The Start of My Minimalism Journey

Intentional Living

Jan 22, 2021

What better way to launch a new YouTube channel than by starting at the beginning of my minimalism journey?

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I was prompted to start the channel TODAY, January 22, 2021, because this photo from 8 years ago exactly showed up on my phone and I was completely taken aback. SO much changed since that picture was taken. Namely, I am so much happier and at peace with myself, in part due to my journey with minimalism.

Wherever you are in your minimalism story, I hope this video helps you in some way.

I can’t wait to share more intentional living videos with you on YouTube!

Please subscribe to my channel and hit like on the video when you watch it; it will help the YouTube algorithm suggest my video to others who might find it useful.

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The Start of My Minimalism Journey: The YouTube Video

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  I am going to share with you the beginning of my minimalism journey. If you are on your own journey with minimalism: beginning, middle, end… you know, wherever you are, I hope this information helps you.
So I was inspired to make this video because of this picture. This is from eight years ago today, and it was yeah, eight years ago exactly. It was January 22nd, 2013. Even though my hair looks on point and I look pretty happy or whatever, the smile is definitely fake. The pose is really calculated. And the bag of goodies that was from that Los Angeles makeup convention was really just going to go home and be piled on top of a whole bunch of crap that I already had that was, you know, from my beauty blog and things like that. But it was just really masking my insecurity and unhappiness.
All right, let me pause there real quick. I'm Jenn. Hello Brio is a Community of Conscious Creatives. If this sounds like you, please make sure to hit subscribe and like, and stick around for more videos about intentional living.
So I've been sitting on this self-mandated pressure to start this YouTube channel for months now. And really what prompted me to do it is because of this picture showed up on my phone and I'm just like, Oh my gosh, what better way to start my channel than telling you the beginning of my story with minimalism. And even though it's cliché to start at the beginning, I don't know. It just felt like a good place to start.
So yeah, that photo was from eight years ago, January, 2013, I was 27 and I was about 30 pounds later than I am now. And I definitely had the it girl hair thing going on.
So, yeah. From the outside looking in, my life at that time looked pretty good. I was newly married-ish and we had just purchased a house, a brand new house, new construction in a gated community. And we had a really great pool. It just seemed really nice. I had a growing career and I was also, you know, side hustling a little bit with a beauty blog and a YouTube channel and things look pretty good.
I was pretty proud of all the stuff I had. I had tons of clothes and shoes and makeup and beauty products. All this stuff was just really well-organized in every single corner of our house with various organizational strategies and cubes and things like that.
At the time, I really thought that all of these things would bring me happiness.
I knew that there was a big piece missing something just didn't feel right.
And I really didn't know that six months later after that picture, I would have divorced my husband and be flying back to Philadelphia. I had shipped my car back home and I only had about seven boxes that were shipped from California to Philadelphia via UPS. And these weren't humongous boxes. They were like pretty normal sized boxes. So I had pared down on my stuff a ton. It was really like a fraction of what I owned is what I actually brought home with me to Philadelphia.
As I shed my so-called life and identity, I also shed all the stuff that really weighed me down. In later years, I pared down even more, and it's still a continuous process. Like you're always going to be minimizing and stuff if that's one of your goals is to just really hold onto the essential items that you need. But really that's for another video.
But really the most important thing that I gained in 2013 was my freedom. I just got my complete freedom back, you know, the whole picture: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and it just felt right. 2013 really set the stage for my life as I know it now. I'm a minimalist mom, a creative entrepreneur, and I have a partner who also shares the same values.
If you have a minimalism story, I'd love for you to share it with me, either in the comments below, or you can send me a tweet.
Since this is my very first YouTube video on this channel (Yay!) I am going to promise you to do a weekly video. They might be short, but they will be helpful for you. Thank you so much for tuning into this first video on this channel, and I'll see you next week.

  
  