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- How to Reinvent Yourself
Hey Friend,
There’s a reason why monks, priests, and others dedicated to the spiritual path are famously ascetic.
Today I’m diving into a connection I discovered between Buddhism, minimalism, and reinventing yourself.
First, a quick recap of what led to this, and then I'll wrap it up with a practical action you can take.
Let’s get into it.
My Binge
This last week, I went on a binge. But not of the usual substances.
Nope. I went on a digital cleansing binge.
I’m already very picky with my digital inputs.
Around a month ago, I was only subscribed to a handful of weekly newsletters, around 15 Youtube channels, a handful of podcasts, and followed ~500 people on IG.
This may already seem minimal to a lot of you, but I decided it ain’t enough!
I unsubscribed from all Youtube channels, all podcasts, all but 3 newsletters, and cut my IG following from 500 to 157.
I even deleted old Spotify playlists.
Why?
Creating Space
We are what we consume. If we want to change for the better, then we need to be intentional about what is coming in.
It’s why the classic way to have a fresh start was to move cities.
Change the inputs, the person changes. We are freed from being constrained to how we used to be, how others expect us to behave.
Well, the same is true for your digital life. When was the last time you did a cleanse of your Instagram feed?
If you move across the world, but you’re still following people from high school on IG, then you haven’t fully moved on.
The next time you go on Instagram, be aware of how many posts you skip for every one that you actually engage with.
If you’re constantly skipping someone’s posts, why are you following them?
I engage with almost every single post, because I have trimmed down my feed to only people that I am still interested in seeing content from.
I unfollowed a ton of old “friends” who I knew I’d never see again and did not mind “cutting ties” with (as if following each other on IG is maintaining anything of value).
The same can be said for Youtube subscriptions, Spotify playlists, email newsletters.
What does this do?
It creates space, which leads us to…
Emptiness
In Buddhism, there is a term, “Emptiness.”
In essence, Emptiness is a psychological state which one must achieve to connect to something greater than him or herself (i.e. the Divine).
One achieves Emptiness through meditation, in which the Ego (thoughts, emotions, etc.) is discarded.
As a result, there is room for something more meaningful to come into experience.
This directly applies to the practice of minimalism.
Those dedicated to the spiritual path practice extreme minimalism because they know it would only distract them from what they’ve decided actually matters.
In their case, this would be religious study and meditation.
Change the inputs, the output changes.
I feel I am doing the same thing with this cleanse (although clearly to a lesser degree).
As I am eliminating all these inputs that past Ryan believed were worthy of his time, I am creating space for a new Ryan to emerge.
This new Ryan cannot help but be more meaningful because he will be a result of more meaningful inputs. Inputs that I select intentionally and from a clean slate.
I am building a new future for myself, and I am very excited for it.
The Takeaway
The takeaway should be quite obvious: Perform your own digital cleanse.
Unfollow on IG, unsubscribe on YouTube, unfollow podcasts.
Use the 80/20 rule. Chances are, 80% of the content you consume is from 20% of creators.
Keep with those creators and discard everything else. You’re not consuming it anyways.
Let me know how it goes and if you feel the same tangible excitement that I do.
Something about getting rid of things gets me going, and I think it’s because I can feel the opportunity of something new now able to take its place.
I hope you feel the same way.
As always, if anything in this email piqued your interest, shoot me a reply. I’d love to chat about it with you and see if we can’t both grow a little wiser.
Until next time.
Much love,
Ryan
P.S. New content this week: