We can seek enough instead of more

Do you get lost in fantasies of future events? Are you constantly longing for something better to happen next?

You’re not alone. This is a profoundly human trait.

We just love avoiding the depth and joy of life right now. And one of the chief ways we do this is by thinking ahead. Trying to extend our certainties further into the future than this present moment.

Which can be soothing and enjoyable and creative, but unfortunately, it’s not particularly healthy from a mental health perspective.

My ability to obsess about the future made me anxious for most of my twenties and thirties. Still does from time to time. My mind has a cunning way of continually dragging me out of the present moment.

One of the tools for unlocking myself from this chaos grenade has been the pursuit of less. In almost every department of life, less isn’t just more, it’s magic.

Haines was writer from the late eighteen hundreds whose book on the victorian guide to good character showed up in one of my research quests. His perspective from two centuries ago goes like this:

Contentment consists not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire. Not in multiplying wealth, but in subtracting desires. Worldly riches, like nuts, tear men’s clothing in getting them, spoil men’s teeth in cracking them, but fill no belly in eating them. A quiet and contented mind is the supreme good, it is the utmost felicity a man is capable of in this world, and the maintaining of such an uninterrupted tranquility of spirit is the very crown and glory of wisdom.

If we are looking for a path back to the present, less is the sign pointing the way. Using that word and that idea as a filter for our decisions will prove to us that it is possible to live without a constant sense of anxiety that something is not right and complete.

Even though many of the powers are committed to making us feel like we’re not enough, less is a choice that’s always available to us. Instead of squandering more and more energy thinking unproductively about the future, we can seek enough instead of more.

Instead of demanding and shoulding and musting, we can grow in our ability to live without things.

Instead of pining for what we don’t have, we can remember that if we are happy without it, then maybe we don’t need it. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you mortgaging your present joy and serenity for a wish of what your hope your life can be?