I walked past an ad poster in Manhattan today. On the poster was a photo of a guy with an energy drink. He was reaaaaaally enjoying it; I mean, he just looked so happy. And the advertisement made it look like his happiness was solely the product of the energy drink. I walked another block and saw another one, this time for a shoe. Then a cheeseburger. Then a car.
The mind is impressionable. When we see consumerism equated with happiness often enough, we start to believe it's a real correlation. It's not.
The wonderful thing about stuff is that it's OK to have less. If you don't drink enough water, you'll get dehydrated. If you don't eat enough, you'll get malnourished. If you trim down how much extra stuff you have, you'll be absolutely fine. Only good can come of it.
-Do you have 10 pairs of shoes? Make it 5. (ideally one or two, but hey, baby steps can't hurt)
-Do you subscribe to 6 magazines? Make it 3.
-Do you buy pre-packaged water bottles? Don't.
There are literally millions of things we can afford to let alone. Think about what you need vs. what you want-- and why you want the things you don't need.
When you stop staking your happiness on objects, you'll feel happier because you'll realize that it's easier to appreciate the little things than it is to work for thousands of hours to afford things you don't need. The benefits of this are innumerable.
Enjoy the warmth of the sun, the movement of a walk, the intricacies of a deep conversation.
You won't see advertisements for those, which is a good thing. If you have to be convinced you want something, it probably wasn't that great to begin with.
