Happiness via Materialism?

 

Throughout my life, as I ambled across the globe, from one mountain to another, I have met countless people, both economically poor, materialistically-deprived as well as those economically wealthy and materialistically-endowed. And to each of them I have often asked if they were happy. I have particularly asked those who were at the two extreme opposite ends of the economic spectrum – the very poor and the very rich. And through their responses I have realized that there is no direct collinear relation between wealth and material possessions to the quantum of happiness. The more of former does not necessarily translate into more of the latter. In fact, contrary.

 

When we reflect upon our life and its welfare, what all parameters do we look at! Do we look for what we have achieved, what we possess, who all are our family and friends, the degree of freedom of choice that we can exercise, our level of happiness and contentment, who we truly are and who we have become, how many of our dreams and desires got fulfilled, where we currently are and where we intend to go. Perhaps some or all of these. Yet when I ask someone what they really, truly, sincerely, from the deepest core of their soul, seek in life, the answer has always been pretty similar. We all wish to be happy. And it has evolved that each has achieved some degree of happiness, yet not to the degree they wish to do. Some are less happy, some more, some adequate, yet no one has ever said to me that they are perfectly happy, not more, not less, not differently. And herein lies the fallacy of looking at happiness and how we measure it.

 

Happiness, in my mind, is just a concept, a belief. It is and should be an objective belief. It should exist independent of anything else. Perhaps like the concept and belief of God. The moment we attach happiness to something else, then it would be elusive. And we only enhance this illusion when we attach happiness to materialistic possessions. Today in this post I am going to talk about this idea of happiness and why we never achieve it.

 

I feel, in our lives, we have a limited amount of space, which can be filled up with materialistic possessions and with our happiness. Less of one allows bigger volume of the other. So more possessions, less happiness, and less possessions more happiness. It’s a simple formula and can easily be experienced. Take any materialistic possession that you have acquired, which may have given you a higher sense of purpose, being, importance, status, social acceptance, yet in the back of your mind, it has also increased your worries, your dilemmas. After all, somewhere deep inside of us we are always scared to lose what we possess. And this fear is heightened by the value of our possession and how much effort we put in to acquire it. And there goes our happiness out of the very door, through which your possession came in.

 

I think the error is in the way we look at our material possessions. Materialistic objects, like your house, car, clothes, food, furniture, etc have utility value but not happiness value. These objects are for utilizing to make your life easier (perhaps) but not happier. If you were previously using public transport to go to office and finding it tedious, and now you bought a car to drive to office, so it has made your life easier but not necessarily happier. You could have been very happy inside a public bus as well. But if you think that the car is the source of happiness then it would either be very short lived or none at all. The car, along with its utility, brings in myriad of worries too. It needs servicing and maintenance, regular fuel filling up, cleaning and upkeep, safety, parking space, safety from natural disasters and accidents, and you need driving license (for which you have to give tests), follow road rules, be careful while driving, be ready to be pulled up by a traffic cop, etc, etc. Then you might be asked by your friends and families and neighbors for free taxi service (which you cannot turn down)… so there are so many issues and situations that would crop up naturally once you possess a car. Whereas before, when you didn’t own a car, your only dilemma was to catch a public transport or to hail a cab or perhaps a friend to give you a ride. You may not even realize it since we have driven by the society standards that owning a car is an absolute must, that you were actually less burdened, more free, when you didn’t own one.

 

I am not saying that owning materialistic possessions is a bad thing or a good thing. It is neither and can be either depending upon how you perceive them. Look at your materialistic possessions as utility and not as your reason to be happy. Let the reason to be happy be detached from these objects. You can tell yourself that having an ultra modern dishwasher makes your life easier and it has great utility value but your happiness is not dependent upon its functionality or its continued operation. So if it goes bad, it only makes your life a bit complicated perhaps, but you remain as happy as before.

 

Happiness, as I have said previously, is simply a matter of choice and belief. You are happy because you choose to be happy and you believe that you are happy. It is an objective choice not connected, correlated with or dependent upon anything else in the world. Even if you lost everything that you ever possessed or all your friends and families, your happiness remains intact, though you are passing through a temporary phase of grief. Mind you, grief and sadness can coexist along with happiness. And therein lies the key to happiness.

 

Keep it objective, keep it simple, keep it intact. Believe in it and make a conscious choice.

 

Be happy.