The Courage to Discard

Insufficient space! Memory full! Storage space running out! I encounter these kind of notification several times daily in my phone. Been accumulating lot of picture and videos from various endless WhatsApp group without deleting any, until I need to, in order to free some space. Otherwise my phone won't work up properly. Not just save some precious memories are necessary but to save some other "memory" by deleting and removing would also be in equal strain too. Nagisa Tatsumi, a Japanese author, Journalist and Commentator wrote a very exciting book entitled, The Art of Discarding.  In the very first page of the preface she says directly upfront that throwing stuff out is a fundamental issue. Today, we have "to much stuff." We are Over-loaded, I presume. The hyper-consumerism of our day triumph as one author describes, "The puzzle of Modern consumerism in the modern world the production of consumption becomes more important than consumption of production."

We keep on accumulating and accumulating and forget this, as the ecological slogan echoes, "don't produce rubbish!" By accumulating we will collect only rubbish eventually. This overloadinhg problem is the problem that Nagisa try to address in her book. Part of the muddle was the illusion of thinking that we are happy when we have lot of things around us. We are more content. But is this true? Not really. Moreover, most of us are still stuck in our traditional sense of shame of wastefulness (mottainai) whereby we are afraid that when we discard something it means that we waste something. A shameful act to be taken. Nagisa propose some positive and ecological answer to counter this issue.

First off, we need to reassess our relationship with physical objects. The rule is vert simple, keep things you use and discard things you don't. True, there are in some occasions that keeping things are good. In case, we would like to use that things anytime, we are ready. Yet, I think when Nagisa mentioned keep things we use and discard the things you don't is really a things that is useless. How do we know? The point is to be selective. Be aware of our stuff.

So, we need to be intentional, to set a time to make like what Nagisa propose in her book, "The Can't Discard" survey and then discard freely the rest of stuff which are not in can't lists. Further tips, we can change our thinking. Rather than saying, "don't know what to do with it" (so save it first) we better think about discarding it immediately (If those are highly important, we won't dispose to dispose anyway). If we want to be honest, most of the time, we wont use or go to those things we kept on anymore (Like many data in my phone!). With courage, one need to decide with boldness that even we save some stuff for time being. Remember provisional is always provisional. Don't make provisional temporary. Even Nagisa goes further on to say, when we have or buy new things, we need to delete the old as she says, "unless you discard the old one, you will have more than necessary" or also, it can be taken in another angle, that is to say, never buy something new when the old things are still convenient to be used. 

After discussing some art of discarding, the big question is, why we need to bother? Actually, the act of discarding, fix the problem "of too much stuff" which often hinder us to experience joy and happiness. In line with Nagisa, Marie Kondo also says on how discarding is important. The feeling of higher contentment is often comes not from accumulating but discarding something. Only by discarding something, we can know and discover values and treasure that often we take for granted. By discarding temporary unused stuff, the important will shines more brightly. Impressively, In Japan, the year end is the tradition of cleaning and even, every November, the cleaning advertisement and tips are everywhere by that time. This is a very good culture to be acknowledged. Of course, tidying up is not only about clustering or putting things as neat as possible in its place but also about discarding and letting go. 

Time flies. As I write this article, I realized it was already near the edge of the coming new year. Good for us to make a lists of "the can discard" and "the can't discard." After we break those lists down clearly, now is the time to be brave and discard those things from list. Not limited to stuff. This is also should be happening  in the realm of spirituality. In fact, in the various religious tradition, to negate or discarding self is allegedly known to be the true pathway toward divinity. God cannot be known best, through accumulating much facts about Him only. To know Him best is through the constant denial. To remove the old-self. To throw away the ego and so on. The path of negation is as worthy affirmation. In the realm of mind and psyche, to discard is also critical. Disposing the old memories of ex-boy/girlfriend, failure in life, regret of missing of opportunity, pain of lost. All those things that we dispose can grows us and free us from the shadow of the past, which frequently haunt us.  Not easy. But only by letting go, we will find our peace and joy in our mind. A great ammount of courage need to be taken.

To conclude, the act of discarding is not a shameful action. That's the old-traditional way of thinking. Apparently, discarding is wonderful it could bring ample space inside of us so happiness can spark in. There are many more benefits of discarding, but for this moment for sure, it hinder me from the innumerable notifications of Insufficient space! Memory full! Storage space running out! Wow, it works! What a relief!