Very important advice in this day & age. If we all adhere to this advice of stopping our mindless consumption & helping others, then our society will become more equal & happy. BUT those people who really need to listen to this advice actually don't listen to this advice.
This drive of mindless consumption has very grave & negative consequences for us: on a personal level & on a social level.
Personally, we are tired & never seem to be happy with what we have. We always want more. We then do whatever we need to do, be it illegal or immoral, to achieve what we think we deserve.
Socially, this unending drive of earn more to consume more drives our society into more chaos. Inequality & class divisions starts to appear & widen, as can be seen, all over the world. A tiny elite controls most of the resources, even basic ones, like clean water & soon, air.
Even environment is suffering from our consumption. This unending drive is creating more garbage in the world, polluting our land, water, & air, & the end result is more suffering for all of us; not just the poor.
Islam says exact same; apply moderation in your lives (actually, that's what the article is about ... live in moderation). Always look to the people below you in society, so your heart is satisfied. Always help others. Helping others will immortalize you in this world; not the fountain of youth.
I think I read once somewhere that look in any of the obituaries, & you'll see that nobody talks about what they did in 9-to-5 jobs or careers, but what they did outside of that; helping others, volunteering, doing something noble for the people & the society etc.
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Today, he [Tim McCarthy] has a ready answer: Anhedonia. It’s the inability to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable. Now semi-retired, living in his hometown of Ashtabula, Ohio, with more money than he really needs, he has been exploring our relationship to money & things, & what is the proper balance. His ideas have come together in a book whose title sums up many people’s lives: Empty Abundance.
After spending many years in advertising, he is familiar with what he calls “the hamster wheel of consumption” that pervades our lives. But he is concerned with the emptiness we can feel after spending.
At age 25, he had been moved by Viktor Frankl’s "Man’s Search for Meaning". His mother, who wrote for the Chicago Tribune, always advised him to pursue moderation in all things – including moderation. He had to find meaning & purpose amid great wealth, avoiding empty abundance.
He first experienced anhedonia as he was rising up the career ladder, gaining more & more income but not more fulfilment. In the book, he says the notion that money doesn’t buy happiness has been backed by many studies. Gallup poll data show that residents of the US are three times richer than they were in 1950, but the happiness ratings haven’t shifted. A Princeton study in 2010 found that life satisfaction rises with income, but that everyday happiness changes little once a person reaches $75,000 a year.
Mr. McCarthy points to 3 non-anhedonians he knows:
A teacher who should be tired of kids at the end of the week but still volunteers at Bible school on Sundays.
A young executive making $150,000 a year who sits on a volunteer board that requires she invest five hours a week & significant money to their cause.
A friend of his wife’s who has a very busy house-cleaning business yet also provides overnight home care for elderly people, often for no pay.
“These 3 people ironically strike me as among the happiest people I know, while my anhedonian friends seem to chase their tails,” he writes. “Over time, I have found that the cure for anhedonia, at least for me, is service. Of equal importance is my work to become present in this moment. This moment, this time, this life – that’s all we have, since there will be no other.”
He has a foundation that pursues issues of importance to him. He also pays attention to warding off 2 other elements of empty abundance: Filling the void through unhealthy addictions, which is commonplace, & despair, which can consume us when robbed of pleasure.
He closes by stressing you shouldn’t avoid abundance: “Find your own abundance. Each person has a different view of abundance – it’s very personal. Find what abundance is for you, & enjoy it.”
This drive of mindless consumption has very grave & negative consequences for us: on a personal level & on a social level.
Personally, we are tired & never seem to be happy with what we have. We always want more. We then do whatever we need to do, be it illegal or immoral, to achieve what we think we deserve.
Socially, this unending drive of earn more to consume more drives our society into more chaos. Inequality & class divisions starts to appear & widen, as can be seen, all over the world. A tiny elite controls most of the resources, even basic ones, like clean water & soon, air.
Even environment is suffering from our consumption. This unending drive is creating more garbage in the world, polluting our land, water, & air, & the end result is more suffering for all of us; not just the poor.
Islam says exact same; apply moderation in your lives (actually, that's what the article is about ... live in moderation). Always look to the people below you in society, so your heart is satisfied. Always help others. Helping others will immortalize you in this world; not the fountain of youth.
I think I read once somewhere that look in any of the obituaries, & you'll see that nobody talks about what they did in 9-to-5 jobs or careers, but what they did outside of that; helping others, volunteering, doing something noble for the people & the society etc.
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Today, he [Tim McCarthy] has a ready answer: Anhedonia. It’s the inability to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable. Now semi-retired, living in his hometown of Ashtabula, Ohio, with more money than he really needs, he has been exploring our relationship to money & things, & what is the proper balance. His ideas have come together in a book whose title sums up many people’s lives: Empty Abundance.
After spending many years in advertising, he is familiar with what he calls “the hamster wheel of consumption” that pervades our lives. But he is concerned with the emptiness we can feel after spending.
At age 25, he had been moved by Viktor Frankl’s "Man’s Search for Meaning". His mother, who wrote for the Chicago Tribune, always advised him to pursue moderation in all things – including moderation. He had to find meaning & purpose amid great wealth, avoiding empty abundance.
He first experienced anhedonia as he was rising up the career ladder, gaining more & more income but not more fulfilment. In the book, he says the notion that money doesn’t buy happiness has been backed by many studies. Gallup poll data show that residents of the US are three times richer than they were in 1950, but the happiness ratings haven’t shifted. A Princeton study in 2010 found that life satisfaction rises with income, but that everyday happiness changes little once a person reaches $75,000 a year.
Mr. McCarthy points to 3 non-anhedonians he knows:
A teacher who should be tired of kids at the end of the week but still volunteers at Bible school on Sundays.
A young executive making $150,000 a year who sits on a volunteer board that requires she invest five hours a week & significant money to their cause.
A friend of his wife’s who has a very busy house-cleaning business yet also provides overnight home care for elderly people, often for no pay.
“These 3 people ironically strike me as among the happiest people I know, while my anhedonian friends seem to chase their tails,” he writes. “Over time, I have found that the cure for anhedonia, at least for me, is service. Of equal importance is my work to become present in this moment. This moment, this time, this life – that’s all we have, since there will be no other.”
He has a foundation that pursues issues of importance to him. He also pays attention to warding off 2 other elements of empty abundance: Filling the void through unhealthy addictions, which is commonplace, & despair, which can consume us when robbed of pleasure.
He closes by stressing you shouldn’t avoid abundance: “Find your own abundance. Each person has a different view of abundance – it’s very personal. Find what abundance is for you, & enjoy it.”
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