Waking up

The past couple weeks of my life have been significant.

I have reduced the amount of time I spend on social media and my smartphone. I have started writing and mailing at least one handwritten letter to a friend or loved one every day. I have started getting outside more and walking several miles a day. I have made an effort to pray and study the word of God more regularly.

And I have discovered minimalism.

I'm learning about materialism, consumerism, and how advertising can psychologically manipulate us into believing we need STUFF that we don't really need.

I'm starting to finally understand that my obsession with technology - and in recent years, smartphones - has been a microcosm of my attempt to find meaning and purpose in STUFF. At one point, I was switching back and forth between smartphones as often as once a week. Why? Because I was trying to fill a void in my life with STUFF and I didn't realize until now that it wasn't working and can never work.

Dedicating your life to the acquisition of STUFF will never bring lasting happiness. On the contrary, obsessing over STUFF distracts you from what can make you eternally happy.

My tastes have changed drastically in a very short period of time. For years I have been a self-described "technology geek" and, up until a week or so ago, I used to follow dozens and dozens of consumer technology news sources daily. But now I feel like going through my tech RSS feeds is such a colossal waste of time.

I feel the need to thin out and carefully choose which technology news sources I continue to follow, because I realize now that so many of them are little more than glorified propaganda mills, promoting and feeding into the consumerist culture and our addiction to STUFF.

I have long known, but am finally starting to embrace the concept that technology can be an important ally for mankind, but we have to be very careful and deliberate with it so that we ensure we control it...or it will control us.

And this concept transcends technology news. We need to carefully select and curate ALL the news, information, and media we allow into our brains because it has a tremendous impact on our thoughts, feelings, and overall outlook on life.

Minimalism isn't just about decluttering your physical world, it's also about decluttering your mind and soul.

Since I started making a serious effort to scale back my social media and news consumption - and my screen time in general - I feel like a thick fog around my mind is starting to dissipate. It's like I'm in the early stages of waking up from a deep sleep.

So many things are becoming clearer to me now. And my desire for uncluttered, purposeful, intentional living is only growing stronger every day.