Does Money Really Buy Happiness?
"I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that is not the answer." -Jim Carey
Status, social rankings, fast cars, big houses, beautiful women and men, lavishing parties, yachts, drugs, the list goes on. If you have the money for it, you can ideally buy whatever you want. It's just the world we live in, welcome to 2019 people.
We are actually born with a human hormone to seek out satiation for our wants and needs. The chase in life to fulfill the constant craving of desire and what we can't have can easily take control and persuade your life. When our human brains decide that they like something, it will release dopamine- a happy hormone that is a very addictive feeling, almost like a drug.
The thing about the human brain is that it always wants more. Our brains love the unpredictability of fleeting dopamine releases because the highs are higher than if we got the desired reward all the time- leaving us always searching for the next best thing.
The answer is extremely clear to me. Yes, of course, money can you buy happiness. It has bought me vacations, a boat, hundreds of dinners out with friends, scuba diving, sky diving, surfboards, etc. I'm not going to lie, all of those things have bought me intense feelings of happiness. The real question is, how long will that happiness actually last before we get bored and grow a new desire?
Say you were wealthy enough to buy a brand new Jaguar. Driving it around those first few weeks regardless of who you are is going to make you feel pretty bad a**. After 200 days, it just becomes 'your car'. Then after a few years, you're ready to buy a Lamborghini because the Jaguar became a normalized and regular thing that could be traded and replaced with a new better car solely to bring that surge of happiness back into your life again.
There is an old Sufi saying that says, "you can never get enough of what you don't really need." If you get everything that you want and desire, then what really is there to look forward to in life? We hold ourselves to high enough expectations so that when we finally pass that milestone, our hopes of reality is going to turn against us, leaving us realizing that we are still missing something. We have everything yet, what is it that we are missing?
However, if you can take a step back and put things into perspective, placing a lot more time and energy to what you actually do have rather than what you don't is going to do yourself a huge favor from undergoing a lot of heartache and feelings of emptiness that would come from the fleeting hormone of dopamine. It's ok to want things, but a wise person recognizes that achievement (and money) can never promise anyone long-term happiness.
I will tell you this much. Money can not buy you passion. Money can not buy you genuine true love. Money can not buy you bravery or strength. Finding passion and love, and experiencing moments of fearlessness will always make me feel like the richest girl in the world.
I know I do not need a million dollars to feel content inside, but at the same time, I am not saying it would hurt by any means. It does not matter what we tell ourselves, the human desire to fulfill cravings is always going to be there, regardless of how old we are. It is just a matter of knowing that as much as money can make us happy.
We don't NEED it to buy us happiness. That is truly something that comes from within.
