Suffering is one of the Noble Truths found in Buddhism and this could not be more true with us minimalists…before we were minimalist. But I believe that we all still have suffer from suffering. Ha!

Well what is suffering? Suffering is just a part of life, but it comes from our desires and wants. My personal example of this is my addiction to sneakers. I was buying Jordan’s, Kobe’s, boutique sneakers, and for what? I desired to have the latest popular sneaker, wanted to post my collection on Instagram and get those “likes.” Those feelings were very fleeting, but it caused me distress when I was unable to get those highly desirable shoes cause they were sold out. It doesn’t have to be sneakers, it could be anything, even a person you have a desire to be with.

Anyways, I still look at sneaker websites (just as a casual browser) and it still would be great to get every single pair that I want, but the fact that I’ve realized that those emotions come and go (just as fast as the actual sneaker’s popularity) has decreased my suffering greatly. Minimizing and becoming a minimalist is a major role in decreasing my suffering. I can now move on to other things that are more important and have more meaning to me, such as friends and family and the moments and experiences that I share with them.

Suffering…it’s a part of life, but that doesn’t mean we can’t control the level to which we are exposed to it. Being a minimalist is the total opposite of suffering…it’s happiness.