Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter
Yoga is one of the most important things you can do for the balance of your body mind and soul. It’s also one of the most minimalist forms of stretching and exercise tools that exists.
This is probably why I’ve been so drawn to this particular method of strengthening myself, because it requires nothing but what you already have.
There are only two requirements for doing yoga.
1, a mat or blanket.
2, your body.
Modern corporations are trying heard to teach us that we need much more than these two things to do yoga. At a typical yoga studio you will find ropes, blocks, heated rooms, clean white towels, and other assorted gizmo-gadgets.
Have you ever picked up a yoga magazine? Stocked full of ads and stories trying to sell you more equipment.
You don’t need anything but yourself to do yoga. It doesn’t matter how skinny or fat you are, how tall, or how old you are. Anyone can do yoga, and you only need a mat.
You certainly don’t need Lululemon butt-grabber pants (though they do look quite nice) to be able to do downward facing dog properly.
All of these additional things serve to distance you from the origins of yoga, which is an incredibly simple practice.
You don’t need to buy anything else to do yoga.
If you feel like it, make a promise now to never buy anything beyond a mat for your yoga. I certainly haven’t. Some people spend thousands of dollars on yoga junk they don’t need and never manage to do any yoga. I don’t want you to be that person.
This is a guide to doing yoga by yourself without spending a dime. You won’t be asked to buy anything. There is no catch at the end asking you to give me money. My intent is only to demystify the basics of yoga enough that anyone can do it on their own for free.
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Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter
I believe were all pursuing this minimalist life because somewhere, deep down below the surface, we know being minimalist is the only way we’re going to save the planet.
I spend a lot of time writing articles about how to live a simple lifestyle, I give step by step instructions about which habits to adopt. Then I cross my fingers and I hope that a couple of the 10,000 people that visited this site in the last month will adopt these habits and make their lives better.
But my dream is much bigger than convincing a few people to unclutter their closets.
Embracing a minimalist lifestyle is the best way to save everything.
There’s a double meaning to every post that I write. By spreading the word that living a life without stuff is the best way for us all to achieve a better life together, we also make it possible for the world not to end.
The manufacturing of low quality goods destined for the trash heap, burning of billions of tons of fossil fuel, deforestation, the flawed food we eat.
We know these things are wrong, but a minimalist decides to actually opt out. They make the conscious decision to stop perpetuating the cycle of consumerism that has plagued our culture for the last 100 years.
All of these problems are ultimately connected to us.
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Interview by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter
Every week on Far Beyond The Stars I interview an important person on the subject of being minimalist. Last week I spoke to Colin Wright about what you take with you when you work from anywhere. Next week I’ll be speaking with Chris Baskind of More Minimal.
This week I spoke with the minimalist legend Leo Babauta. For those who don’t know him, Leo writes the top-100 blog Zen Habits and has another smaller blog called Mnmlist. He’s the author of a slew of books on living a simple minimalist existence, including his e-book A Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life, and his print book The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life.
We spoke about doing less of the unimportant, the illusion of control over life, and a few ways you can be more minimalist today.
I’ve decided to release this interview under an uncopyright license. This interview is copyright free, which means that you can distribute, republish, source from, even profit from this article without any permission from me. If you enjoyed this interview, please share it with as many people as you can. There’s no need to link back, but I’d love it if you could.
On to the interview!
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Everett Bogue: When you first started on your journey towards becoming minimalist what was the most profound change that you made in your life?
Leo Babauta: It was the realization that all the crap in my life that I’d been buying and building up and treasuring … just wasn’t worth it. It’s the stuff that’s advertised and hyped, that we think makes us happy, but that really doesn’t. I’ve learned that I don’t need any of that — all I need are a few essentials, and the time to do things that I love doing, to spend with the people I love most.
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