May 7, 2024
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Inspiring Your Life with Vegan Food, Facts and Fun

Minimalism and veganism: an interview with Michael Ofei from The Minimalist Vegan

What does being a ‘minimalist vegan’ involve?

Maša and I define minimalism as the process of identifying what is essential in your life and eliminating the rest. 

And veganism is about removing any harm or exploitation to animals, both human and non-human.

What glues minimalism and veganism together is your approach to consumerism.

Minimalism is about challenging your habits about how much you should consume and keep. 

When you add veganism to the equation, you’re now also considering what you consume. Does the supply chain of what you’re consuming exploit or harm animals in the process?

So living a minimalist vegan lifestyle means consuming with heightened awareness and intentionality.

Maša and Michael from The Minimalist Vegan

Why did you decide to embark on a life of minimalism?

My journey into minimalism started in 2013 when I left a lucrative career in real estate and went back to school to complete my degree. Up until that point in my life, I defined success by the ability to buy and have more things. 

Like many of us, I wanted multiple houses, fancy cars, clothes, and generally, the ability to buy what I wanted when I wanted.

As I was searching the internet for tips on how to start a blog, I stumbled across zenhabits.net. The creator of the site, Leo Babuata writes about building powerful habits across your entire life. It was through his writing I discovered minimalism.

Leo advocated for a life of less instead of more. As when you pair down everything you own and consume to only what is essential, you start to look inward for fulfilment.

I was inspired by this concept and introduced it to my now-wife Maša who at the time, thought minimalism was some boring spartan concept where you don’t have any aesthetical style in what you own. But once she did her research into minimalism, she was quickly on-board with transforming our relationship with things. 

In our book, we define the desire of wanting more as “The More Virus”. 

When you have this virus, it spreads through your system, as you continuously look to find happiness in things. This is the trap of consumerism, and that’s where minimalism comes into play.

Critics of minimalism say it is something only privileged people can undertake. What would you say to this?

This is an area of minimalism I’m particularly passionate about. 

It saddens me that minimalism is portrayed as a lifestyle for privileged people. A lot of this perception stems from the minimalist aesthetic. Minimalism was originally a design concept which evolved to a philosophy of life. 

In design, minimalism is attractive. It doesn’t take you long to get lost on YouTube, Instagram or Pinterest longing for home decor, fashion, technology with a minimalist aesthetic. The crazy thing is, people use minimalism to get rid of things, only so they can buy newer and more premium products. 

While I must admit that minimalism is a desirable concept for many, the whole point of it is to create space for what’s essential in your life. It doesn’t matter what your situation is or where you are in the world; minimalism is a ruthless way of thinking about what you say yes to and what you say no to. It’s about intentionality, not looking prestigious to your peers.

How can we get started on our own minimalist journey?

There are no rules for minimalism. It’s an incredibly personal journey.

A lot of people jump straight into decluttering their homes, thinking that is how you get started with minimalism. While this can be an excellent primer, the most effective way to get started in minimalism is first to create an aspirational vision of what an intentional life would look like for you.

What does that look like? Here are a few examples:

  • Living without debt
  • Living without the need to think about what you have to wear each day
  • Living without excess clutter and things in your physical and digital environments
  • Living without toxic relationships in your life

Your vision needs to be so clear and desirable that when you think about it, you feel calm, ease, simplicity. It’s at this point you can start to do the hard work of minimalism. 

Can you tell us a bit about your book The Minimalist Vegan: A Simple Manifesto On Why To Live With Less Stuff And More Compassion?

We wrote this book to be read within 1-2 hours. We want people to get it and read it in a sitting, so they can start living with less stuff and more compassion as quickly as possible. 

We intentionally wrote a “why-to” book instead of a “how-to” book. We did this because you can find “the how” easily, just like you can find “the how” for bettering your health. But despite the knowledge of how, we were finding that many of us still wouldn’t take action. So we wanted to address the root-cause of motivation and give readers a bit of a jolt to bring urgency to changing their consumeristic habits.

Michael Ofei is the author behind Amazon Best Seller The Minimalist Vegan: A Simple Manifesto To Live With Less Stuff And More Compassion. He and his wife Masa, also run a blog and podcast called The Minimalist Vegan with a global audience that reaches over 60,000 people each month.

Written by
Kathy Divine

Kathy Divine is the author of six vegan books, mentor to aspiring authors and the founder of Australian Vegans Journal. She loves all things potato, studying animal naturopathy and is a qualified dog massage therapist. Dogs love massage!

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Written by Kathy Divine