Do you celebrate the things you do have?

 Day 13 By Jon Hilton

It can be difficult in our society to really appreciate all that we do have today.  There is always another commercial that tells us what we should have, or how we should look, even though what we have and how we look is just fine.

 I think that I do currently celebrate the thing I do have, and not worry too much about the things I don’t have but it has not always been that way and it seems many other people have problems appreciating things as well.

The Culture of Want

From the time I was very young I can remember being bombarded and brainwashed with images on television which were designed to get me and my peers to desire products enough to scream until we started to get them.  From breakfast cereal made totally of sugar to toys that we couldn’t be happy without.   I was a child of the 70’s and that means that the marketing at the time was quite mild compared to today.

This was the manner in which the feeling of want was fostered in my generation.  It was built up even more as we grew older and became serious consumers. We needed to have certain things to be happy, and without those possessions happiness was going to elude us.  The biggest problem is that there is never a level where you have accumulated enough, you just see another level of consumption.

The young people of today are really the victims of a marketing in society which continually tells them not only what toys they need, but what clothes to wear, how their hair should look, and also what types of relationships they should desire.  The intended market is younger than you might imagine.  If you have young kids, watch television with them sometime, it is a non stop barrage of self esteem destroying marketing.

As for the adults of the world, you would think that after a while you would find a level of accumulating possessions where you would be able to sit back and say, “Wow, I have a massive amount of crap here, I am really happy.”

Yet you still do not feel happy, and corporate advertisers are happy about that, because they can start to sell you other things to fill the void and finally end your unhappiness. It is a fools journey, yet we all take it day after day.

Happiness Is Inside You All Along

I think that everyone eventually comes to the conclusion that happiness doesn’t come from things you buy.  There is always a feeling of happiness no matter how brief that accompanies buying a new thing.  Yet it also fades away quite quickly leaving you to wonder why you are not happy about the new car, Ipad, computer, or large screen television.

Real happiness can never come from things, ever. It is the lie of Madison Avenue that owning a certain product should make you feel a particular way.  No matter how many cars, houses, or electronic devices you own, if you are lacking appreciation for life on the inside there is going to be empty feelings of want and unhappiness left.

We actually put our happiness off by telling ourselves that when we own this or that then we will be able to feel happy.  When the choice to feel happy is really inside you each and every day during each and every moment.  All you have to do is notice it.

Appreciating Today

Being able to celebrate what you do have is the path to happiness.  There are always going to be things that you don’t have.  Nobody can have it all.

 Yet you will always have exactly what you need at any given moment.  Appreciating what you have and the happiness that is with you right now at this second, seems to be the lightning rod that attracts more situations that make you feel this way.

  Look at the little things you have that make you happy, from the weather, to a cup of coffee in the morning. Whatever it is that makes you feel good appreciate it.  You will be surprised how many good things start showing up in your life to be appreciated.

Personally, I spent many years chasing the dream of owning all of my happiness.  Looking to the future and thinking when I get there I will be happy.  Only to find that there was always a new destination for happiness and it was always ahead of me.

 Now I think that I do appreciate the little things because they are in the here and now.  I have talked about my gratitude journal before and I mention it in passing again because I am grateful for the time each day that I spend being grateful for all that I do have. It is not magic but things seemed to clear up pretty well when I started feeling really grateful for what is in my life.  Rather than longing for, and feeling bad about what I did not have.  Or worse yet worrying about what might be taken away.

I do not know what “things” tomorrow will bring, but I do know that most likely they will be exactly what I need.  So I think I do celebrate what I do have.

 

Do you celebrate the things you do have?

You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you’ll find, you get what you need.