The Art of Minimalism -Part III – Law of Equilibrium

Once we can recognize our needs, we can move towards the higher plateau of life and that is maintaining the equilibrium or balance in our life. The law of equilibrium is the fundamental concept never taught in schools or universities. This law should be a part of our curriculum and should be taught in each class and every grade. This law if well understood, a new dimension of engineering and designing may come up and which will make the world a better place to live in.

The progress of technology after the invention of electricity is a phenomenon. The man has reached the moon, identified many other galaxies. Technology has advanced in all the dimensions such as medicine, electronics, engineering marvels, agriculture, sports, and many more. But do you think that scientific discoveries and inventions have helped mankind to raise its standard of living? It is raised when the three basic necessities such as Air, Water, and Food are available to all in the purest form. The increasing amounts of pollution, ozone depletion, deforestation, increasing carbon footprints and global warming, adulteration in food, the depleting quality of life are some of the by-products which these advancements have gifted us. We may wonder that with the help of technology, we have uplift ourselves from the other species residing on this planet, but it’s unfortunate that science is still struggling to cure the problem rather than preventing it. This is because mankind has not been able to maintain the required balance or equilibrium while utilizing natural resources for the advancement of technology.

Let me throw some light on the Law of equilibrium. The word equilibrium has different meanings in biology, physics, chemistry, and economics but in all of them, it refers to the balance of the competing influences or processes. Life if lived in a balanced way will have more life in it; will be more productive, more content, and more enriched. The law of equilibrium works on the principle that a person should try to maintain the balance between his needs and the utilization of natural resources. He must be calculative enough to give it back whatever amount he has consumed thus maintaining the equilibrium on the planet. For eg., When we consume 100 Kcal of food and we spend all of our energy doing some task may be physically or mentally, the energy consumed will be free-flowing, and the balance between consumption and utilization will be maintained. If the calories are stored in excess by eating more and working less, then it will lead to a lot of health problems. Here the equilibrium is not maintained.

Another scenario is the deforestation to build a township or a society; we hamper a lot of animal and plant life. We never think of restoring the damage done to nature. There are no mathematical equations or calculations which can indicate the amount of good energy lost during this deforestation process and thus we cannot restore the affected plant and animal life. There is no reverse engineering involved which may help us to prevent the loss of the environment. No knowledge of the amount of loss mankind may face in terms of fresh air, water, food, and thus the quality of life. People who don’t understand the concept of minimalism tend to exploit nature to its maximum and unfortunately, nature has to give it back on its own terms. The rising levels of pollution due to industrialization increased in private and commercial vehicles have raised the levels of water, air, and noise pollution. In the manufacturing sector, whatever is being produced will always add up to the generation of carbon footprints. Why don’t we calculate or have engineering solutions which help to recreate the same environment and atmosphere? Why can’t we calculate the effect of pollution due to plastic, vehicles, and other industrial products and produce them only when we can restore their side effects. Why we always have to struggle for a cure instead of investing our time and thought process on developing new strategies on prevention of the loss of these invaluable resources. If I write more on these issues the article will be never-ending. People trying to possess many homes, cars, and more other stuff will always degrade the quality of nature and thus it degrades their own standard of living. The need of the hour is to understand the law of equilibrium which gives us insight into prevention than cure.

The law of equilibrium relates itself with the art of minimalism. The minimalistic person knows his needs and will consume the resources only as per his requirement. Thus the exploitation of nature to meet his requirements will be minimum and nature will have more time to manifest or grow itself. A minimalist person will try to give more to the environment against what he consumes. The art of minimalism teaches a person to declutter the stuff which he possesses and then prevents him from buying the unnecessary stuff leading to the reduction in carbon footprints and developing a safe environment. It is rightly said that when the demand decreases, the supply and production will also decrease which reduces overconsumption of the natural resources. Just think about the stuff you may want to declutter from your life and by doing so, you will be helping Mother Nature to restore itself.

- Dr. Dhananjay Patel

Stay Tuned for Part IV

Listen Our Podcast on Your Favorite Platform:

Spotify | Google Podcast | Gaana | Saavn | Anchor

Follow Us on Social Media Platforms:

LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook