Welcome back to a bonus Sunday episode.

I do this once a week so we can hear a little more content to optimize our lives,

an extra episode from one of the other shows where we read articles to you.

Today, I'm sharing one from Optimal Living Daily.

If you enjoy it, you can follow or subscribe in your favorite podcast app for daily

episodes. So with that, here's Justin from Optimal Living Daily as we optimize your life.

How we feel secure with owning less by Amanda Brownlow of hellobrownlow.com.

Some people have the mentality of the more I own, the better off I am. And while that could be

true in the event of a disaster, owning more doesn't make you better off or happier. With our journey into minimalism well underway,

our minimalist life makes me feel better and more efficient now than I did owning more.

I still struggle sometimes with bringing new or new to us items into our home. However,

I am more confident in my ability to live minimally, even if I do have to

remind myself of it. Why, it was hard to let go. As a former Cubaner, this thought of living with less

was daunting. For years, I'd buy multiples of everything. I purchased items on sale just for the

sake of purchasing them.

When my husband and I graduated from college, money was tight. We held on to way more stuff than we

should have. That included cheap grocery items, cheap clothing, and stuff we lugged with us from

college. We were afraid that if we got rid of an item or we passed on a sale,

that we couldn't afford to purchase anything else. We let our things define us, the couponer with

too many hand soaps, the college grad with textbooks lying around unopened, the people that keep up

with trends. I did want to stop relying on having

excess to feel secure. I had to change my mindset. My mindset and feelings towards objects

...