Why are we happier with less?

Ever heard that lots of millionaires are depressed and not happy with their lifes at all? And that people in the poorest countries are truly happy with only the things they have? Why is ‚more‘ and especially „money“ and „materialistical“ stuff not making us happy? We feel like we „only“ need this special thing and THEN we are happy!

The thing is this desire will never stop. And as I feel, more and more people realize that there must be something more. Something they can’t find find on the outside to makw them happy.

“Is it really MORE that we need?.”

When I was in India for a couple of months I really loved that feeling of only having a specific amount of stuff with me. Only those things I could pack in my backpack. I lved in a little hut next to a Yoga Ashram. Only the necessary things in it. There was a small bathroom with a toilet and a shower. Everything was wet after a shower :)

The rest of this hut contained a sink, a bed and a chair. The lucky ones (and I was one of them) also had a table. And yeah, a fan when it was too hot at night. That’s it. There were no fancy, luxurious things. Simple, minimalistic. All I needed.

And when I found something like cacao from a farm where we had a daytrip (like raw and no sugar added) that was a very highlight!! From home I brought a tiny little gadget to heat some water in a mug. Can you imagine how special and luxurious that felt? To be able to heat some water and make my own cacao! When I was really lucky, I found some yummy honey to sweeten it. I can’t explain this feeling… I appreciated all those small things in India.

Appreciate everything in your life.

Back in Germany it was „normal“ again. Well, I could get it everywhere, there was always more than enough. So, I lost my interest and the ambition to get one. Sometimes I stand in front of our food shelfs and I just can’t decide what I want to choose. I could have everything! And that’s the point. It didn’t make me happy. More didn’t make me happy.

Even a bigger house, a bigger car, all the books and material things… it’s all good and satisfying in the beginning when we get it. Until we get it.

Then we loose interest and we are searching for more to fill that gap inside of us.

You know why. Happiness is not an outside state. It is an inside state.

I was more happy in India with these few things I had, in all that dirt and rough environment. (I really feel I lived there another lifetime).

When we want more „things“ in our lifes, what is the next step? Right, we need to gain and safe more money. So, we have to work more. We spend so much time with working in jobs that we don’t like to be able to buy things to fill our homes which at the end don’t make us happy. And when we have too much stuff, we need a bigger house, we need to gain more and more money. You know what I mean. We sacrifice our life-time for stuff we don’t really need.

I am not sayng: Don’t ever buy anything!

But being aware and conscious about what we really need is a perfect start. Not only for us but also for our environment and for our planet. Everything we buy produces trash. And I think I don’t have to explain why this is not really good for our nature.

The question is now: What is it that makes us really happy?

Well, everyone needs to decide for themselves. It doesn’t has to be the same for everyone. I feel the core need of every human being is simply to love and to be loved.

Spend time with someone you love, your family, your friends, animals, nature. Spending time with activities you love and enjoy, everything you love to spend time with. No matter what it is. It all comes to LOVE.

And LOVE is not about materialistic things (of course you can love your books or your car, but that is another kind of love ;) , but how do you feel when you „have“ everything but nobody to shar that? How does that feel? At some point, I can guarantee, you will feel tgat „something is missing“.

Simply being aware of what you really want and need is a fantastic starting point. Not everyone has to be a minimalist. Take some time and meditate on that if you want to and feel ito it.

What do you really want?

What do you really need?