From Chaos to Clarity: How One Breakdown Led Me to Minimalism
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Ever felt like the mess around you was just a reflection of the mess inside?
I didn’t just feel it—I lived it.
When Life Felt Like Clutter
I’d walk into my room, throw things around, make just enough space on the bed to crash. I’d switch off the lights so I wouldn’t have to face the chaos. Every night, I’d pray to wake up and leave the room as fast as I could. Starbucks became my escape—it was clean, calm, and nothing like the life I was living.
Blaming everything but myself, I felt stuck—professionally, mentally, physically, emotionally. I sat on that messy bed, eating my nights away, gaining weight, and still looking in the mirror, cursing my genes. When someone asked me, “What’s wrong with you?”—I wanted to scream, “You are!”
But deep down, I knew. I wasn’t okay. I wasn’t doing anything right, even though I thought I was trying my best.
The Breakdown That Broke My Illusions
Then it hit me. One event, completely out of my control, shattered me. I spiraled into the worst mental space I’d ever known. I couldn’t sleep. My mind was stuck in overdrive, running endless scenarios I couldn’t change. There was no escape—no one to ask for help. It was my battle, and I had to fight it alone.
Desperate for peace, I picked up the Bhagavad Gita. Not as a religious text, but as a last hope. I didn’t want rituals. I wanted relief.
Finding Strength in Stillness
One verse hit me harder than anything else:
"समदुःखसुखं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते"
"He who is steady in both pain and pleasure, truly he is fit for immortality."
(Gita 2.15)
That’s when I realized: I had been living in extremes—too high when things went well, too low when they didn’t. The real strength was in balance. In stillness. In detachment.
Minimalism: Not a Trend, But a Lifeline
I didn’t need more. I needed less. Less stuff, less noise, less chaos.
Minimalism wasn’t a style anymore—it was survival.
The verse that brought this home was:
"त्यक्त्वा कर्मफलासङ्गं नित्यतृप्तो निराश्रयः।
कर्मण्यभिप्रवृत्तोऽपि नैव किञ्चित्करोति सः॥"
"Abandoning all attachment to the results of action, ever content, depending on nothing, he does not do anything though engaged in work." (Gita 4.20)
Letting go wasn’t giving up—it was gaining clarity. The chaos outside began to clear as I worked on the chaos within.
Ready to Let Go?
That’s how minimalism came into my life—not as something I chose, but something that saved me.
But how do you start when you’ve lived with too much for too long?In my next blog, I’ll take you through the first steps I took—how I began clearing the clutter, both inside and out.