Interview with Kristine Vukovich on the topic of Minimalism as the key to resilience

Resilience stands for the ability to withstand difficult challenges. The way to achieve this is not through more and more knowledge, training and activity, but through a properly understood minimalism. Focus and conscious, goal-oriented reduction are key elements. Kristine Vukovich from the specialist sekoerber gave us valuable insights and tips in an interview.

Find out how to recognize a good leader and what really strengthens teams in our interview with motivational trainer Sebastian Körber, with whom we had another exciting conversation on this topic in January 2021.

What does minimalism mean?

The term minimalism has been on everyone's lips at least since Kon Mari's bestseller. In her book "Magic Cleaning", she explains how to achieve a lighter life by reducing the number of things and creating a better system of filing and tidying.

But minimalism doesn't just mean cleaning out your wardrobe and shredding old file folders. Minimalism goes much further.

Minimalism can also play a supporting role in these areas: 

• Minimalism on social media:
  Those who only follow people who inauthentically show their perfect lives are inevitably confronted with the fact that they themselves can never be as perfect as the influencers mentioned. The fact that image editing programmes and elaborate shoots, as well as a large team, play an important role in the success of their postings in social media often does not enter our minds, although we are of course aware of it on a rational level. The solution: follow only those pages or accounts that are good for your soul and as authentic as possible. It is also advisable to schedule a social media time per day to confront oneself more with the real and less with the fictitious, apparently perfect world of other people.
  
  
• Minimalism in the social environment:
  Even if it sounds very harsh at first: too many people in our environment can also damage our resilience. Like social media, we unconsciously select our contacts (not close friends) according to their social status, or acquaintances are formed through external circumstances (like job, school...). But do these people really fit in with us and our lives? When we learn to behave authentically and to do what we feel like doing (for example, to participate in an event or not), our social environment also sorts itself out anew. We have a limited amount of time in life that we should not waste on things and activities that do not make us happy. And those who do not accept the newly drawn boundaries can and will leave your life sooner or later. And that is perfectly fine within the framework of that. Every person should have people and things in their environment that enrich their life and make them feel their own ease of mind.
  
  
• Minimalism in relation to possessions:
  Of course, minimalism is associatively linked to one's possessions. Those who want to clean out and downsize their stuff can first start by feeling their way into individual objects. This involves, for example, looking in the cupboard, taking each item in it in your hand and feeling whether it triggers a positive emotion. If it does not, you can assume that you can part with it if it does not serve a greater purpose (as would be the case with work clothes, for example).

Why do we like to accumulate things?

Several factors play a role here. First of all, it is the imprint we receive from our family of origin. How important were material possessions in our childhood and youth? How did our parents deal with it? And did possessions also play a role in marking social status?

Another factor, in addition to our own learned needs, is the externally impact, especially through influencers and our own chosen social environment. If it is permanently suggested to us that buying certain things will make us happy(er) or that our life will then be in no way inferior to that of a successful influencer, we begin to consume. Unfortunately, this usually results in no change to our actual well-being.

Do you own things or do they own you?

One mistake that many people still make is to identify with what they own. Because this inevitably leads to not being able to part with your possessions and, even worse, to developing the feeling that without the things that belong to you, you no longer exist as a human being.

"Who are you when you no longer have your possessions? If you want to be solid as a person, it has nothing to do with what you own.“

Those who feel they are not happy, even though they are always doing what everyone else is doing, should try to identify what they really need and start consuming less.

With this simple trick, everyone can immediately start buying and consuming less:

Minimalism is not only about giving away things you already own, but also about not buying them in the first place. That's why one tip Kristine Vukovich gave us is a simple comparison that anyone can do right away:

Hold the item you are tempted to buy in one hand and the money it would cost in the other. Now ask yourself what you would choose if someone offered you either the money or, for example, the shirt. The result immediately shows you the right decision. Because most of the time, when in doubt, we would rather choose the money. If this is not the case, however, you can be sure that the purchase really means more to you than just quick consumption.

Can I also return gifts?

A challenge in the implementation of minimalism is often the passing on of gifts. When we receive a gift, we usually think that under no circumstances can we give it back or even return it if we don't like it. But unfortunately, this is exactly what causes us to accumulate unloved things we didn't even choose ourselves year after year. Kristine Vukovich advises us to be open with the gift giver and to communicate that the gift is not the right one or is no longer needed after a certain time. Most of the time, one worries more about the reaction of the other person than is actually justified. It is always important to communicate gratitude and, for example, offer an alternative use for the gift. For example, if your parents have given you a houseplant that you can't or don't want to take care of because you simply don't have the talent for it, you can suggest to your parents that they give the plant to a friend who will be very happy about it. This way, the gift won't end up in the rubbish and will make someone else very happy.

Our conclusion - how minimalism makes life a little better

Minimalism is not about reducing one's wardrobe to 5 plain blouses. Rather, minimalism and the resulting resilience is a result of self-discovery. In the process of questioning and reducing, we get to know ourselves better and realize what and who we need to be happy. And in the end, that should also be the goal in life.