Practical Ways to Be Frugal

With minimalism on the rise, decluttering your life became a hot trend. Overexploiting our space or finances seems a recipe for a disaster and social misconduct.

It got me thinking: shouldn’t we make an inventory of habits that sabotage our self-growth? After all, the self-help industry, as reported by Market Research, by 2022 will have an estimated growth of $13.2 billion with 5.6% average yearly gains.

We seem so eager to work on ourselves, but do we even exercise tips and tricks found in the self-help section of the bookstore?

Hungry for some practical advice? Here are some ingredients you can cut out from your life even today:

Get rid of toxic relationships.

Attracting toxic people into your life is not the issue. They are not picky. They will try approaching everyone. The concern arises, why do we let them linger?

People who complain, push your boundaries, abuse you physically or emotionally are your biggest teachers in establishing your self-worth. Once you are able to recognize those lessons and your unconscious beliefs about the shattered self-respect, you can let go of the bond with the difficult person.

• Do you feel unworthy of a better relationship?
• Do you spot any people-pleasing tendencies?
• Do you sacrifice your well-being for the comfort of somebody else?

If you happen to even ponder over one question with the affirmative answer, it is a red flag that a toxic relationship drains you off vital life energy. There is no “but” to justify the abusive bondage. You are not serving anyone by making yourself smaller, and you are definitely not living life to your greatest potential.

Start cultivating your self-care with a firm “no” to invading your comfort.

Criticism.

Negative self-talk and shaming others spread vicious energy inside your body. Furthermore, this anger is being projected onto your reality. Thoughts become things. As long as you trash down your self-worth in the mirror, or whenever you stumble, you create more dissatisfaction and circumstances to complain about.

The same goes for criticizing others. When you are harsh on yourself, no wonder you feel the urge to blame people and pinpoint their mistakes. This negative energy is seeking an outlet. And whatever we project outside, it gets magnified and comes back stronger. The less negativity you hold inside, the less urge you have to criticize.

You will be surprised how effortless and decluttered your life will become, once you cease the judgment.

Be done with crappy food.

We live in a fast-paced world of instant food, instant gratifications, instant way of being. To celebrate food means to celebrate life in its purest form.

Remember: food is not just the physical stuff you put inside your body. First of all, crucial becomes the meaning you attach to it.

• Does eating a specific meal bring memories of home?
• Does it make you feel loved?
• Are you missing someone or a piece of your self-worth?

Those are the most common reasons we reach out for comfort food.

How you perform vital functions of your life represent the quality of your experience. When you neglect your body, you abandon yourself. There is no love and affection in stuffing your body with processed food, quick fixes, ready-made pills to burn fat. Those are temporary solutions that will not yield long-term satisfaction, let alone any happiness.

I have never met a person who treats their body poorly and lives a satisfactory lifestyle. Swap your fast pace for slow and mindful eating. Incorporate smoothies, healthy fats and simple meals to keep you satisfied and full of energy. Observe how the quality of your life magnificently expands.

Stop feasting on news.

No, it does not make you ignorant. It shapes your self-respect.

Modern television is ripe with sensationalized stories to attract your attention, and our brains are hardwired for negativity. Studies have shown that foreboding commentaries are more likely to be perceived as truthful. They sell better.

I haven’t watched the news for a year and still counting. Though, I cannot count reasons for watching television anymore:

• more time on hand to develop your creative side
• quality of life improves dramatically
• stress is diminished
• your sleep gets better

After all, news can be misleading and wreak havoc in your head. Plus, most of them does not concern you at all. They only add unnecessary strain upon your thoughts. Most of the time, there is nothing you can do about negative news spread on television. Nowadays, when you have unlimited access to the web, you can google anything you are interested in. No need for mindless TV gawking.

Be picky. Be selfish with how you feed your psyche.

Social media.

Oh, yes. This culprit is a thief on many levels.

Social media exploit our vulnerability. It has a reinforcing nature. Using those platforms activates the brain’s reward centre by releasing dopamine, a “feel-good chemical” linked to pleasurable activities such as sex, food, and social interaction. The more likes you get, the more validation you chase.

We are defenceless once we start scrolling through the endless feed. Our minds, like a sponge, soak in all images and captions aimed at capturing our attention. We unconsciously absorb the influx of information, programming our assumptions about the world, leaving us not good enough due to stark comparison of reality versus staged camera life.

A study published in the journal Computers and Human Behaviour estimated that people who used numerous social media platforms displayed severe anxiety symptoms.

Picture-perfect life presented on social media encourages comparison, unrealistic standards of beauty and achievements. Comparing yourself to others has become a destructive habit we cultivate daily, unaware of its consequences on our productivity and general mood. Depression, lower self-esteem, wasted time are just a few arguments we should mindfully reorganize our priorities around technology usage.

I am not stating social media are inherently evil. I am advocating for a mindful engagement in any online activity. Try establishing a fixed amount of time during the day you scroll through, or even better, go cold turkey and cut it out for a month. I promise you, the result in your productivity and outlook on life will be spectacular.

Perfectionism.

Whenever you look around, we are bombarded with chasing for the perfect body, ideal job, the dreamy relationship. W subconsciously cultivate those desires, enclosing ourselves in the destructive spiral of not-enoughness.

We believe once we get that job, attract that special person, we will stumble on happiness. Once we are perfect, we will be done. No struggle, no effort necessary. Perfection became our substitute for pleasure, the holy grail.

I can reassure you of one thing:

Perfection is for losers. It strips us of enjoying life to its fullest.

Rejection can be the blessing in disguise. Dare to make mistakes. Dare to question. Dare to embrace your imperfections and blunders. Only then your self-growth will skyrocket. The real happiness will come from approaching the challenge and enjoying the win.

Let go of what people think.

Let go of labels.

Let go of what should be.

Let go of the idea of how everyone should behave.

Why would you be tempted to impress people who do not even inspire you?

We are eager to include a minimalistic look in fashion, house decor, simple food choices. Those trends seem to provide many bright spots in our daily life. However, let’s start with a thrifty approach towards our habits we exercise unconsciously, but when adopted mindfully, can exert a colossal improvement on enjoying life to its fullest.