“Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body”.   George Carlin

 

We live in a consumer-driven world.  Consumerism is a ‘social and economic order and ideology that encourages the purchase of goods and services in ever greater amounts’.  It mandates that people must be kept in a state of dissatisfaction in order to sustain itself.  Think about that for a minute.  If we are happy, right now, with what we have, the structure of the American economy collapses.  Some might argue that consumerism leads to greater global prosperity.  At some point that was true, but the balance has tipped too far.  As my husband, Mike, proofread this he reminded me that what I am suggesting is a fundamental principle of economics known as the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility.  Our lifestyle in the US, one could argue, is among the most comfortable in the world yet we rank 17th in happiness.  I consider that rather pathetic and believe that feeding into the consumerism model is behind our dismal ranking.

Many of us spend more waking hours doing activities that we don’t like than hours doing activities we DO like.  Many of us work for our paychecks, not really enjoying the process.  Certainly there are moments of satisfaction in these jobs but how many countless hours are wasted commuting, droning through endless meetings, developing new ways to create efficiency (to eliminate someone’s job) to serve the corporation and its shareholders?  Sure the paycheck is important to allow us to buy the things that are supposed to bring us happiness, but why?  Is it really the sign of an advanced society that we can’t be happy unless we have the nicest car, North Face jacket, Nike KD sneakers, Louis Vuitton bag, marble countertops etc…?  I am not immune to this and I am not passing judgment on any of us.  I am only pointing out what I see to be holding us back from experiencing joy.  Each day I am gaining greater awareness of what truly makes me happy and it is not material possessions.  Certainly there are times when we need a new jacket or car.  Get the best quality that you can afford but try to be mindful of who made it for you.  Most of our shopping falls into the category of ‘want’ and not ‘need’.  It seems to me that the moment of euphoria fades pretty quickly from that bright and shiny new object we just acquired.  The thrill is fleeting.  Once the moment passes we are back to that place of dissatisfaction.  For many it also means the crippling stress of debt (mortgage, car payments, student loans, credit cards).  I would say spending on vacations might be an exception because they allow you to experience happiness but to be working toward these precious 10-14 “happy” days out of 365 rather than living in a state of happiness ALL OF THE TIME… just seems like a waste of the life we were given.

Almost every aspect of the American way of life is designed to breed dissatisfaction.  We have become numb to how our bodies feel as a result of what we see and hear and experience.  I used to be like this, but once I became aware, I had a new level of respect for what was actually good for me and what was causing me to feel bad.  The TV we watch is depressed, narcissistic, crime-ridden and grossly violent, and we love it.  The highest Nielsen rated show for 2013 was NCIS.  This weekend the extremely violent (by the trailers), yet highest grossing movie was the epic 300: Rise of an Empire.  Sure we like our comedies too but consider just for a minute how many depressing, scary and/or violent images we see as TV viewers in 1 week.  I even challenge you to keep track of it.  You’ll be amazed.  The nightly ‘news’ is just one gloomy and dispiriting story after another.  Now I like Brian Williams, I always have, but a couple of years ago it dawned on me that I was being fed a media smorgasbord of fear, frustration and anger.  It reminds me of the old Don Henley song ‘Dirty Laundry’.  In between segments, pharmaceutical companies (who buy network news) inundate us with ads for depression, erectile dysfunction or rheumatoid arthritis – all conditions related to our mental state of unhappiness.  With what we are watching it is no wonder that we are depressed and that our bodies don’t function well!   I actually find it rather offensive how the network media feeds us the token weekly ‘feel good’ story at the end of the Friday night broadcast.  I just love the way they can throw toxic crap at us all week, but because the powers that be declare weekends to be our ‘feel good’ days, they provide us with a glimpse of humanity that we all wish to experience in every waking moment but that we are kept from through our belief that happiness comes from outside of us.

We do not live in a democracy as much as we live in a corporatocracy.  Remember that consumerism requires us to be dissatisfied.  Corporations own network news, they own our military/industrial complex, they own the medical industry and, in reality, they own our government through powerful lobbying groups.  If we are happy, then we aren’t contributing to this economy.  Profits demand that we be dissatisfied and needing more.  But what if we could break free from this cycle?

Imagine for a moment what it might feel like to not want or need anything, not to get too John Lennon on you 😉 Could you be at peace exactly where and who you are right now?  Do you have everything you need to survive comfortably?  For most reading this post, the answer should be yes.  We have food, water, shelter, family, friends, sunshine(sometimes), the ability to move our bodies, vehicles to get us from point A to point B.  Most of us even have a fair amount of luxuries (TVs, Ipads, Ipods, etc…).   Consider the conditions that many people on the planet are living in at this very moment.  Some might be like us, but many live in abject poverty.  Yet people around the world, living with much less material comfort than we, have found happiness.  Last week I was visiting with my very good friend Chauncy.  We were discussing this post and Chauncy commented how true it was.  She told me that she had taken her 2 kids to see The Journey to the South Pacific movie at the Omni theatre.  She described watching a young Pacific island boy share his life experience.  Chauncy told me that he loved his village, loved his life, was incredibly proud of the guitar he had made from items he found on the beach yet he did not own shoes and there was no electricity in the village.  This boy was happy, no doubt about it, but Chauncy’s kids didn’t like the movie.  They are consumer kids, just like we all are.  We are all so far removed from our power to make ourselves happy that it is difficult to witness another’s happiness with so little.  We have given our power away and made outside forces the dictators of our happiness.

So can you imagine just being?  Because that is what it is all about.  Just being.  You are a soul.  I am a soul.  We have chosen to participate in this crazy experiment called life to simply be ourselves and to be happy.  That’s it folks.  Sounds so simple right?  Now I am not suggesting that you turn your life into a Spartan existence or follow the path of Yogis.  What I am suggesting is that if you look around you, and express gratitude for what you have, you will find that you will begin to take back your power.  If you stop trying to find happiness through gratification outside of you, you will find inner peace.  Take a step away from believing “I will be happy when…” and a step toward “I AM happy because”.  You will begin to love your own company.  You will begin to appreciate how the sun makes you feel warm on a cold day or how holding your daughter or son’s hand makes your heart skip a beat.  You will reconnect with what really creates happiness.  You will have reconnected with who you really are.

So I challenge you, in an effort to reawaken your innate power to be happy, to do the following for one week, one month or longer:

1. Every day for 1 week start your day by saying “I am happy because” and list 3 reasons.
2. Do not watch the news.  In order to stay informed find a news website but avoid any article retelling a story of violence or sensationalism that serves absolutely no purpose but to make you sad, scared, a voyeurist or frustrated (top trending stories on CNN right now are 2 plane crashes, Justin Bieber’s self-destruction, a stage collapse and a mother who lost 110 pounds).  Talk about being dumbed down!  Consider checking into Sunny Skyz or The Good News network; sharing only upbeat, positive media (sometimes we need to see babies and puppies!).
3. Take a 1 week hiatus from ‘retail therapy’.  I encourage you to keep it going for longer too!  Purchase good quality foods (preferably organic and humanely-raised) and other essentials but no impulse buys or caving to kid’s demands.  Get your books from the library.
4. Disconnect from competition.  When you find yourself comparing what you have to another, stop, say in your mind “reset” and instead express gratitude for something in your life.  Recognize that there will always be someone with more and someone with less than you and let go of this unwinnable scenario!
5. Walk outside and feel the sunshine every day for one week, even if just for a few minutes.  Stand in it.  Hold your head up and soak it in.  When the sun isn’t shining, feel the rain, the snow or the cold.  Express gratitude for the different sensations.
6. Do something that makes you feel really good every day for one week.  Take a hot bath, watch a funny movie, meditate, pray, exercise, play a family game….Become familiar with what makes you FEEL good.

Your psyche and your wallet will thank you!

What I am challenging you to do is to begin to disconnect from the Consumer paradigm.  Consumerism needs you to be unhappy.  No one should have that power over you.  Take back your power.  I do not think the global economy will crumble as a result of our actions.  I do believe we can transform it.  Each one of us has the power to make this a vastly greater planet than we experience right now.  We are intelligent, passionate, and compassionate.  We do not have to wait for our leaders to legislate the changes we seek.  We have the power to ‘be the change we wish to see in the world’.  Simple changes in perception, in our own lives, contribute to profound changes in the world.  So go forth and be happy…it is your birth right 🙂