We seek happiness through material items. We believe having something will make us happier when it only feeds into the unsatisfied desire for more and more, a continuous loop run by the consistent belief that having this thing and then that thing is the key.
There are thousands of books trying to sell the key of happiness through a step-by-step. Life is not a step-by-step. We do not experience moments mirrored as the last even when everything is done the same because other events have come and gone in between and the present moment is different from the last.
* There is not a key to achieving happiness. There is no step-by-step or "one size fits all".
For the past two months, I have been the happiest I have been in a long time because I have prioritized living a life of intention. I'm not driven by wealth, popularity, or material items. I have realized that happiness is not something I can buy or achieve through clothing, makeup, mugs, shoes, stationary, etc—it's in what I do.
Simplifying my life physically has made me happier and not just because I have less belongings surrounding me but because everything that I am surrounding myself with is there with purpose. Minimizing has influenced me to quit holding onto the past by letting go of items that held me back from existing in the present moment, whether that be because they no longer served a purpose in my life or they conjured negative emotions and memories or simply fed into an endless clutter.
It has also allowed me to see the parts of life that truly matter.
I choose to make a difference in our world, to make it a better place through my actions. But there will not be a world to change if we do not save it.
Our world is heavily congested with distractions that drain the limited time we have. Rather than focusing on making change in the world and ourselves, getting to know and shape the life we are living, investing time into our relationships, making sure we are aware of ourselves and the footprint we leave behind, we are obsessed with the drama of others and consuming material items, both of which will be forgotten with time and in which the production of the latter will be the death of our planet.
The complex, majestic home we have been given to live our is dying because of us and if we don't open our eyes soon to what we are doing out of habit to realize how it is not benefitting our lives, the lives of others, or our planet, we will reach a point where we cannot go back.
Buying more stuff will not make you happier. You will buy and be happy temporarily. Then the lack of satisfaction will settle in again, there will be another item you will believe can bring you happiness, you will buy it only to find yourself unsatisfied again, piling up on items you will barely touch and will eventually stuff away in your closet, under your bed, in the basement, in a separate storage unit where you won't have to deal with or see it. I say this from personal experience and from watching others constantly consume yet still be unhappy.
We accumulate continuously until we must rid ourselves of a selection so we may fill it again and again and again. All of this ends up in landfills and in someone else's yard to deteriorate for tens of our lifetimes. It ends up in the bodies of hungry animals, killing hundreds daily. It ends up in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in the soil we plant our crops in.
Sustainable happiness cannot be bought.
Thinking that it can is killing our only home.
You have a choice to choose who you are going to be, what you are going to achieve, the impact you will have on the world, and what matters to you.
Make the motive to ask yourself why you want something when you are thinking of purchasing and then be aware of what you are purchasing. Be conscious of how much plastic you are consuming and how much trash you accumulate. Utilize ways you can minimize this through recycling, reusing, composting, or simply reducing how much you consume and how you purchase products.
Choose to live with intention and awareness.
Until next time,
take care,
Rachel x
What's your opinion?