I Chose a Quieter Life. And It Changed Everything.

At some point I realized I didn't want a louder, busier or bigger life. I wanted a quieter one. So over the years I began choosing less. Less noise, less pressure, less stuff. And choosing that has shaped almost every decision that I've made since then. Sometimes in ways that even surprised me. Hi everyone and welcome back. It's been a good while since we last did a little catch up on the channel. So today I wanted to share more of a personal insight into what a quieter life actually looks like for me in practice. The choices that I've made, the things that I've said yes to, and the things that I've chosen to step away from. I asked you for your questions and you had so many great ones, ranging from minimalism and simple living, to things like money and work, relationships, sensitivity, big life decisions. So I couldn't answer all of them unfortunately, but I tried to get as many as I could. Let's get extra cozy for this one and grab yourself something nice to drink. I have a warm cup of tea here, because it has been snowing like crazy over here in the Netherlands this week. It's been a good number of years since I've seen this much snow. So get cozy, grab yourself something nice, and let's get into it. Were you raised in a household that was minimalist, or was that something you decided to adopt as an adult? I definitely was not raised in a minimalist household, and no one in my family really is that interested in minimalism I think. So this is something that I became interested in myself in my early 20s. Mostly because I just felt so overwhelmed by everything, and I really felt the need to simplify. I had a ton of clothes and shoes and bags and accessories and makeup and beauty supplies, and the clutter was really starting to get to me. I was spending all the money that I made for my part-time jobs on things like this, and I just felt overwhelmed by it all. I wanted my bedroom at least to be a calming clutter-free space, where I could calm down and relax. So I just started simplifying and decluttering kind of by myself, and later learned more about minimalism, and things just kind of went on from there. Your home is always so clean, everything at the right place. Do you sometimes invite friends or family to your home? Do you have parties or a nice meal at home with friends or family? I do like having people over here, but I don't really like it if it's more than two people at once. If it's more than two people, I just find it a little bit overwhelming. So I don't really throw parties. I think the last time I threw a birthday party was when I was like 16 or 17. But I do really like having people over that I love and care about. I especially like making them food and sharing tea with them. So I might make them like a really nice cup of Japanese green tea. So I do like having people over, but I will only invite people that I've known for a while, that I trust, and that I feel comfortable with. This is kind of hard to explain, but I often feel overwhelmed out in the world. And I feel like my apartment is the one place that is truly mine. Like, I can have everything here the way I want it, the way that I'm comfortable. I just really love my own apartment. It's where I feel safe and comfortable, the only place where I really really truly feel like myself. So because of that, I will invite people over that I'm close with, but not necessarily like everybody that I've just met. When will you adopt a pet? So I've been thinking about this a lot over the recent years, especially when we first moved into this apartment. And the answer that I came out to was not for the foreseeable future. I've learned about myself that as much as I am an animal person, I'm just not really a pet person. At least not in this phase of my life. I have had pets growing up. I had a bunch of bunny rabbits, and hamsters, and fish, and my parents had a bunch of birds outside. And we also had a dog, his name was Jimmy, and I just loved him so very deeply. So I have had that experience, I know what it's like. And I really loved having animals around when I was younger. But also because back then they weren't mainly my responsibility. But for how my life is right now, I just don't feel ready to add the responsibility of taking care of a pet. As much as I love being around animals, and petting dogs that I come across outside, and you know learning about animals, and watching funny cat videos, like I really like that stuff. I just don't feel like this is the time in my life when I want to add a pet to my life. This isn't really for one big reason, it's just for a whole bunch of little reasons. For example, I am allergic to cats, which I know is also something that you can kind of get around. But I'm also allergic to a bunch of other stuff, and my nose is like barely holding up as it is. So I don't want to make it worse. With a dog, as much as I love them, it's just too much for me having to go with them for a walk three, four times a day. I'm really the kind of person, I need to be able to stay indoors some days, you know, when I just don't have the energy to go outside a bunch of times. And having a dog, it's just, it would be too much for me. So that's already two reasons, but I can name a whole bunch more. I'm not going to, because then the video will be too long. Basically, to be completely honest, it's already a little bit challenging sometimes for me to just take care of myself. And so I just don't want to add another living animal that I'm responsible for to that, because I just feel like it would be a little bit too much for me. And I think that that should be also okay to, you know, say about yourself and admit. Maybe someday in the future, if we have a little bit of a bigger home or like something with a backyard, it could be a different story. Although those kinds of homes are like a gazillion euros right now in the Netherlands, so I don't know if that's ever going to be in the card for us. Probably not. And I do like that you said adopt, because I also believe in the adopt don't shop thing when it comes to pets. How do you politely say that you don't want to receive a certain gift? Okay, that's a good question. Here's what I do. It's like, there are three stages to this question. If it's someone that's giving me something that I don't necessarily want, but it's really nice gesture on their part and they don't really like give me stuff that often, and it's like them being nice, I don't say anything. I just say thank you, I accept the gift and then I will think about what to do with it later. So I will probably keep it in my home for a little while and then maybe declutter it later, or donate it, or maybe re-gift it if I know someone else would want it. But I don't really say anything, like I don't want to hurt their feelings, it's just them being like nice and kind. Stage two is if someone keeps giving you stuff for a long time, then I would have a conversation with them saying like okay thank you, but from now on I don't want to receive any more gifts. You can just say like I appreciate the thought, but I've decided for myself that I want to live a simpler life with less stuff, and that also means that I don't want to receive any gifts from now on. So I appreciate the thought, but in the future please give it to someone else. And then stage three is if someone keeps giving you things regardless, then I think it's time to be a little bit more firm. Like I would actually tell them like please stop giving me things, I don't want this gift, like I cannot accept this, give it back to them, and please don't give me any more in the future. But hopefully it won't come to stage three, because they will already have stopped giving you things when you ask them to nicely. So I hope that it, I always hope that it doesn't come to stage three. Did you go to college? What was your major? Yes, I did go to college. I studied to be a dietitian and I graduated 15 years ago, which is just oh my gosh. I did work as a dietitian for a while, but back then it was really difficult to find work or enough work as a dietitian. So I could only scrounge up about one to two days of work per week back then. And of course I was very motivated to start working more, and save money, and move out of my parents house. So I also did a corporate job that was like part time three, four days a week alongside the dietitian job for a while. And after that they offered me a full-time position at that company, and the dietitian job still hadn't picked up. So I went for the corporate path. So that is how I eventually worked a corporate job for about six years. And I became a project manager, and then I burned out. I am grateful for the experience of the corporate job, and there were definitely many things about it that I did enjoy. And my burnout also wasn't related to my work completely, but yeah it definitely did relate to that. It did make me see that my ambition to climb the corporate ladder, which I did really have those first few years, really just didn't suit me, and wasn't going to make me happy. So I made a choice there. It just wasn't what I wanted from life. But even as a dietitian, I also felt like that job didn't really suit me that well. And all in all, all these experiences did get me to where I am now. From being a dietitian, to doing an office job, to becoming a project manager, to now being a full-time creator on youtube. So I wouldn't change a thing. How do you make sure you consume enough protein being vegan? What do you usually eat for this purpose? So I've been a vegan for more than seven years now, and I was a vegetarian for 15 years before that. And this is a fun question, because I feel like there are many misconceptions out there about veganism and vegan nutrition. And this idea that it is difficult to get enough protein on a vegan diet is probably the most common misconception out there. And as a dietitian, it's been very interesting for me to see this hype around protein online recently. Because of course protein is important, but most people don't need those sky-high protein numbers that you often see people talking about online. And you can definitely get enough protein from plants. Things like beans and legumes, chickpeas, lentils, edamame have tons of protein. There's tofu, tempeh, seitan, there is nuts and seeds, also things like soy milk, soy yogurt. Even the bread that we have at home has like five grams of protein per slice. And that is not like a protein enriched bread or anything, it's just like the regular whole wheat bread that we buy. So I personally don't obsess over protein numbers myself, I just make sure to include a protein source in all of my meals. So one of those things that I just mentioned. And I did track it for a while, just to be sure. And my diet contains plenty of protein this way. And if you still want a little bit more, then of course you can always use a vegan protein powder. And if you want to eat something that really has a good amount of protein, try seitan. Because for example these seitan sausages, this little pack contains 62 grams of protein. And it's very tasty. Several of you asked about having kids and being child free. How did you and your partner come to the decision to be child free? Did you always feel it wasn't for you, or did you weigh up options? Also someone asked how do you inform your family and friends about it? Looking back on it, I think I've kind of always known that I didn't want to have kids or become a mother, probably since my like mid-teens I would say. Before that I always thought that it was kind of like a given, and I did say like yes I want children. Because I just thought that, you know, even though I wasn't excited about it back then, I was also really young, so I just expected to feel more excited about that later and then have kids. Because I felt like it was a given. But ever since my mid-teens, I really started to think like I'm not really feeling it. But I did try to keep an open mind about it, thinking that like there's always a chance I'll change my mind. And then ever since like my early 20s, I remember thinking like I don't really think I'll ever change my mind. I'm now 37 and I still stand by this decision. I still feel like I really don't want kids, and I'm very happy to be child free by choice. And luckily for me, my partner feels the exact same way. There are many reasons why I choose to be child free by choice, but I think the biggest one is simply just that I have never felt the desire to become a parent, or to become a mother, or even to become pregnant, or be around kids that much. It's just a feeling that I've never had. It's not that I dislike kids, but I also don't necessarily like kids that much. I just, I don't really feel super comfortable around kids. I've never wanted to like babysit. I also didn't have any younger siblings. I feel like my camera is crooked. Is it better? I don't know. And there are many more reasons why, for me personally, life is just better, nicer, and certainly easier without kids. You know, also financially, but also in terms of time and energy management, being highly sensitive, so many more things. So I've never regretted it. That said, of course I realize this is a super personal thing and different for everybody, so I'm not at all saying that this is the better way. It's just that this was better for me personally. I have made a more in-depth video about my decision to be child free by choice, and all the different aspects to it for channel supporters. So if you want to watch that one, you can always join either on patreon or on youtube memberships. They are the same videos, the same extra content, so you can just choose which platform you would prefer. About how I informed my friends and family, I just think that this kind of was a gradual thing. Like I'm sure they noticed me growing up, I never talked about wanting kids. And then maybe as I got older I started saying like, okay maybe I don't want them, and yeah I definitely don't want them. So it's like, I feel like they got used to the idea of me not wanting kids gradually over time, if that makes sense. And in my case, I just don't think that anyone really cares about it that much. I'm sure my parents would have liked to have more grandkids, but my sister does have kids, so they do have grandkids, so maybe that helps a little bit. And I also feel like my parents, they know me, I feel like they understand that this is the right choice for me. And I don't think that they were very surprised by my decision. Any wedding plans or are you happy without the need for a wedding? So I've been with the same person for 23 years at this point. I call him my boyfriend most of the time, because that's what he was to me for the longest time. So that just feels the most natural. But sometimes I'll say partner, but we're actually kind of sort of married. Here in the Netherlands you have the option to go for a registered partnership, which legally is almost exactly the same as marriage. It's just a little easier and quicker and cheaper to arrange. So that is what we did about five years ago. I never really wanted to get married necessarily. I just, the same with children, I was never excited about the idea of getting married. But we did want to have things arranged legally, you know, just in case anything ever happened to one of us. Or we also knew that we wanted to buy an apartment together in the future, so this was just the easiest way to get everything taken care of, legally speaking. Also, I didn't want to spend any money on a wedding necessarily, or have the like wedding planning stress. Again, this is purely personal. I 100% understand that someone else would make a different decision, but I was never excited about the idea of hosting a wedding, planning it, paying for it. I would just rather save that money. So legally we are married, and I guess I could call him my husband. Although it just feels a little bit weird, because we were boyfriend and girlfriend for 18 years before we got the registered partnership. So boyfriend still feels the most natural for me. So I kind of go back and forth between calling him my boyfriend, my partner, sometimes I'll call him my husband. He's kind of all those things. So we just went down to the courthouse one day with our two witnesses, we signed a little piece of paper, and 20 minutes later the thing was taken care of. And it cost us about 200 euros in total, and that includes the vegan sushi takeout that we got later that day. And I also have made a more in-depth video about our decision not to have a wedding, and how this whole thing played out for channel supporters as well. Do you ever get the urge to go shopping and spend money? If you do, what are some things you do instead? I'm trying a no buy this year to save money. Yep, I still get the urge to go out and shop and spend money sometimes. It doesn't happen that often anymore, probably like maybe two or three times a year I feel like spending some money. And when I do, I focus on gratitude for the things that I already own, and I focus on just doing something else. Like I don't go to the stores, I don't go online, I actively avoid that temptation, and instead I do something else that I enjoy. Like I read a book, or I go for a walk, or I make a nice meal, like cook a new recipe. I do have a full video about how I deal with this urge to buy new things sometimes, and how I kind of stopped wanting to buy new things all the time. So I will leave that video down in the description box for anyone who's interested. What do you do for your job? This. I am a full-time content creator on YouTube. I've been doing this channel for about eight and a half years at this point, and after doing it for about two years, this became my job, my only source of income. So yeah, it's been quite a few years already. I was wondering if you had any tips on how you keep your clothes looking so good when some of them are old. I do try to take care of my clothes, and I definitely have things that are like eight, nine, ten years old, sometimes longer, and they still look great. Mostly because I line dry all my laundry I think, because we don't own a dryer. So I will wash my clothes on a delicate cycle, and then line dry them. And also, if it's like a sweater like this kind, I also dry them lying flat so that they don't stretch. And I also fold them up in my wardrobe, in my closet, and I don't hang them if they can stretch out. Also, I don't wash my clothing after only one wear. Of course this depends on the situation, but I will wash things when they need to be washed, and not necessarily like after wearing them once. But I do also have to say honestly, that I don't really wear my clothing all that much anymore. With the lifestyle that I have now, working from home by myself, I typically just wear comfy loungy clothing or my pajamas when I'm at home. And I only really like wear my clothing when I'm going out, or when we have people over. So my clothing items also just haven't gotten that much wear over the recent years. And yeah, that also of course helps keep them looking better for longer. What's the strangest or most cringe or off-brand sponsorship request you've seen so far? That's a fun question. I get so many wacky sponsorship requests. Probably the most off-brand sponsorship request that I've received frequently is from Teemu. And also just shopping platforms like Teemu. Just can you imagine if I started out a video saying this video is sponsored by Teemu? That would be very very strange. Another one is online gambling apps. Pretty off-brand I would say. And this is not a sponsorship request, but lately I've been receiving a lot of emails from companies asking me if I want to replace myself with AI in my videos. So they send me an email like you can still keep uploading the same videos without ever having to pick up the camera, just use AI, let us help you. Those kinds of emails. I'm getting those pretty often now. So that is pretty bizarre to me. I think, you know, most people probably know how I feel about AI, and obviously this is something that I would never ever do. I have to say though, most of the sponsorship requests that I get are legit. Like they're from legit companies that are also sponsoring many other creators on the platform, and you've probably seen in other people's videos. But I still turn almost all of them down, because for one reason or another I don't want to promote them to my viewers. I take my brand collaborations very seriously, and I only accept when it's something that I'm genuinely excited about. And I actually do really enjoy working with the brands that I do work with. It's like super fun for me as well, but I at least turn down like 95% of the offers that I get, probably more. As you live in the Netherlands, do you also make Dutch YouTube videos or is English your first language? I'm asking because you speak so very natural in English. Thank you. I am Dutch, so my first language is Dutch and English is my second language. I chose to make my videos in English just because it would have a bigger potential reach, just like more people in the world speak English than Dutch. And it's not necessarily a lot harder for me to make videos in English than it would be in Dutch. So for me it was the obvious choice. My third language is Japanese. I kind of speak that on like an easy conversational level. I think Japanese is a very beautiful language, but it's more difficult than I thought it would be. For example, even though I can have a normal conversation, I still need to translate when I watch TV. I've been to Japan three times so far, and I hope to go again in the future. And I'm currently also learning Spanish, which I am getting better at understanding and listening and reading. But speaking really is not, I'm not really good at that yet. How do you declutter sentimental things? I have a few boxes of items from when I was a child. I always advise to be extra careful when it comes to decluttering sentimental items, and kind of err on the side of caution in this case. Just because unlike most items, sentimental items cannot be replaced if you ever do end up regretting decluttering them. And I also always recommend to take a picture of them before you let them go, so that at least you will always have the picture to look at if you ever want to. That said, I do think that it can be very much worthwhile to go through your sentimental items and to only keep the ones that are actually special, and that really mean something to you. And I do have a full video about this, I will link it down below. It's an older video, but I basically just share all my tips for dealing with sentimental clutter. Personal question, what's your family like? Do you have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews? I have an older brother and an older sister. They are six and seven years older than I am, so I was born a little bit later. Other than my parents, my brother, and my sister, and my sister's family, I don't really see my family that much. I do have some nephews and nieces and stuff, but I don't really hang out with them. This has various reasons which I'm not going to go into here, because the video would get way too long. But when it comes to the family members that I actually see, I have a very small family. You also asked, do you still buy people gifts who aren't minimal? Yes, I actually do still enjoy giving gifts, but I don't like obligatory gift giving. So I only give people a gift if I see something that I'm really quite sure that they will love, or that they will actually use. Then I enjoy giving them a gift, but not necessarily like for the holidays. I also just really enjoy giving people food, or tea, or things like that. For example, giving someone like a good mason jar with my homemade granola. I just love that, I think that's such a nice gift. It's been years since I made granola, I should make that again. Do you have any other dream job that you would like to experience in the future? I don't know how realistic this one is, probably not so much. But for many years already, I have been daydreaming about maybe one day opening up my own little cafe. I already have the name thought out, I know exactly what I want to put on the menu, and what kind of music I want to play. Just a really nice cozy little place where people can come either by themselves to relax, read a book, or maybe chat with a friend. And I already know what I want it to look like, and I would have all of these really nice Japanese green teas, and just really good vegan comfort food. So I like to daydream about this a lot. But when I start to think about it a little bit more practically, I don't really know if this truly is the right thing for me to do. But maybe in the future, I don't know. Also, before we go to the next question, a quick reminder that I'm doing a new year sale on my digital products, and everything is 20% off now. So I have a decluttering ebook, this has all my tips and tricks for decluttering your home, and it is now with 20% off. I also have an in-depth simplify your life course, which is 20 weeks. And each week you will learn to simplify one big aspect of your life. You will have lifetime access to the materials as well, and this is also now with 20% off. And I have a 30-day slow living program, where every day you get a new lesson about slowing down in your everyday life, even if you're busy, with an inspiring quick challenge to help you experience slow living directly in your everyday life, and how that could look like for you. And this is also now with 20% off. The sale will last until January 31st, and you can use the discount code newyear26 at checkout. So I will leave all the links in the description box below. So far more than a thousand people have purchased one or more of my digital products, and over more than 200 filled in reviews. They've scored an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars. That makes me super super happy. It's also just been already really nice seeing everyone in this month signing up and starting out the programs. So it's been super fun for me. And yeah, check it out. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them down below. How to stay calm living in a noisy apartment complex. I use noise cancelling airpods, but they don't block out bass from loud music. So I feel you on this. We live in an apartment building that is very old, and we can hear our neighbors a lot. Luckily for us, our neighbors are not rude or anything. So they don't like listen to their music really loud, or have the tv on really late. But we can hear them walking around, we can hear them vacuuming. If someone around us flushes the toilet, or takes a shower, we can hear it. The people above us are a little bit younger, and they like to have friends over sometimes, which we will hear. And the people below us like to quarrel all day long and yell at each other, which we can also hear. So all in all, it's still quite loud, especially in the summertime when everyone has their windows open, or people are chilling out on their balcony and stuff. So noise cancelling headphones or airpods are great, and I use them myself also a lot. But the second part of this, for me, has been acceptance. Because I've really learned that the more you resist something, the more power you give it. So the more you resist hearing the noise from your neighbors, the more it's going to stress you out when you still do hear it. So for me, it's also just been a good part of like acceptance. Okay, I live in an apartment building, I'm going to be hearing my neighbors, that is just, that's just gonna happen. It's part of it. And when I do still hear them, this acceptance gives it less power. I don't resist it as much, and it stresses me out less, because I know it's just part of the package. So I just remind myself, okay, like a little noise is not going to hurt me, I'm okay. And that has really helped. Do you invest your savings for in the future? If so, on what? Yes, I do. I do work for myself, and my income fluctuates a lot. So some months I have more that I can save, and other months I have less that I can save. But the money that we do have available to save, we kind of divide over four categories. Which is an emergency savings account, a pension account, low-cost index funds, and extra payments on our mortgage. And when it comes to saving, I really believe in the long haul. So slow and steady, small bits, when you can over time, can really add up. So that's what I've been doing. Are you planning to do a room tour? I do have an apartment tour video from this apartment, where I show everything I think. So I will leave that in the description. But this video is already a little bit older. This was before we painted some of the rooms, and we also didn't have some of the furniture yet and stuff. So if you want me to make an updated apartment tour video, please let me know in the comments and I might make one. Do you have a favorite board game? Yes, I do. It's not technically a board game, it is a trading card game. But for about a year now, my boyfriend and I have been playing Magic the Gathering and I love it. I'm having so much fun with it and it's definitely my favorite game of all time. I asked my boyfriend to teach me because he played in high school and I never played before. And it's just been so much fun because you know, we get to do it together at the table, no screens, listening to some nice music, drinking tea. It's also good for my brain I feel, because it's quite complicated. There's a lot of strategy involved, a little bit of math, and you really have to think and calculate through all your decisions very well. So I feel like it's good for my mental development. If you know a little bit about Magic the Gathering, we play one-on-one 60 card kitchen table magic, so no commander. And yeah, it's super fun. So I also got a bunch of questions about my beauty routine, things like skincare, hair care, nail care, makeup. I do have a full in-depth video where I show everything that I do for all of these things, so I will leave that video down below. It also is a little bit older, so many of the products have changed. Like I'm using different brands, different products, but the steps that I do are basically still the same. Maybe I'll make an updated version about that sometime in the future, but I also talk a little bit more in that video about things like beauty when it relates to minimalism, self-confidence, things like that. So I will leave that down below as well. Can you tell us how do you choose the books that you are going to read? Have you always been a reader? Yes, I've always been a reader. The first book that I ever loved was a children's book called Pluk van de Petaflet, and I love that book. And I've been reading ever since. I get most of my book recommendations from booktube. There are a few book youtubers that I follow, and also just kind of click around to see people's recommendations. But I also get many recommendations from my viewers. Every couple of months I will make a book video for my channel supporters, where I talk about all the books that I've been reading, and I share my thoughts and my spoiler free reviews on the books and stuff. And on those videos people also always leave me recommendations, so then I can read them later on. Have you any advice for dealing with negative comments online? I'm thinking about starting a youtube channel, but I'm very sensitive. I'm quite sensitive myself as well, so I honestly thought that this would be kind of an issue for me going into this. But I can honestly say that negative comments usually don't really bother me. Maybe it's something that I've just gotten used to over the years, but I also have always really realized that these kinds of comments say a lot more about the person leaving the comment than it actually says about me. So I just also don't really take them personally that much, and I just ignore them and move on with my day. Of course it does help that so many people leave so many kind, wonderful, supportive comments as well. And that really helps to balance out the negative ones, because I get way more positive ones. But another part of this is that I now actually really like seeing negative comments come in on a video, because it means that the video is doing well and that the algorithm is picking it up and pushing it out to people who don't know my channel yet. Because my subscribers and my steady viewers basically only leave kind comments. So when a negative comment starts coming in, I know that the video is being pushed out. And if a comment is negative but it is phrased just with respect, it's more so like constructive feedback, then I also really enjoy it because it's something that I can learn from. And over the years I've really learned a lot about how to make videos from also the feedback from my viewers. So I definitely recommend just starting your YouTube channel if you feel like that is something that you want. Don't let a few internet haters keep you from doing something that you really want to try. What's your favorite Studio Ghibli movie? I'm just getting into it and I don't know where to start. Oh my gosh yes, I love Studio Ghibli so so much and I'm so happy you asked. Probably my favorite one would be Princess Mononoke. I don't know if I would recommend starting out with that one, because it just really depends on your taste. But this is my personal favorite. Although basically almost all of them could be considered my personal favorites. Just when I watch them I'm like, this is my favorite. Because they're all so great. Studio Ghibli is kind of strange in the sense that they have many different kinds of movies with very different genres. So for example, movies like Ponyo and My Neighbor Totoro are more so geared towards kids. Although many adults definitely enjoy them too. I love these movies a lot. But they're also safe to watch with children. Whereas Princess Mononoke I would not recommend watching with a child. That is definitely not like a children's movie. Then they have like cozy slice of life movies, like Whisper of the Heart, or From Up on Poppy Hill, or Only Yesterday. They have like fantasy adventure movies, like Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky. They also have like historical fiction, slow burn kind of movies, like The Wind Rises. And these movies often share the same kinds of themes in one way or another, but they're also just very different from each other in terms of like style and genre. So I would just recommend picking one that catches your eye. Watch it, start from there. And if you didn't like it, then give another kind of movie a try. Because like I said, they're very different. So if you don't like one, then maybe you will like another one. And another way to go about it, this seems very fun to me, is to watch them chronologically. So you could start with Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, and just go from there. There are three Studio Ghibli movies that overall are considered to be a lot less good. I personally also haven't seen these, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend starting there. And that is Earwig, Ocean Waves, and Tales from the Earthsea. So I wouldn't recommend starting with either one of those three movies. And there is one other movie that is a masterpiece, but I still want to advise caution in a very serious way. And that is Grave of the Fireflies. I have seen this movie once, and it was about 20 years ago, and it completely shattered me. Like I still, I cannot talk about this movie even. Like it is actually devastating, and I never want to watch it again. So if you, it is a masterpiece, it's an anti-war movie, it's about orphans. I wouldn't say like I don't recommend watching this movie, because it's very good, it's important, it tells an important story. So if you feel like you're in an emotionally like good place and you can handle it, then you know, give it a watch. But if you feel like, you know, a little bit fragile emotionally, then just please don't watch this movie. Ah man oh man, I just, it's been 20 years, but I actually feel traumatized by this movie. If any of you like Studio Ghibli as well, I would love to hear your favorite in the comments. I love talking about Studio Ghibli, I could do it all day. Thank you so much for sticking around until the end of the video, which I'm sure got to be quite long. I am so sorry that I couldn't answer everyone's question, because there were like 110 so far. Like it was many many questions. So thank you to everyone who left them. And if you still have a question that I haven't gotten to yet, feel free to leave it in the comments. Again, I cannot promise to answer everyone, but I will definitely try to get to as many as I can. Quick reminder for my new year sale, if you want to get your hands on my decluttering ebook, my simplify your life online course, or my 30 day slow living program, then links are in the description. And you can use the code newyear26 to get 20% off. As always, thank you so much for being here. Questions, comments, conversations down below, and I will see you all again really soon with a new video. Bye bye. I really need a haircut. I've been postponing it for like two months now, so as soon as the snow clears I'm going to make an appointment to get my haircut. Please remind me.