The human condition is interesting. Some would say it is an existence of suffering, some would say it is a delight.
Most would likely feel that it falls somewhere between the two.
When you get a moment, the next time you see a baby just notice how simple life is when we come into the world. We are entirely helpless and are dependant on having someone to tend to our every needs. The needs are basic though – food, warmth, and cleanliness.
And love.
Studies have shown that human touch and a loving environment are vital components of how we are able to cope in the world. We can survive without love, but it is difficult to thrive.
Self-love is overlooked and often shunned as we expect men to be tough and strong and women to be able to do it all. And taking time to be happy with who you are and what you have takes you away from working harder to get more.
We have been told that we are not good enough as we are and that we need fancy cars and big houses and lots of money to be satisfied.
This doesn’t make sense though. If you aren’t enough without these things, then if you do acquire them you still won’t be enough. You will need even more things because someone else will have a better car or a nicer boat or a more beautiful partner.
When satisfaction is searched for in externals, the internal will never be content.
Advertisers take advantage of our insecurities. Successful campaigns are built around images, the idea that a product can make us more than what we already are.
The repetition of these messages in our ears from a very young age can cause the feeling of lack to be ingrained deeply within us. We grow up made to feel that we aren’t enough. We are told we aren’t because we don’t have all of the money or the toys or the pretty friends.
We are taught that we are inferior from a young age and these feelings are then turned within, becoming a destructive form of self-loathing.
Is it any wonder that we are in a society where substance dependance is a crisis, where prescription drugs to soothe anxiety are common-place, and where we are chasing things that ultimately don’t make us happy? We have no appreciation for what we already have and can never get enough of what we think we need no matter what we do.
We don’t even know what we are chasing anymore. We just know that we don’t have it, and that by working harder or being thinner or having more stuff, we might finally get it.
We have lost ourselves to the insanity of needing more.
I have traveled a great deal and lived in different countries, and what I realized early on was that the happiest people I found were those who possessed the least. They didn’t have things, but they were surrounded by love.
The poorest countries, with people existing in conditions that we would consider unliveable, contain people whose eyes shine brightly, who have no dependance on substances and who live each day in a state of contentment, simplicity and ease.
It is the biggest irony of the human condition. Needing more makes us less. Having more is an addiction.
Consider all that has come into your life. Remember how much you wanted it, how you felt it would make you happy. Does it still feel that way? Or did it satisfy you for a moment, until you realized that you now needed something else?
It is wonderful to create a life of abundance, to be able to enjoy what you have and to find pleasure in your stuff. Just make sure that your identity isn’t tied to the things you accumulate.
You will never be able to get enough to be enough, if you already believe that you aren’t enough.