Humans need surprisingly little in the physical and material sense to survive: according to Maslow, our basic survival needs include air, water, food, shelter from the elements, and sex. (the last one, as a basic survival need has been subject to much debate).
Even though in North America and Europe, the "Western Culture", or "Developed World", as we call it, at least for the majority of people there is an overabundance, and we are self proclaimed to live the healthiest and fittest lives (no where else in the world are so many fitness clubs, programs, nutritionists, counsellors, psychologist, self help gurus, self improvement groups,etc...) we are, at large, overweight, unhealthy, unfit, a Prozac and Viagra Nation.
This is not an accident: the truth is, that we have everything that we need, and more in this society, in fact, we have an overabundance of material and physical resources: the only way to keep the demand for goods, services and material things up, and therefore our consumer and consumption based economy going, is to deliberately drive us unhappy, dissatisfied.
So, instead of being "happy with what we got", we want more. We want this:
and this:
and this:
and this:
and of course, this:
and we are led to believe, that unless we have all of this, we can't possibly be happy, satisfied, fulfilled, if what we have is not good enough, we are not good enough.
The perfect rebuttal of this myth, is that those (celebrities, the rich, the famous, the powerful) who got all of THAT, appear to be the unhappiest, unhealthiest of all of us, and those who climbed to the proverbial top, seem to be the loneliest of us all.
Instead of happy, satisfied, healthy, fit and beautiful, they might end up like this:
They, the celebrities, the successful and the famous people we are to follow, aspire our bodies, our things, our very lives to be modeled after, become obese, anorexic, addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, plastic surgeries, and more, they change partners more often than some of us changes underwear, they get married, divorced and married again faster than most of us can post a profile on a dating site, they are literally dying for attention, dying for our love, dying to be happy, and instead, they become poster children of failure, unhappiness, chaos and dysfunction.
People who are unhappy, or down right depressed are led to believe, that their depression and unhappiness is a fault, a sign of weakness, and could be cured if only they would buy this product, follow that program, get richer, sexier, skinnier, smarter, had a bigger breast, penis or bank account, a smaller waist, if only they would look, think and live like the rich and the famous (the "successful") they would not be depressed.
Right? Wrong. There are long lists, too expansive to include here, and sadly, not all inclusive of celebrities and famous people who suffer from depression, the list of celebrities who died of drug overdose or under suspicious circumstances and the list of rich and famous people who ended their own life.
.
So, how do you avoid or cure depression, mental illness, addiction, unhappiness, misfortune,mishaps and tragedies of life? I do not know, and I can't tell you. But what I do know, is that the first step to feel that our needs are met, is to realize, that what we want is not always (almost never) what we need, and what we need, we already have. Right now, in this moment, you are alive, breathing, safe from the elements, you are not freezing to death or burning up under the sun in the desert, you are not dying of hunger or thirst, you are not dying from lack of sex, and even if you are lovesick, chances are, you are not dying of a broken heart in this very moment. Even if you do have a terminal illness, physical, (i.e. cancer) or emotional (i.e. depression), even if you are dying, like everyone else who was born to this planet, you are not dead yet. You are alive, your basic needs are met, and everything else is a bonus from here.
Do yourself a favor: for the next year, next month, next week, next day, next hour, next minute (however long you are willing and able to go), try not to be anybody, try not to be like anybody else, try not to imitate, in fact, don't even pay attention to the lifestyle of the rich and famous, do NOT watch a reality TV show, do NO compare yourself or your life to the images of commercials and ads, don't try to be anybody or anything. Just BE.
