Happiness.
Humans are never able to feel satified with what they already have. Their want is unlimited.
Pain and suffering happens when we are not able to attain certain things, accomplish certain goals, fulfil certain needs.
The truth is, most of them was inflicted upon ourselves. The satisfaction of the last purchase and achievement will wear out and we are back to how happy we were beforehand.
We can only inflict pain upon ourselves in cause of what we care about. We feel sad when a beloved item eventually wears out and needed to be put away. That sadness would not have occured if we do not own the item at the first place.
We are materialistic and care about our posessions. But at the same time we seemed to not care enough of what we need to treasure. We may own a antique teapot and now we want 4 set of cups to go with it. We put our focus of what we think we need to obtain, instead of appreciation of how good the tea is when you brew it using the teapot. We do not think about, what if we never had the habit of drinking tea and therefore never thought of having teapot and teacups?
The Diderot effect. We obtain new possesions, and it lead us to a spiral of obtaining other items.
True appreciation of an item, is using it properly until it wears out and become unusable, not able to be reaired, and have served its purpose. Just like how we appreciate food, by eating it.
We constantly want to attain more, it is our nature. We are never able to be satisfied.
We can never fear for losing something we never obtained. The more we have in our posession, the more we have to worry about.
If we leave our phones in our room, we do not fear for having it stolen from us in a crowded area of the city.
We fear for losing the memory of a family trip, therefore we keep the ugly magnet on the fridge. The truth is, we do not lose the memory, we have simply loose a magnet on the fridge. There is something about the material world that connects to us so deeply, our mental state is greatly influenced by it.
We put so much of our attention into things we do not own, the dream house, dream job, dream car, and let what we think is missing dictate how happy we are. We imagine how happy we would be with it, when they are not yours.
We also think that our happiness is based on what we own, how we dress, how many friends we have. In fact, we woulf eveentually be back at how happy we were from the start.
We put so much value on material items, other than its purpose. We care about how a coat makes us look, more so than the warmth we feel when wearing it. We care about its price, its brand, its style. Its social function may outweigh its functionality.
Having that particular coat may make you feel better when you wear it for the first time. Yet we do not think about the other half a dozen of coats we have in our wardrobe, that made you feel the same way when you brought them. In reality, you can make it through the seasson just fine with one, and now you have to think every morning about which one to wear, because you own half a dozen of them.
To some, thinking about what to wear everyday is their way to happiness. The point is, if this does not bring you joy, it only add up to the clutter in our minds, drifting us further away from what we see as truly important.
I like it when not a lot of things may occupy my mind. I can choose to deeply analyze each and every thing on my mind, or simply not worry about anything.
There are triggers that makes us want more. It may be comparison to your cousin, ads on a webpage, or items shown at a store.
You may feel like you are not wealthy enough, smart enough, or good looking enough.
It is the best to eliminate these triggers, identify what they make you feel, and deal with it there.
It may be by comparison, idolizing certain people, self-loathing, and many more reasons.
We see beauty in what we are lacking. Trggers are things that spark an idea of you lacking certsin qualities. It may be your cousin with a PHD, that makes you think you did not do a good enough job in the academic criteria. It may be a haul video, that makes you think you fall short in aesthetic or taste.
When different people were exposed to the same item, different results may be yield. You either do not care, think that you are superior, or think that you are inadequate. You only feel pain when you feel like the trigger is present in qualities you do not posess.
Stop subscribing for mail lists, megazines, and channels that promote and inflict such feelings. Stop stepping into shops that you know you cannot resist from buying things from. Stop thinking that these triggers are your entertainment.
Appreciate what you have obtained and accomplished, you are the dream of yourself in the past.
Our lives are not as bad, without what we desire at the moment.
People say enjoy small pleasures in life. Of course there are ways to make you temporarly happy, getting drunk and mindlessly playing video games do too. The pleasure that we seek, should not be as always this short sighted.
Aristotle had the idea, eudaimonia, which roughly translate to wellness. There were studies done in how to achieve it, such as discovering oneself, the enjoyment of being enlightened, persue of greatness, etc. Eudimonia is more than just happiness, in order to achieve eudimonia, one is to be curious of oneself and thd world arount them, to seek knowledge, to seek fulfilment of oneself. It is not a goal, not a checklist of what to do, but a process of seeking good.
We work now in order to save up for our retirement. We may not enjoy working but we do so for a greater good. Knowing to delay our gratification is the key. If we all play video games and not work right now, we may end up with poverty and regret.
I personally want to save up enough money to support a modest life on passive income. Although I do not completely reject going outside. It is more preferred not to.
There are certain things that they are not essential, but preferred to have, money is one of them.
Iam trying to not waste money, in order to save up for investment. Also trying to only purchase what is essential.
There was items that I have been wanting for half a year and I have not purchased. Nnew boots, new clothes, new perfumes.
There was things that I have purchased and regret, because it was not essential. After a while, realizing the joy they can bring is greater than the price I paid, I may as well not beat myself up for buying it and enjoy.
That was about dyeing my hair blue. It turned out a bit green because if I bleach too much my hair will break off from the middle, therefore they were brown when I put blue hair dye on. Whatever. A murky dark blue mixed with a bit of green looks quite sinister.
There seems to be always something more to be decluttered. Just that it was not always clutter and are things that sits in a cabinet and is organized.
The fact that I always see things not being organized but was not my things, I feel frustrated. To cope with it I declutter my own stuff.
There were empty drawers and I feel frustrated about it too. I feel like it should serve a purpose and store things.
It has got into my head and I need to stop being obsessed over this.
Feels like I cannot stand an item not being used and occupy space. I try my best to eliminate things that I do not use. I want a simple life and if everytfhing is on fire I can recover shortly.
In fact, there was no fire and no need for it.
I want a very simple life. Away from distractions and away from worries. I do not want too many things to haunt me and have my mind constantly occupied. Sometimes the illusion of being very busy is what we impose to ourselves.
Emails do not need to be replied asap. Twitter does not need your constant attention. Just because something exsists, does not make it necessary for you to invest your time in it.
The less my mind is stimulated and the more space I have for myself and my mind, the less I tend to be triggered. Of course, there were things that I cannot stop worrying about. having less on my mind is taking the burden away from my sholders.
Interaction with people is trouble to me, therefore I choose to connect with only a few who knows me well.
Going outside means getting lost and trouble to me, therefore I choose to go out for only a few things.
I would rather be bored than overwhelmed. I am easily overwhelmed and I want less to think about, less to worry about.
Boredom drives people to seek new things, to learn, to be curious.
When mindless consumption is easily available, people were drawn to it due to efficiency. When fast food is easily available, people have fast food instead of cooking for themselves.
Scent of the day: The Apothecary
I have been wearing this very often in the recent week. It is herbal, dried herbs with a touch of floral and ginger.
