If you want to start on your good intentions, you can now also go to Netflix. With a film about minimalism and a series about meditation.
Read on after the ad.
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Just put The Minimalists in a box
Netflix responds smartly to the time of year, because on January 1, people want to improve themselves en masse. That’s why you can now watch a film about minimalism and a series about meditation.
Both feel like advertising for the makers’ products. The intention is that after watching ‘Headspace: Guide to Meditation’ you will download the Headspace app, and after watching ‘The Minimalists: Less Is Now’ you will quickly go to the successful blog of the initiators.
This is not so noticeable in the Headspace series. The viewer is taught some simple meditation techniques in an accessible way and that actually feels helpful. The Minimalists film is very different. It’s the first movie I saw this year and I hope I won’t see any worse in 2021. Although Asphalt Burning, which we watched the next day, did its best.
Minimalism
I’m quite a supporter of minimalism, in the sense that you don’t need all the stuff to be happy. Motivated two years ago Marie Kondo me and half the world to go through all our stuff and decide if it is of any use to us. That happened super endearing with boxes and folding methods, so that you could make your things look less by clever tidying up.
The Minimalists take a more aggressive approach. With smooth speeches that the gentlemen have already delivered on stage thousands of times, and now tell them with pre-practiced movements and empty emotions in a space with an annoying echo (because that is so deliciously minimalist).
The message that is built around that is good. We buy way too much these days because companies use their social media ads to give the impression that we are missing out if we don’t have that product. I recognize that too. You see a product in your Insta Stories that suits you so well and is so handy that you can hardly imagine a life without that handy rack that finally allows you to structure your fridge.
Put away
Most of the film, however, is about the personal experiences of the two Minimalists, which are completely unrecognizable to most people. Especially if you do not live in America and you are not a slave to ‘the american dream’, with a job where you earn as much money as possible to have the best house in the neighborhood.
After that, viewers are motivated to get rid of things. The two men have become much happier as a result and so can you. The idea is to put one item away every day for a month, or put all your belongings in boxes and take out only what you need. So you don’t really need what is still in boxes after a few weeks.
The message that buying new things does not make you happy is replaced in this film with a message that you become happy when you get rid of things. The Minimalism followers on screen all tell how happy they are now that they have less stuff, and you as a viewer can achieve that too. Until you are in an empty room with a plant and a pillow and you haven’t found any luck yet.
We shouldn’t buy so much new stuff, but turning to the other side doesn’t seem healthy to me either. We are already throwing way too much stuff away. It is much more important to be happy with the stuff you already have. Your furniture, smartphone and clothing. Happiness is not about replacing or getting rid of it, but being satisfied with it. See if you can do that in 2021.
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