8 Odd things I QUIT to simplify my life | Minimalism, slow living, self care

When I first started getting interested in minimalism, decluttering, simplifying my life, I was mainly focused on just getting rid of the clutter. Things that were not contributing to my life, to my happiness. Having things be more organized, easier to clean, all that stuff. But living a simpler, slower and more intentional life has led to many other changes as well. Some of them were quite unexpected. But that can happen when you simplify, because it allows you to find the real you, and learn more about what you do and don't find important in life. So today, I want to share with you eight odd things that I've quit since I've simplified my life. They may be a little unexpected, but they have all made my life better, more meaningful and more interesting. So let's talk about it. Before we get into it, today's video is kindly sponsored by the wonderful people over at Ikkyu Tea. I love teaming up with them, because I have been buying all my green tea from them for years now. And they're my absolute favorite. Ikkyu is a small team located in southern Japan, and their mission is to support local producers and help them keep the Japanese tea tradition alive. All of their green teas are very high quality, lots of flavor, they have a beautiful bright green color, and they're full of healthy antioxidants. And today, I have three of my personal favorites that I would like to recommend. First up is the Ichiko Matcha. And this is a ceremonial grade matcha that proves that you can get super yummy and high quality matcha at a very friendly price. This one is silky smooth, lightly sweet and very fragrant. You can drink it pure, you can use it for matcha lattes, you can also use a regular milk frother to make it one of my favorite matchas ever. My second recommendation is this one, it is called Mirai. This is a loose leaf green tea. It is super balanced, a little bit sweet and so fragrant. And again, a very high quality tea for its price point. I always get this one. And then there's Nazuna. This is a roasted green tea, and I love this especially in the fall and the winter time, because it is so comforting. It's really rich, kind of nutty, almost chocolatey, and this one is low in caffeine. If you're new to green tea, all their teas come with brewing instructions, so anyone can make them. And don't forget, these are so high quality, you can easily re-brew the same leaves three or even four times. I cannot recommend Ikkyu enough, either for yourself or maybe you know someone who loves tea, it could be a really nice holiday gift. And if you use my link in the description box and code SHINZEN, then you can get 15% off. So huge thank you to Ikkyu, let's begin with the video. First odd thing that I've quit since simplifying my life is watching movies, shows, or listening to music, reading books, that make me feel bad. One thing that I've noticed since I started simplifying my life is that I've become much more aware of the effect that things have on me, as subtle as they may be. So in this case, when it comes to entertainment, I've noticed that some things just make me feel really comforted, or inspired, or happy, while other things just make me feel really tense, or frustrated, or annoyed, or anxious. And of course, this can be different for each person, but an example of this might be a show like The Walking Dead. So I used to watch The Walking Dead because I could appreciate like the cinematic value. I could see how it's a really good show, technically speaking. But I started noticing, because that show is so high tense and so dark, that I was feeling so tense when I was watching it. And I was literally on the couch tensing my muscles and clenching my fists. And this also goes for music, books, movies. Some of them really are quite violent, and somehow I'm just kind of okay with it, like Game of Thrones. While others just really, I find them very triggering. For example Grey's Anatomy. I know how popular that show is, but I stopped watching it after a few episodes, because I noticed just how much it triggered my health anxiety. I think it's okay to cut out stuff that makes you feel bad. Especially you know, when it's entertainment that's supposed to be enjoyable and relaxing. So I can just say good show, but not for me. Something really great about simplifying your life, is that by cutting out a lot of the noise, we start to really zoom in on ourselves, and what we really find important, what aligns with our values, and how we want things to make us feel. Number two is not using my fancy things or saving them for special occasions. I used to really be this person. For example, I had a big perfume collection of like 15 bottles of perfume. But the really fancy ones, the most expensive ones, I hardly ever used. I was saving them for a special occasion, and then a few years later, I had still hardly ever used that perfume. And it just expired, or it lost its scent. Or I bought a really beautiful dress or a sweater, and then just not wear it in my normal regular everyday life. Because I was afraid that maybe I would get a stain on it and ruin it. So I saved it for special occasions. After a while, I became much more aware of my own behaviors and habits, and I started to really think about it. Just how silly and what a waste that is to only use your favorite things, the things you love the most, on these special occasions. So if you have something you love, use it as often as possible. Get as much enjoyment from it as possible. And even if it does get like a stain or something, there's usually still something you can do about it. And even if it is ruined, at least you will have used and loved it to bits. I also do this with teas for example. So I'm not gonna like save this really nice tea for special occasions. I'm gonna use it up and really enjoy it in my normal regular everyday life. And with clothing items, there's even a risk of your body changing in the meantime. And then maybe a year from now, like you don't know if you will still be able to actually wear that thing and enjoy it. So we might as well do it now. I think that every day is a special occasion, because you woke up to a new day and you're alive and breathing. And that is enough reason to celebrate. So don't let your best things go to waste just sitting in a closet somewhere while you use the things that you like less more. Number three. Wearing uncomfortable clothing and shoes because I felt like I had to. Just like I became more aware of the effect that things like movies and shows and books and music had on me, I also became much more aware just how much my clothing was impacting my mood, and how certain clothing items were making me feel. And it's so funny, because I never used to consider this as something important. I always just wore what I saw others wear, because I figured that's the way that people should dress. So if my feet were in pain because I was wearing heels at work, or if I was wearing you know uncomfortably tight fitting clothing, or if my underwear was cutting into my skin, I just basically felt like you know that's part of it. It's normal and I should just power through and ignore it as much as possible. Of course some things are more comfortable than other things, and I think that's fine. But it's been a long time since I've worn something that actually feels like painful or like incredibly uncomfortable. And this goes much further than you might think, because it's not just like the superficial feeling of discomfort in your body, but how your clothing feels on your body can have such an impact on your well-being and your emotional state. When I'm wearing something uncomfortable, I have such a hard time relaxing, and I really feel a lot more tense. I have a harder time concentrating, I have a harder time with being creative at work. And I feel like because I have simplified, I know myself a lot better now, and I feel so much more at ease in my body. And that naturally changes the way that I dress myself. And so I really feel that not wearing any uncomfortable or painful clothing has made me a happier person overall. Number four, replying to emails or messages straight away. Now of course if it is urgent, it is a different story and you don't want to leave people hanging. But overall, I've become much more relaxed about this. I much prefer to batch this a little bit. So instead of just replying to every email and message as soon as they come in, I just do it a couple times a day. Just replying to all the new things that have come in in the meantime. And this helps me with concentration, because I'm not constantly distracted. Because I feel like I have to reply to things immediately. And I also just stopped feeling anxious about this. So I don't know where you live, but here in the Netherlands everyone is on whatsapp. So we send each other text messages through whatsapp. And with the blue check marks, you can see if someone has read your message. And they can see if I've read their message. I know you can turn that off, but I know, I just have it turned on. And this used to really bug me, like oh they know I've read their message, and so I felt like I really should respond very quickly. And now I can just, yeah, it doesn't bother me. I don't look at it. And I don't expect other people to reply to me instantly. And so I don't expect myself to do that either. So I don't know, I just kind of stopped caring about this, I guess. And it's a lot less stress. Again, this does depend on the context of course. Sometimes it can be rude or just inconsiderate to make someone wait. But if it's not important, I'll just reply sometime that day when it's convenient. Number five. Accepting free samples in the stores. Now this one is especially odd when you consider where I live, where I've lived all my life, the Netherlands. We Dutchies tend to go crazy for a good deal. And we like free stuff. So I personally don't know that many people who will turn down free things. But for me, I stopped accepting free samples, free products, free, you know, sometimes they're handing out foods or beverages on the street. If it is not something that I would have been willing to pay for, if it wasn't free. Because when you think about it, even if an item is free initially, there's really no such thing as a truly free item. Because it will live in your home, so it will take up space. Or if it's a product sample like a foundation or a perfume or something, it will take up mental space. Because now you have to think about using it up. And if it is something that I wouldn't have been willing to pay for, then apparently it doesn't really have enough value for me. So why then would I want it for free? I don't go into beauty stores that often, but when I do, like if my eye shadow palette is used up or something, I always turn down the free perfume and makeup samples that they give you with your purchase. And then they always look at me really confused, like why would you say no? As if that never happens. And then I also just like to say like, yeah that brand isn't cruelty free, so I don't like to support brands that test on animals. And then they're even more confused. But apparently don't, not a lot of people say that. But I want them to know why I'm turning it down. So it's always a little funny to me when they try to give me a free sample and I'm just like, no thank you. And also with me being a content creator, I get offered so many free items in the hopes that I will then show them in my videos and promote them to you, to my viewers. And here I'm the same way, but I'm actually even more critical. I do turn down almost all of the offers for free things that I get, because it's not something that I would feel comfortable promoting on my channel or showing in a video. Or it's just something that I don't want in my home, taking up space. Number six, self-deprecating remarks or negative self-talk. I used to be the queen of making self-deprecating remarks or jokes. And the thing is like, I don't even think that there's anything wrong with having a sense of humor about yourself, not taking yourself so seriously, being able to laugh at your shortcomings. I actually think that's a good thing. Mostly. But I have noticed that speaking about myself in a negative way, or thinking to myself in a negative way, really just is not serving me. Because I find that negativity attracts more negativity, and positivity attracts more positivity. So as soon as I've said it or thought it, it kind of just lingers on a little while. So why I still have kind of like a realistic mindset, and I do like to be able to laugh at my own mistakes or shortcomings, I have become much more aware of this. Just the power of my thoughts and my remarks. And I try to have them be positive most of the time. And this also goes for gossiping about others in a negative way. And I really noticed that once I stopped doing this as much as possible, my life really has taken on a much more peaceful, softer, kind of like feel-good vibes. Because I'm not speaking about others in a negative way. When you engage in gossip, whether it's at work, or with friends, or the neighbors, or wherever, you kind of cultivate a sense of toxicity and judgment. And that's really not something that I want to cultivate in my life. And I've also become much better at accepting compliments from people too. So I used to always just kind of downplay it, and be like oh thanks yeah I got it on sale. Or like kind of downplay it. Or I would immediately follow up with yeah I like your dot dot dot as well. Now I just try to practice saying oh thanks, and just giving them a big smile. And I think it works much better. I think both people probably feel better after an exchange like that. And then if you were to be like oh yeah you know, or like oh I like your blah blah as well. In the end I think we get back what we put out. So if we put out mostly positive thoughts and remarks, then that is what we get back. And I'm really not perfect at this yet, but I do notice that simplifying my life has made me a lot better at recognizing this. Number seven, being penny wise pound foolish. Have you ever heard this expression? Let me know in the comments. I love this one because it perfectly explains this kind of mindset shift that happened in my head about spending money after simplifying my life. So being penny wise but pound foolish means being careful about small amounts of money, but not thinking so much about the large amounts of money. Basically when you do things to save a small amount of money now, but that will cost you a larger amount of money in the future. A simple example of this would be driving very far to get a good bargain on something, because any kind of money that you save on that bargain will then not really be worth it because the transportation costs will be bigger. Or cheaping out and cutting costs when doing a home renovation by buying cheap materials that will then a few years later down the road cause problems for you. But an example that is probably more common is just going for the cheapest option every time, instead of investing a bit more money to get a higher quality item. For example with clothing, you will spend a lot more money over the years if you continue to buy cheap low quality items that will fall apart after you wash them like three times, rather than investing in a quality piece that is made well and that will be in your wardrobe for years and years. I love a good bargain as much as the next person. And I do always check to see if the higher price tag actually means higher quality, because it doesn't always. Sometimes you're just paying for the brand or something, so I do check to see that. But I've become much more willing to invest a bit more money into higher quality items that will be with me years and years and years. And it's not just about the things we buy with our money, but also things that we spend our time or energy on. So our other resources. For example taking care of your body and your mind by preparing healthy meals, being careful not to burn out, taking time to move your body and exercise, is a way of investing in yourself and your health in the future. Of course do keep in mind, again a higher price tag doesn't guarantee better quality or a better fit. So sometimes you're just paying because it's a designer brand and the quality really is not that much better. That happens unfortunately. Or for example with tech items, you could buy a really really really good laptop and the quality will be amazing. But if you're only using it to check your email, then I think that is still a waste of money. So do always check price quality ratio, read reviews and see if it's actually what you need that thing to be. Number eight. Things that want me to get hooked. So I personally really don't like it when I have something in my life that is demanding my time and attention more than I want to give it, or at all even. And unfortunately so many things nowadays have these built-in features that are trying to get us hooked on them, so that we use them more. And I've become really really careful with those. A good example of this is social media. I'm not gonna talk about it in this video, you all know I'm not on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, I don't want any of that stuff in my life. I want my time and attention to belong to me and not to those platforms. So that is one example, even though I do love YouTube. But another example could be phone games. As much as you know I get that they are fun, especially the kind of games where you have to check in a couple times a day. I love video games, but I want to decide when I want to play them. And sometimes I'm not going to be playing them for weeks, and I don't want my crops to die because I didn't play the game. Or you know those games that are really common nowadays, where there are certain like online events and they get you rewards. And if you don't check in and play that game in a certain amount of time, like in that weekend, you will miss out on that content. If there's anything like that going on in that game, I will just not play it. I value my time and attention much much more. Another example is Duolingo. This is a language learning app. And here I'm making a small exception, but with this app they are using so many tactics to get you to do more lessons in a day. So for example, they give you experience points when you do a lesson, and then they add you to a leaderboard. And the leaderboard has all these different leagues. And if you get a lot of xp, then you get promoted to a higher league. And if you don't get a lot of xp, then you get dropped down a league below. And funnily enough, even with someone like me who's like conscious of these things, I got promoted to the diamond league, which is like the highest league on there. Somehow it started to matter to me that I was in a diamond league and I wanted to get enough xp to stay in that league. And it has absolutely no, nothing to do with actually learning the lessons. And you see so many people getting crazy amounts of xp on that app, and you can see that they cheated for that. They didn't do any lessons, it's just for the xp. And then you have to wonder like, why are you using the app? You're using it to learn a language, right? So I just completely stopped caring about these leagues and the xps and collecting gems and all that stuff when you do daily challenges, and just focus on learning the language. So the only thing about Duolingo that I do still care about is my streak. I have an 858 day streak currently. Also kind of pointless, but I will allow myself to care about that. Because the effect of it is a positive one, because I will do a lesson a day to keep my streak. So that's okay for me. But all the other things I stopped caring about as well. I think looking at this list really just has to do with being more aware of the impact that things and certain behaviors have on us, and whether or not we feel that that is beneficial for our happiness and well-being. Just being much more intentional and taking a much more proactive approach, rather than just being reactive to whatever is happening in our life and whatever is introduced to us. Getting behind the driver's seat and making our own conscious choices about how we want to live our life and what we want to spend our resources on. So that's one of the best things I think about simplifying life. I would love to know something odd or just unexpected that you have quit or just changed ever since simplifying your life. I would love to read those in the comments. And if you like tea, then I recommend trying out Ikkyu. Because yeah, like I said, they're my favorite green teas. I've been getting all my green tea from them for years. And you really can't go wrong, they're all great. So link and discount code in the description box. And if you enjoy my videos here and you would like to get more of them, while also supporting my work as a content creator, then you can always join us on patreon.com simplehappyzen. You will immediately get access to the more than 100 videos that are already up on there, plus two new ones every month. It's a really fun community, so definitely give it a try. If you want to, that's it for today. As always, thank you so much for being here. Questions, comments, conversations down below. Have a wonderful wonderful day, and I will see you all again next week with a very special video. Bye bye. I can't believe I winked on camera. I don't think I've ever winked before. I don't even know if I'm gonna leave it in the video or if I'm gonna edit it out. We'll see.