How Come We Have So Much More Stuff, But Less Happiness?
In response to Kirk’s comment a short series on happiness and happiness thresholds.
Have you ever read those glossy women’s magazines that share inside gossip on celebrities or real life stories on people?
I have. Sometimes there might be a tale of someone who spent $100,000 on plastic surgery and still thinks she’s ugly. It will tell how she started with a nose job because she was plagued with insecurity. After surgery she was delighted with her nose, but less happy with other parts of her body. And so bit by bit she went back and back to her Surgeon. Because the problem was never really her body, but her emotional insecurity.
I think this is a good analogy to us as a society and our relation to happiness. What we think will make us happy, usually won’t. Socially we have evolved very quickly. We’re much richer, we have more freedom, more options and more knowledge.
Yet study after study has shown that despite being far more affluent, people are not happier than 50 years ago and are often less dissatisfied. Does that mean that we live in a worse time?
There might be some people who look back on past times with nostalgia and think we have lost community spirit and so on. However if you were to look back over the history of humanity, you’d see those same opinions thousands of years ago. Each generation takes progress past the last. And those who don’t understand the changes always think it is a sign of ‘the world going crazy’.
My parent’s generation and older will often hark back to the 50′s and 60′s saying, back then you could leave your door open without being burgled. But they forget that was mainly because they didn’t have much worth stealing.
Think about it, would you really want to go back to a world without washing machines, television, fridge freezers, computers, double glazing, central heating and indoor plumbing?
So today we have more, but we also want more.
We are richer because our economy has developed exponentially. People in the 50′s wanted and expected less. They weren’t exposed to the endless barrage of media attempting to make them feel insecure unless they buy a certain brand at quite the same level.
My mum tells me that she and her friends never thought about their weight. Maybe it’s just her, but I can believe it was less of an issue. Today you have 6 year olds wanting to go on diets.
Lottery winners are another example. Millions of people eagerly buy their tickets and pray for a chance at a life changing win. One year later and most who win are at the same level of happiness or unhappiness they were at when they were hoping for that change of luck. Again because the problem wasn’t really money.
Money is an important part of our lives. It can free up our time. It can get help for projects we want to do. It can speed things up. In short, what it does is magnify and amplify what we are doing. If things are going well, it can enhance them. If things are going bad it can exacerbate the problems. But it is only a tool we have developed. It is not the only route to what you want.
It is only lack of imagination not lack of money stops someone from doing something.
So why doesn’t having more lead to more happiness?
In the next few posts we’ll examine this question.
My belief is that happiness is an “inside job.” Things outside of ourselves are effects. If we don’t like the effects, then we have to “go within” to find and change the causes for the effects in our lives. Make sense?
Yes, this is true because usually with something tangible in hand , give rise to expectations and more the expectations; more the miseries.
Contentment with What a person has and enjoying Whatever little or more, GOD his given is the key to Happiness. Take , whatever little or more received as a Gift from GOD and do random acts of kindness, do not criticize, do not be judgemental and try to appreciate and let others take the glory. Believe me you will be more satisfied and feel immense happiness.
HAPPINESS IS A CONTINUOUS PROCESS. IT IS LIKE TAKING BATH IN A LAKE/POND FULL OF WATER HAYACHYNTH, , WHICH IS LIKE WORRIES. YOU REMOVE WATER HAYACHYNTH/FLOATIG WEEDS ( WORRIES ) WITH UR ARMS AND BECOME HAPPY. NEXT MOMENT THE WEEDS OF UNHAPPINESS COME COLSING YOU.MORE MONEY CANNOT MAKE YOU MORE HAPPY , ONE IMPORTANT REASON MAY BE AS U HAVE MORE WEALTH U HAVE MORE WORRY AND TENSION TO PROTECT THE WEALTH.I FEEL THAT ONE WAY OF BECOMING HAPPY IS TO DO RIGHT THING AND BEHAVE TRUTHFULLY TO ALL THE PARTERNS OF UR LIFE IN ALL FIELDS AND TRY TO REAMIN BUSY SO THAT U DONOT HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO PONDER OVER WHETHER U ARE HAPPY OR NOT. I TOTALLY AGREE THAT HAPPINESS IS A JOURNEY NOT A DESTINATION.
Learning is happiness,it is the problem of not learning and growing your mind that starts the circle of decline.-more more more-just makes it less important and if its not important how could it make you happy?Yes to be happy you must learn,that is a journey, an internal journey. One of my favs “Earth does not belong us We belong to the earth ” Chief Seattle
Makes perfect sense, Tom.
Alok, you’re ahead of me, you’ll see what I mean when you read part 3.
That’s an important part Mohammad, if all you do is remove problems you just fertilise the ground for more problems. It’s like Dan says, it’s through growth and raising your consciousness that you increase your happiness.
[...] Happiness And The Habituation Factor – Part 2 in a short series (Part 1 – More, doesn’t lead to happier) [...]
It’s all about your perspective. A disaster can be the foundation for new growth, finding spirituality, testing endurance….
lol I just pray that I don’t have to do the pangs of life in order to live happily. lol nobody does.
This is life and to expect a journey on a flat plain is humanily impossible.
alpha and omega …circular…eternity….nothing new under the sun.
happiness is not what we have ,but what we give,,,,,not what we see but how we live,,,,thease are the things which build n bless…..that lead to human happiness……….if u want to b happy ,,,make others happy!!!!
[...] is Part 3 of a 3 part series. (Part 1 – More Doesn’t Lead To Happier, Part 2 – Happiness And Political [...]
I agree with happiness being learning ang growth..:D