MS do not go well together.

MS will always be there...  and I am only human...

Sometimes I would like to be "normal"... and blend in... I use to...
I would love to do something crazy... like a spartan race... but cannot work out to that level...
I would love to run a marathon... but it is physically not possible - I've been there
I would love to own my business again... but it is WAY too stressful...
I wish I could use my BSc and have a career (I use to)... but I can't work so many hours anymore....

I manage my health well but it comes with a price... it comes with the price of being different...  being vegan... being a minimalist...  being boring (yes some people have said that of me)... and antisocial....

I am labelled..... even though I freely used those labels now, I only do so because they were "given" to me to replace the "being sick with MS" label! It's a fair trade.

OK... maybe I do not truly wish or would truly love the above mentioned statements... because I know they'd come with a price which I am not willing to pay!
And maybe where I am at in with my life, I know better.... I know you do not really need those things.... and some are actually really not so good for you...  but I am only human...

And sometimes I have my weaknesses... and sometimes when I get to involved how I was raise comes back to me and old patterns surfaces... and this is when it all goes bad!

The thing is, as soon as I get into that "zone" (of wishing, or thinking I could or slipping in my diet) my body sends me small signals... it can be tiredness, it can be pain in my hands or stiffness in my neck... it can be restless mind... it can be slightly numb toes...

But then I know I am going down a path I wish not to take anymore... and then the struggle begins...  I wish, I could only think of those things...  I wish they would only be available to me... like to everyone else...  maybe I'd never do them...  maybe I'd still be vegan and minimalist... and a boring yogi...  lol... but I wish those choices would not have been "forced" on me... to manage a health condition that I wish would not be there! To manage something that really scares the hell out of me.

If only I could feel like the choices to live my life the way I do would actually be mine...  not because I am more afraid of something else then being labelled as the "minimalist vegan boring yogi"

If only I could know how my life would have turned out without MS and maybe be appreciative of what it brought me instead... because most of the times I am pretty sure that I am much better here and now then where I was heading before I found out.

And don't get me wrong... I am not unhappy with the way my life turned out...  au contraire! But if I put it in a more easily understandable way, it's like if someone lost their legs, turned out to run marathons in their wheel chair and won the marathon... they may be happy with the result.... but in the end they may have rather run a marathon on their legs... they just made the best out of a crappy situation... and no matter how great they seem to all the others, they know deep down that somehow they wish it would have been different! Nobody wants to be in a wheel chair.... and no one, ever, wanted to live with a chronic illness... no matter "how well" they handle it to the face of every one they know!

There you have it... this is what I am struggling with lately... and this is why I am off FB for a while.... and still writing this blog which is like journaling to me.... it helps me see things more clearly...

And by the end of writing this, I know I am where I want to be... and my stress and anxiety have gone down... but I also know that the next few days will not be easy and I will be back and forth between both...  I do that every now and then... I just need to do more yoga and meditation...ask my husband for Reiki (which we have schedule for tonight)...  and keep my mind off of stuff... 

I will go through this, this time again...  it takes time to heal... it takes a life to heal.

thanks for reading, I really do appreciate it a lot!!!

love&peace,
nath
xox
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My life without... a smart phone

Hey!

I feel like starting something new today....  people always ask me, as I am vegan AND minimalist, what do you do without xyz?  How can you live with no abc? etc... etc... And also the most popular question that comes with all those, WHY??? 

In the posts titled "my life without..." I will answer those questions...

Today let's look at my life without a smart phone.

For 2 years I had a smart phone... more precisely a iPhone.  It became part of my life... part of who I was...  bigger part of what I was doing... and a scary part of how I lived my life. It was with me 24/7.  Never off...  just in case...  I had all social medias on there and I would know automatically if anyone would post something on Instagram, Google +, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter...  I had access to my emails as soon as they came in... I could do my banking, take pictures, do yoga, meditation, check out where I was going, bus schedule, restaurants schedule, where EVERY Starbucks to walking distance was anywhere I would be...  I could track anything anytime!

HOW can you live without that??? 

First of, I would have never let go of it if I could still afford it...  money was a huge incentive.... and I figure that letting it go for 3 months would help me out and then I could take it back...  I did it for money purpose...  and it turned out to be The BEST decision I ever made!!!   For myself and my family.... and in the end, after 3 months, I decided not to take it back!  It has now been 7 months and my husband, just recently, offered me to take another smart phone since we now have room in our finances (and he know how painful it was at first) but I said " no thank you, I'll pass"... to his HUGE surprise! He even offered to pay part of it and I still declined!

What got into me???

Well, to be honest, after a few weeks of detox... and a few weeks of feeling completely lost and out of the game/excluded it got better!

I was lost that I could no longer know what everybody was posting on everything... 
I  was lost that I  could not know every minute what everyone was doing...
I was lost that I could not take a picture of everything to remember it and "show" people...
I was lost that I could not instantly post what was going on in my life...
I did not know what to do with my time...
I did not know how to find my way...
I did not know how to get to a Starbucks...
I did not know how to know if a restaurant is open...
I did not know when the next bus would be...
I could not be reached in as many ways as rapidly...
I could not surf the Internet for every silly question that popped into my head every other minute...

and then I found myself again... I realised that I was living my life for others... for what others would think... for how many people would "like" "re twit" etc... my pictures and posts... I was comparing my life to that of hundreds of people I had never met and would most likely never meet... 

I was spending way too much time trying to live my "dream" life by showing people I was living it instead of simply living it... I was spending to much time trying to convince other of how happy I was instead of just being happy for myself...

I was spending too much time with virtual people rather then real people...

Cutting off the smart phone has brought in my life:

More time with my husband and son
More time for myself
More time to observe real people while waiting somewhere instead of looking at fake virtual people
More time to cook, do yoga, meditate, read, knit...

It also showed me to speak to people again (humans can actually talk to one another without an electronic device intermediate)... ask questions.... instructions for where you wish to go...  ask around where a restaurant is... you can also call a restaurant using a regular phone and ask for opening hours... you can check the bus schedule ahead of time or just wait for it...

It showed me to "look" at something if I want to remember it... take the time to really observe it and picture it in my head... I no longer run for my phone and miss half of something because I want to take a picture... And you know what, our memories are pretty good... we actually remembers what we should remember.  Maybe the rest, every minor details, are not so important. Maybe what I see is not for others to see...  Maybe you do not have to, or should not share all your life moments on social medias... Just the key ones are fine for close friends and family that you do not see as often...

It taught me to dress the way I like... not just to take a picture of how I looked...  and it has simplified my wardrobe even more...

It taught me to do yoga how I FEEL it... and not how YouTube is going...

It also cut down on shopping temptations... I can no longer look at "google images" of everything (especially clothes and how celebrities dress)... I can't look up website when out and about and create a desire... I can't look at "every store I like" website to see what is new or on special...

It also brought me to the conclusion that if I am going to read emails only once a day, maybe I can decrease the amount of "junk" mail I get by unsuscribing to many things - sales/promotions/updates...  I kept only what I really care about!

There was also no point in keeping so many social media if I am not going to go see them as regularly... because then you have to spend hours at a time looking through everything... 5 minutes (more realistically 10 - I can no longer lie to myself) every half hour did not seem so bad.... but 2h in a row, in front a a computer,  I did not like...  therefore I only kept FB and Google+ (which is attached to this blog) and Pinterest - but I no longer post there (Pinterest) and I am now thinking of letting that go too... I didn't even go in months!

All in all, I feel FREE!!! I feel like no one knows/care what I am doing, when, why and how... and that is OK!

I have more time...
I wander a lot more...
I just go with the flow...
And I have met real people and had real chat with a few interesting people...

I love it!
You will never catch me with a smart phone ever again!

love&peace,
nath
xox
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my view on... yoga

or should I say my very strict view on yoga...
let me explain...
I know some won't be happy about that...  but I will try to be as clear as possible to not create misunderstandings.

I started practicing yoga in 2006.  Exactly 9 years ago...  as recommended by my psychologist to manage my stress and help "deal" with MS.

Now, those little stretches I was doing with a DVD before bedtime turned into a completely different lifestyle. 

I think yoga is a lifestyle, not a religion, not a trend, that has been practice for thousands of years in India mostly.  Yoga in itself means union - union of you body, mind and spirit.   The asanas (or posture) as we know them in America are just 1/5 of yoga.... and their only purpose it to strenghten your body to sustain meditation in the hope of attaining nirvana. Yoga is a lifestyle because it changes the way you think, the way you see things, the way you eat and treat your body and the way you live in general.

This is what has been happening in India for ever!

Now yoga was brought to America with noble intentions... but like with everything else, we have managed to ruin it! Let me explain....

Now yoga is a trends... that is practice with fancy lululemon outfit, expensive mats and props... 
Back in India, it was done in comfortable clothing - that you wore the rest of the day, on dirt directly and with no props - because you took you time to manage asanas...

Now yoga is practice by everyone and anyone with or without any particular respect for the discipline.  There are more and more yoga studios everyday.. more and more yoga style and more and more yoga teacher! Some just started practicing yoga a few years back and are just about 20 years old!
Back in India, teachers were "older" "wiser" yogis... they had been practicing yoga for years and from mastering it were able to teach it... your teacher "chose" you when you were ready... and there was not a yoga studio at every corner.

Now yoga is a physical exercise that allows you to eat cake and drink wine in between sessions (and yes I did hear that from a fellow student once)...  it's a physical exercise with fancy posture which you can do "selfies" of when you manage to do them (there are hundreds of postures now)... it's a physical exercise that became almost unreal and scares people off as they are not "fit" or "bendy" enough...
Back in India yoga changed the way you fed yourself... you cannot reach nirvana if you treat your body like a garbage - and this is the goal of yoga... there was about only 12 posture to start off with and about 50 all in all...  Yoga was for everyone who seek peace, wellness and wanted to turn their life around to become better people.

What happened?  Well WE happened.... everything in America is about money...  trends... sheep's following more sheep's... We turned yoga into a money making machine and lost what it was all about!

I know we all need to earn a living... but some stuff still deserve respect and deserve more then being treated as a money making machine.  Practicing yoga and becoming a yogi is a calling.... teaching it a vocation... which I know I do not have... the calling yes... the vocation not at all!

It's OK that some people do it for the physical side of it... it's OK that so many people try it...  hey this is how I started... but what I am saying is that before you call yourself a yogi make sure you're following all of it...  make sure you're not only embracing the asanas - which there is nothing wrong with if you don't call yourself a yogi!

It's OK that you want to teach it to make money...  but is it really for you?  Can you picture the "almost perfect" yogi?  Did you make significant change in your life to be a yogi and a yoga teacher - our lifestyle in America in general is far from being yogic like? I have met teacher who smoked... I have met teacher who lived in mansion and drove a fancy car... I have met teachers who were so stressed out they were not even focused while teaching... And if you are one of those, and you still want to teach yoga, please "target" serious student and be honest with them... tell them you may not be the right teacher for them... 

Having yoga everywhere can be a great thing... but it can also be a dangerous thing...  in the sense that it may loose it's millennium appeal... 

Yoga is more then doing 108 sun salute in 2h... it is more then being able to do a headstand or handstand by yourself in the middle of the room.... some people will physically be able to do that and should still never call themselves yogis. And some are not able to do those asanas but are the best yogis and very inspirational people...

They say you cannot be a mom before you gave birth...  or adopted a child...
They say you can never be a marathonian before you ran your first 42k marathon...

Well in that case, you can not be a yogi if you do not follow the complete yogi lifestyle - asana, pranayama, meditation, diet, life principles and philosophy...
And you cannot be a teacher until you reached nirvana and it deeply, profoundly affected you and you embrace it!

This is what I think....  your view may be different.... I told you it was about my "strict" view on yoga... 

love&peace,
nath
xox
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Muffin recipe

Hi guys!

I rarely post recipes here...  because I am far from being a food blogger...  I am not a chef either... And I cook/bake really basic things.... and I have no presentation skills what so ever!

BUT, a few people have been asking me for simple cheap and vegan recipes... and THAT I can provide... therefore don't mind the picture... or the way the recipe is layed out... but the result should be OK....

This is a muffin recipe that really does not take long to put together... it can have many different variations... which I am sharing with you and hope you'll share, in comments, the variation you tried... do not be afraid to share!  No one here is criticizing or judging!

This recipe bakes in 15-20 minutes at 400F.  Just make sure it is baked before pulling it out....  I find that different variations may take different time to bake... oh.... and also, my oven cooks/bakes much faster then my previous one therefore you may need to adjust for your own oven!

Fixed ingredients list:
 1 1/2 cup flour (whole wheat or unbleached all purpose - up to you)
3/4 cup raw cane sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup safflower oil
1tbsp ground flax seed in 3 tbsp water (this is your "egg")
1/3 - 1/2 cup liquid
1 cup of fruits and/or nuts


Now for the variations, here are a few that I already tried...

Banana chocolate chip
- use unsweetened organic soy milk for liquid
-add one mashed banana
- add 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chip (I use "enjoy life")
- add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts - optional (you can also replace with coconut flakes)

Maple
- use half of maple syrup and half unsweetened organic soy milk for your liquid
- add chopped pecans - optional

Cranberry - Orange
- use orange juice for liquid
- add pure orange extract - optional - it can be expensive
- add 1/2 to 1 cup cranberries

Pineapple- Orange-Coconut
- use orange juice as liquid
- add 1/2 cup mashed fresh pineapple
- add 1/4 cup dry unsweetened coconut

Double chocolate chip
- use nut or soy milk for liquid - always unsweetened
- add cocoa powder
- add chocolate chip  (I use "enjoy life")

Raisins
- use nut or soy milk for liquid - always unsweetened
- add 1/2 cup dry raisins
- add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Raspberries
- use nut or soy milk for liquid - always unsweetened
- add 3/4 cup frozen raspberries
- you may add nuts if you want to...

This is pretty much all the ones I tried... 

As for instructions... quite simple.... Take a big mixing bowl.  Put in all you dry ingredients.  Add the wet ingredients.  Mix well.  Finish by adding any fruits/dry fruits and or nuts... mix a little more!
Pour into muffin baking mold and you're all set!

This recipe makes about 8 medium size muffins... and for that reason I often double it and freeze a few muffins... they are just as good once thaw or warmed up in the oven!

Now if you ever try anything else, please let me know....

I know that next I will try and turn these muffin into mini fruit cakes... by adding, well you know, fruits that are used in fruits cakes and some walnuts and pecans!  I'll let you know how this turns out...

Hope you will enjoy those muffin as much as my family does...
They are for sure healthier then any muffins you can buy elsewhere...  and you know what's in them!

Enjoy!

love&peace,
nath
xox
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My minimalist wardrobe

Maybe it is time I talk about my wardrobe again....  I have modified it a LOT since my arrival to Moncton 9 months ago because my lifestyle changed a lot...

I have to wear black for work... which means that everything I had black in my wardrobe (except for 2 summer items) are now reserved for work!  If I am going to be dress in black 25h per week, I will not do it on my leisure time also.... plus black was never my color... I always felt oblige to include it in my wardrobe as a basic but rarely found myself wearing it:  too boring and too basic!

We finally accepted (my husband and I) that we do not like to dress fancy and go out... if I am going to go out, it will be for tea, a movie or a vegan meal... no need to wear fancy!  Plus it makes me feel fake therefore I did not keep any fancy clothes! And let's face it, there is no such thing as fancy Christmas or Holidays or birthday in my family!

I also stopped dying my hair.... which required some adjustment in my wardrobe... a few things no longer worked as they made me feel washed out with my new silvering hair! I had to change that...

I also tried and work toward a 4 seasons wardrobe...  no room to store anything in our small place.  We need to share a kids closet and one 4 drawers chest between the 2 of us... something gotta give!

I am now proud to announce that ALL my clothes (excluding pyjamas and outer wear) consist of 39 items!  This is for the 4 seasons!!!  I know...  I am missing a few things in there especially tops but if I add 2 summer tops and 2 longer sleeves tops, I'll be good to go for the 4 seasons for many years to come...  because all my clothes are in pretty good conditions still. I take good care of them! If you've been following me for a while, a few years ago I could not manage to get down to that number of clothes for 3 months...  let alone 4 seasons!

Aside from a few bracelets and necklaces (no more then 15 all in all and that include all my yoga jewelry), maybe 10 pairs of foot wear (including winter and rain boots as well as 3 pair of flip flops), some outer wear (2 winter jacket, 1 rain jacket, one fake leather jacket, one jean jacket, 4 hats, 2 pairs or mittens and a lot of scarves) and 3 bags (2 shoulder and one back pack) my wardrobe contains:

1 jacket (black and brown) (3 seasons do not wear in winter!)
1 pair of printed summer palazzo pants (spring/summer)
2 pairs of harem pants (spring/summer)
2 summer skirts (summer)
2 pairs of shorts (khaki and jeans) (spring/summer)
4 pairs of jeans (2 wide legged, one skinny and one torn skinny) (4 seasons)
2 pairs of corduroy (both wide legged - one dark grey, the other fushia) (fall/winter/spring)
1 navy skirt ( 4 seasons)
1 knee length wide legged trousers (4 seasons)
1 dress (fall/winter/spring)
1 flannel shirt (winter)
1 polka dot burgundy shirt (4 seasons)
1 big flower pattern yellow t-shirt (spring/summer)
1 sleeveless green blouse (spring/summer)
1 cotton navy blouse (4 seasons)
1 navy t-shirt (4 seasons)
1 striped elbow length sleeve t-shirt (4 seasons)
1 sleeveless t-shirt (orange and fushia) (summer)
1 green cami (summer)
2 black with open back cami (spring/summer/fall)
2 white t-shirt (4 seasons)
1 long tunic (summer only)
1 indigo cami (summer only)
1 knitted printed sweater (goes well with navy skirt, trousers and corduroy) (mostly winter)
4 vest (pretty much 3 seasons each)
2 long cardigans (one dark grey and one blue) (spring/fall)

All these pretty much mix and match quite easily... except for a few summer pants that have patterns and I need to be more careful... therefore my need to get 2 summer tops.

They are all clothes that suits me well...  for my body and my hair color...  they are also perfectly in tune with my lifestyle...  no pretending I am someone I am not!  They should last long and because they are of different "age" not everything will need to be replaced at the same time!  Which is great financially!

I have to admit, never would I have said that I could dress with so few items and feel great!  I needed to find MY style in order to get to this point... and this was done at a high cost financially and time wise... but it all worked out in the end...  Today I dress how I like, in what makes me feel good and I ignore all the fashion rules and so on...

Bet you could do the same...  and feel great!  And stop wasting hours figuring out what to wear on what day...

love&peace,
nath
xox
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