It can be very easy to feel lack in the world. In many ways it’s designed to make us feel that way. The whole concept of consumerism is it wants us to feel as though we are not enough so that we continue to buy things in order to fill that void. However, such voids in our life that we may fill with ‘things’ can never truly become filled. Where one want is met it is often followed soon after with another desire and the cycle keeps on continuing.
Now I don’t think all this is a bad thing but I feel the problems arise when we become attached to the things that we believe we need to be whole.
The above system which is in place in many societies throughout the world has brought about great progress, progress in medicine, technology and so many other things that have provided so many benefits to millions of people around the world. It is this system that allows many countries to provide to their less fortunate and to provide aid to places that need it.
My main point here relates to people on a micro level and how people feel in their world. If people have wants, meet these wants and feel happy about their life then there really is no problem. The problem lies where this continual need to consume is eating away at their soul and they have a constant feeling that they just are not enough.
I think in such examples of people who often feel not good enough the reality is that they are enough – it’s just they are using the wrong measuring stick. Social media plays a role in this but I don’t think it’s fair to blame such corporations as people have free will to post whatever they want about their lives and again social media has brought positive change to the world in certain ways.
However, we may be aware of these facades that people have whereby their life on social media far differs from that of their real life. But when someone feeling lack sees such posts it feeds into their lack and compounds their issue. Now they feel even worse.
Now, a person who isn’t feeling particularly good about themselves could potentially find it harder to ‘keep up’ with their peers and then their mood may drop, they may use substances to fill that gap and could also withdraw from helpful people in their life. This negative spiral repeats itself taking the person further and further away from who they really want to be. This could result in difficulties in relationships, pressure on finances and potential difficulties with work, study or family life.
So, in summary, a person using a concept of measurement offered by society feels lack and then makes choices that consequently take them further away from what they felt they needed in the first place which in this example was ‘things’.
That saddest part about all of this is that they were enough to start with and this downward spiral of wellbeing is potentially avoidable. But it is so hard as we are conditioned to think that we need these things in order to be happy.
Now I think it’s important to point out that we do need a certain degree of ‘things’ in order to be able to meet our needs as humans and as members of society in the 21st Century – that we cannot ignore. But they are not the things I am talking about here.
Ultimately it is everyone’s own choice as to how they operate in this world but my main point is aimed at people who are stuck in this system, struggle and don’t know how to feel better.
The take home point I’d like to say to you is that you, the person who you are without the conditioning, is enough.
And finally I’m going to throw the whole point of my essay out of the window…………………..
When you feel as though you are enough without needing to always keep up with everyone else, you really get a feel as to what makes you tick, who the people in your life are who really add value to it and from there a whole set of different choices can be made which is linked to cause and effect.
Then the magic starts to happen as you create a world around you that is made up of real things, things that actually do have the ability to feed your soul and not only that can add such incredible value to your life.
It is then that with this value that you have that you can begin to offer that value out into the ‘system’ I spoke about earlier and it is then that you can maybe consume things that previously you thought you ‘needed’.
Now you can consume but from a different place, a more solid place where your consumption is not to fill a void or a deep feeling of lack but more to add value to your life. A life that is much more whole to begin with.
