Member-only story
The Most Soul-Sucking Trap Of Human Existence
Let’s face it: we live in a world full of traps. Corporations are tricking us for our money. Social media is tricking us for attention. We’re tricking ourselves all the time, living on auto-pilot unlocking our phones every 5 minutes just waiting for that next hit of dopamine.
I think we’ve confused hapiness with excitement. And vice-versa.
Lets take the example of shopping. A lot of people (including erstwhile me) feel excited after they’ve shopped and confuse it with happiness. We misconstrue that buying things makes us happy.
It doesn’t. It only gets us in an excited state for for a short while like a sugar high. And just as it is with sugar, the more stuff you keep buying, the period of excitement shortens drastically. That’s hedonic adaptation.
Back in college, when I bought a new pair of jeans, I used to be excited for weeks. Now, sometimes months pass by before I use something I bought earlier.
For the past decade, I shop way, way lesser than I used to. And I never go window shopping. My brain got used to this state. And slowly, I created a life where my happiness (or excitement) isn’t dependent on shopping anymore. For context, this is long before minimalism began trending.
