If your destination is happiness, consumerism is not a through street.
And it's not that you should own nothing, but more along the lines of nothing should own you.
Having more and more, won't solve the problem... and as the opening statement began to point out, happiness DOES NOT lie in possessions.
But... we live in a culture full of stuff.
We are so regularly bombarded with advertisements that push us to buy more and more every day. It's grown to such an extreme that we've actually adjusted to a lifestyle of organized hoarding... and we don't even realize it. Nowadays, the easiest way to organize your stuff is to get rid of it.
So I present to you: the minimalistic lifestyle.
Minimalism is a lifestyle movement of living with less material items... and it's a trend that's really taking off.
It seems crazy though, right? Thinking about the fact that some people have the ability to live out of a duffel bag blows my mind. I can hardly get my suitcase zipped for a week long vacation, let alone fitting my entire life's possessions in one bag... forever.
But there's honestly so much more to it than your average trend. I mean, it truly is an admirably simple, yet beautiful, way to live.
The beauty of it is that you can begin (and hopefully continue) to live this way at any point in time. So, let's get going already.
Start your day with one small victory: make your bed.
Once you've surpassed the little changes in the beginning of living minimally, stop and take a second to evaluate your life.
Slow down. Look around.
You'll find that everyone is always "busy." We live in a busy world full of stuff. And more often than not, it's a world being judged by our productivity levels. Therefore, we're being measured on how well we can produce... MORE STUFF.
Americans are working more hours than ever. We are working in an effort to achieve more and reach these absurd goals while having to actually earn less in the end as well.
So, we should be more conscious of the "reuse, recycle, relocate" rule. Instead of trashing unused things, we should be donating them to the people that actually need them.
Every possession of yours should serve a purpose or bring joy to your life. If it's accomplishing neither of those things for you, get rid of it.
The point is that it's better to require less. If you think about it, having a lot of stuff is actually quite complicated... no matter how convenient it may seem to always have everything you'll ever need. Consumers don't think about the fact that, when they buy all this stuff, it has to go somewhere. And for most people, this "stuff" often becomes more of a hassle than a convenience... then defeating the whole purpose of it being somewhat useful in the first place.
Therefore, can we all admit that having more stuff is surprisingly only adding to the stress we face in the thick of life? Can we admit that we don't NEED everything we want or see? And those material items aren't as important as experiences?
So, I'll end with one last simple question: