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A Daily Theme?! For the Whole Week?!

Minimalism is certainly often discussed around here. One thing this community has made abundantly clear to us is that each one of us has their own unique understanding of it. So, in order to broaden that understanding, we are returning to the MINIMALIST Daily Themes... with a twist.

Instead of narrowing it down to one single day, we are generously expanding each theme across an entire week, to give you more time to tell us all about your practice, and how the respective theme fits into your minimalist lifestyle.

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What We Want

We are ONLY looking for authentic minimalism.

We want to know how the weekly theme impacts or relates to your minimalist experience, so let's talk a bit about how we define minimalism.

Minimalism actually started out as an artistic movement in the 1950s and '60s. Through it, creators sought to strip their art off needless frills and bows, and boil down to the very essence.

That's what minimalism, as a life practice, is. Removing the unnecessary, so you can cultivate more conscious, at-the-essence living. It's a bid for freedom. It's a means of escaping our overwhelming materialist society, keeping consumerist anxieties at bay, of simplifying our material existence so we can focus more on the core.

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What We DON'T Want

While the blockchain is an excellent place to meet new people and learn from one another, we do have some rules on what we DON'T define as minimalism:

• Minimalism is not the same thing as poverty/privation. While we empathize profoundly with all situations and try to help fellow Hiveans as we can, such posts will probably fit better elsewhere.
  
  
• Minimalism is not about religion. While we support everyone's right to a religious practice of choice, this is not the place for talking about how you shun possessions in the name of Jesus or helping your church. We do NOT welcome zealots or preachers of any creed.
  
  
• MInimalism is about enriching the HUMAN experience. As such, we hold a very hard policy on the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.). Any AI-enhanced posts, from pictures to articles written by AI will be muted.
  
  
• Finally, we are looking for personal accounts. If the weekly theme is mindfulness, we want your definition, your relationship with mindfulness. We do not want generic posts defining mindfulness or explaining it in general, bland terms. We want to know what it means for you.

Now that the fine print's out of the way, let's talk about the theme itself.

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Week 12: Freedom Friday

As we were saying above, at its core, minimalism implies a relentless pursuit of freedom. Too often, it's misunderstood as the reductive "owning 100 items or less". But minimalism, to us, means ridding yourself of what's keeping you shackled.

To quote a cult classic, "the things you own end up owning you". So yes, minimalism can mean freeing yourself from material possessions that you realize aren't actually necessary for a happy, satisfactory existence.

Minimalism can also be mental declutter. An attempt to organize and limit the noise inside your head produced by things like social media or news outlets.

It can mean gaining your freedom back from things or situations that would keep you afraid, worried, worn-down and anxious.

Minimalism to us is a way of gaining freedom, so that you can live your best life in the present moment (and fully experience it).

What activities and practices are helping you feel more free at the moment? What's your low-key minimalist trick for hanging loose?

Or if freedom isn't forthcoming at the moment, why not? Which specific area of your life is currently in an overly cluttered state and needs you to break a toxic or plain unhealthy chain?

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Participation Guidelines

We are (as you can probably tell) a pretty live-and-let-live community around here. However, we do have a couple of minor rules, to promote healthy engagement.

• No AI Content - We're just trying to keep it for the humans;
• Min. 300 words;
• Use the first tag #FreedomFriday (you don't need to post on Friday, just use the tag);
• Engage with at least 2 other Daily Theme posts (we love lone wolves, but sometimes it's nicer to grow together).

Also, please also observe our updated community rules.

_{The photos belong to honeydue and millycf1976 and were both manipulated using Canva}