The simple things in life that matter most, right? Well what happened to them? You know: a cup of coffee on a crisp autumn morning, a conversation with an old beloved friend, a bike ride on a sunny afternoon, binge watching a seven seasons of "Friends" on Netflix. Were they destroyed by our hustle for finer things, masked by the material objects we strive to obtain? Where is the joy we once found in things as ordinary as our favorite movie coming on television?

I’ve been trying to revamp my priorities to circulate around things such as these again. I allowed myself to be consumed by things that don’t truly matter in retrospect. It’s difficult when you’re living in a world that values the things in the moment rather than the moment in its entirety. It’s so easy to be dragged down by the vast undertow of society. You have to take time to step back and really take a good look at how you’ve been living in order to see the changes you need to make.

This all seems so redundant to be stating. I have always known that material things don’t matter, yet I pursued them anyway to a point where I was more concerned with what I needed to buy next to be happy instead of what I could do to improve my quality of life as it currently stands. I was valuing the things that would contribute to making a memorable moment like how my hair would look, what outfit I would wear.

Because I am human. I want. I long for. I desire. But I also crossed the line: the invisible line from living within my means to overstepping the boundaries and moving into the dangerous world of greed. I was never satisfied with what I had and always wanted more. I wasn’t asking for a million dollars or a shiny, red BMW, (a Range Rover, maybe) but nonetheless I lost sight of the reality of it all. We can’t take anything with us when we leave this adventure on Earth. So why not collect memories and people (figuratively speaking, of course) rather than things?

It's easy to state all this in fact and in writing. You might be reading this and nodding your head in agreement, but what now? As long as we exist in a society that places high emphasis on who has a nicer car, more expensive house and "keeping up with the Jones's" we will be subject to choose what we value. We have to decide what we accept as meaningful and what in turn will define our quality of life. We can own things or they can own us.

It's easy to lose sight of what is vital for our happiness but by enhancing the way we think about things can really help keep us in line. Mindset is everything. When we allow ourselves to think about an idea or situation in more than one way, we're giving ourselves the opportunity to form our own opinions.

I felt about something, I typically felt differently than before. Tapping into our subconscious being and reanalyzing things can really help balance out at an equilibrium that we didn't even realize was off.

What are some ways you find your inner peace?