Well, hi there, my friends, and welcome back. My name is Stephanie Safarian, and you're listening to

Episode 517 of Sustainable Minimalists. This is a subscriber-supported show about intentional and

eco-friendly minimalist living. And on today's show, we are looking to Zen Buddhism for insight

on how to let stuff go.

Stuff, yes, like accumulations, possessions.

But today we're going deeper than that.

Today we are also letting go of slights, grudges, fears, dead relationships, and

anxieties about the future.

Oh, yes, we are.

Now let's back up for a minute.

I recently came across the work of Dr. Stephanie Preston. She is a psychologist at the University of Michigan. She has spent her

career studying how animals and humans relate to their possessions. Preston believes that

overaccumulation and minimalism are driven by the same thing.

So there are two ends of a spectrum. Both minimalism and overaccumulation stem from a need for

control. Overaccumulators have anxiety that they are going to make a mistake and need something,

so they collect and collect and keep and keep.

Minimals, on the other hand, have anxiety around disorder and having too much stuff that they can't escape.

And so getting rid of stuff then becomes a way to exert control over their physical environment.

So holy heck, what now?

The science says that minimalism is an extreme response to feelings of lack of control.

And yet on the other side of the stuff spectrum, keeping stuff, holding on to stuff,

is also a means by which humans attempt to exert

...