It seems like there's so much to do, and so many "products" that we buy, to occupy our time, school, work, getting ahead, bills, obsessions, shopping, anti-aging products, video games, exercize equipment, so much out there that we involve ourselves with 24/7, and no one seems to just relax, let it all go, and enjoy just being here, in the moment, and genuinely enjoying life.
Is that passe?
Everything seems to be about bettering yourself, self-improvement, achievement, money, business, even people that spend their time worrying about everything from what other people think, to their own self-conscious whims, to cars, to this to that,
it's like a non-stop rollercoaster of …action.
Enjoying life nowadays is defined by power, status, beauty, sex/drugs (even though alot of this can be great, I must admit), it's not simple, and it's not really innocent either. It has a competitive edge to it.
Are we humans just impossible?
Does anyone really stop to enjoy life anymore?
a human being is the mst corupt being and most confused being on earth we never seem to have enough nomatter how loaded and are never satisfied with anything we still want more and more evryday
no it is not in the human natrure
I do most everytime I go out of the country…I visit a lot of 3rd world countries in my line of work and am always amazed how relaxed they are…takes me a day or two but before long I fall into the groove and really enjoy seeing things thru others eyes…sometimes hate having to come home.
We are all caught up in a media infested battle!! Ive sought out everything you said to be happy and its all a hoax!! Ive compared myself to others and came up short or ive tried to cover up feelings i have with alcohol and work but nothing works. The only thing to do is learn acceptance. Life without trials wouldnt be life. Thats why god sent us here… to learn!!
This is somewhat true I think. Money, while a necessary tool to live, has been sought after simply for being sought after instead of its purpose, to live or purchase things that lead to enjoyment. The act of pursuing riches simply to own them has led people astray from happiness.
"You can't buy happiness"
and all that jazz
As with money, the other things you mentioned similarly fit into that mold.
That is why we need to better educate the masses. Not just academically but overall, really get people to think because in the end, the choices we make, as human beings, should be steeped in logic and reason should bring people to question motives and avoid stagnation. Thinking is what brought you to raise this question, to see this truth. More people need to do that.
I think that there are moments of enjoyment…fleeting as they may be…but not a regular event……its kind of like those 2 seconds when your kids make you really laugh…or you get in your new car and you think just how much you really love it…..
I enjoyed life the most when I was in the Mojave Desert. The mountains are beautiful. Joshua Tree National Park has huge rock formations. Pretty awesome sight. God's country for certain. Especially during the winter! Snow capped mountains! Love it. Now I'm here in Charleston SC. Why did I come here? ( o _ 0 ) I lost focus of the reason why I came here. Oh. I thought I would be happy here. Not!
Absolutely! I turn everything off every day at 6 o'clock in the evening. It is a learned behavior, but it makes for a happier life.
I just tell myself that I have tomorrow to deal.
Take a walk, notice the flowers, talk with a friend and turn the cell phone off. I think when we get older, we realize that our time here on earth is not endless.
North Americans have to ask ourselves if all the material things we have and want make us any happier or if they are a replacement for something that is missing in our lives?
I travel a lot and am fascinated by how others live. Europeans have very high lifestyle standards. They may not have homes as large as ours, but they spend more time with themselves, their friends and family. They will linger over the table. They will take long holidays. They celebrate everything, and by that I mean they focus on the now, they live in the moment.
I sometimes stay with wealthy friends in London. Their flat is pretty modest, but while they have great assets and high-paying jobs, their focus is eating well, drinking well, attending concerts and seeing the world.
Do we need all our stuff? I think we'd be better off – and so would the planet – if we simply bought quality vs quantity and focused on people. Plan for the future and retirement and all that, but how many TVs sets and cars does a person need?
You have hit the world straight on. I hate the rat race. If I could find a way to live the simple life on some tropical island and not be so involved in living for stuff I would walk away in in an instant. I thought I was the only one who has these questions that you ask. lets compare thoughts and ideas on getting out of the rat race.
I try to stop to enjoy life. Something I do with my kids is limit their 'other activities' to one. I tried having my kids in more than one that year I spent it driving around from place to place everyday after school. If it wasn't one activity it was another. I wasn't enjoying myself and neither were they. It also took alot of time away from our together time to just hang out and all be together as a family.
Another thing we are going to start doing is spending time doing something simple and inexpensive like going camping. We went this summer, and spent our time swimming, cooking out, looking at the stars, and the firefly's at night. It was one of the most fun we have had together as a family and our kids loved it. Took me back to when I was a kid.
During the week we have a day of no TV, or any time of gadget use, no mp3, computer, video games etc. We have to spend time either reading, talking, or playing games or spending time outside.
We just have to make time to slow down.
To enjoy life is to put joy into it. To do this it would be necessary to discover that joy within first and project it outwards. What tends to happen is people search for pleasure outside in the world and try to bring it in, or possess it. It generally lasts for a while and then the desire for more pleasure is looked for. Modern day commerce and consumerism is based on the satisfaction of desires and the promotion of new desires to entice the masses when old desires start losing their pull.
Not until we lose someone or something close to us we sincerely love, it seems. I lost my son-in-law (24 yrs old) in a car accident 3 months after him and my daughter were married during a hurricane on the way to work. His car hit a puddle of water on the road, the car hydro-planed off the road and hit a tree. He died the same way the race car driver, Dale Earnhardt, Sr. did.
One of the things he taught me from that, is live each day like it is your last cause you never know what tomorrow brings.