More Is Not Always Enough

As time goes on, I fear we are led further and further from who we are.

With everyday passing year, every passing month, there seems to be more and more available to us. More products, more offerings, more sales, more discounts, more urgency, all boasting to solve every problem we have: to fit in, to be more beautiful, to look more youthful, to be healthier, to be more convenient, to make you popular, to improve your status. And we fall into this trap of feeling convinced we need more things otherwise we won’t be the “it” girl or we won’t be trendy or we simply won’t be like everyone else. It’s an exhausting, never-ending train ride because there’s no upper limit. There’s no magic number that you can reach. “Once I have this many things, then I’ll be happy. Then I’ll really fit in.” The system isn’t designed that way. Not many actually care about your wellbeing, they care about their bottom line.

There’s no doubt that these things can enhance our life and bring joy. It’s truly incredible that you can buy just about anything at any time you want and it’ll show up at your front door. But when is enough, enough? We accumulate all these things we don’t need with money we work hard for that could probably be better allocated to something more enriching, to only use them a few times and leave them in the dust when we buy the next thing. A waste of resources, a waste of energy, a waste of money, a wasted opportunity. Most of this waste just goes back into the earth and poisons the land. It poisons the air with the pollution it takes to manufacture and transport it, it poisons the water with chemical dumping and byproducts.

You must think me cynical and pessimistic, and I don’t blame you. It’s what I observe in the world around me. It’s what I’ve observed in my own life and habits in the past.

In an ideal world, things are made with care and respect to the earth and humankind. Things are made and bought with intention, not through a mindless craze of impulsivity. Things are made sustainably with focused efforts on preservation, conservation, and longevity. They’re not made with ingredients that are harmful to the earth or toxic for us to use. We buy things because we need them, we repurpose what we have, we share what we don’t need with others who may need them, and we buy things we want after a good think about whether or not it would truly enhance our lives. Because what’s the point of being surrounded by all these things that don’t even make us happy? In my experience, it just makes you feel worse. A mausoleum of hollowness.

It’s the imbalanced emphasis on things that lead to so much suffering. The more I focus on the things around me, the more I see what I’m lacking. The more I focus on money, the poorer I feel. The more I scroll, the more I see the lives I’m not living. All of it just pulls me away from myself. The tangibility of this life is but a fraction of what’s here.

There are times in my life where I thought I would be happier. Which isn’t to say I’m not, but with every goal I achieve or dream that comes true, I’m realizing that they can’t fill the void inside. Only through inner means can the inner void be filled. You build things up in your head and rely on them to get through the dissatisfaction of now, and those rare moments you get what you want are so fleeting… and then you return back to the way you felt before— sad, depressed, unfulfilled, stressed, lacking, poor, desperate, anxious. We aren’t filling the void with the right things. To nourish the ego is one thing, to nourish the soul requires an entirely different diet.

We’re all on the same pursuit to find joy and live a life fulfilled, but the underlying essence of what we seek doesn’t come in a physical form. It’s the emotion and energy we wish to experience. We wish to feel creative, inspired, passionate. We wish to feel love, peace, joy, freedom. We wish to feel healthy, alive, vibrant. We wish to feel abundant, prosperous, rich. These are feelings that cannot be bought or bartered; they are invaluable and priceless but we often trade these feelings for the convenience of something easier. We trade our health for convenient and cheap processed food, we trade our presence for escapism, we trade our peace for worrying and stressing about things that don’t really matter. It is no easy task to get off the ride you’ve been riding on autopilot for most of your life. I know because I’ve been there— I am there, still trying. It’s so much easier to distract yourself from the things that need confronting, because let’s be honest, no one likes to be uncomfortable. But the true discomfort is living a life unfulfilled. Time and time again I’ve chosen the temporary discomfort of change over the certain discomfort of remaining stuck in the same place where I know for certain that I am unhappy. I know how difficult it is, but I also know how worthwhile.

There is nothing wrong with things, but things can pose many problems if it is all we are focused on. As this age of consumerism and materialism pulls us further from our spirituality, we seem to be getting more unhappy, stressed, and depleted. Too much of one thing is never good, as I’m sure you’ve experienced for yourself many times. It’s why you see so many “wealthy” and “fortunate” people who have so much, yet who lead very unhappy lives. It’s why you see so many with “very little” who live with much joy and love. It is the difference between feeding the ego and feeding the soul. The ego is never satisfied and always demands more. The soul knows it is infinite and therefore always has enough.

If you haven’t found what you seek around you, look inside you. It may be obscured and buried under fears, wounds, trauma, or beliefs that don’t serve you, but rest assured what you’re truly looking for is there. Like the lotus that grows through the mud to bloom on the surface pure and pristine, your soul still shines beneath any pain inside. All of the love, peace, health, freedom, power, joy, and abundance you wish to experience is already within you, it is only your belief that they are not that prevents you from experiencing it. It is something you grant yourself, not something that is given to you. More is not always the answer. Sometimes we need less. Sometimes we need to shift our focus from outward to inward, from ego to soul. Sometimes we don’t know what we’re truly craving until we stop to listen to the whispers of our heart. When we do, we can feed ourselves with what we sincerely need. And that urge for more finally fades away because we have satiated ourselves from the inside out.