How much is too much!

A materialistic person is ruthless with  other people but kind to himself. A spiritual person is ruthless with himself but kind to others.- Sadhguru

 Yesterday was a cyber Monday 2020. 

I heard in the news that 10 billion dollars were spent on a cyber Monday shopping! Can you believe this!

When I moved to USA, someone told me that there is a special day for shopping. I kept thinking to myself that why do you need a special day to spend or waste money? And it is not only black Friday but now cyber Monday too. Over the years it has been taught by the society that money brings happiness and now is the time to change it back to the basic that "money can't buy happiness"!

 What is happening to the society! 

In the middle of the pandemic, do people have this much money to spent?

 Do they really need all those stuff?

Granted we live in a materialistic world. But I can’t imagine people are buying these many stuffs when everyone is  preaching about how this pandemic has made us realize to appreciate smaller things or moments!

So what is going on? I think we are going through a very depressing time and shopping is one of the short term rewarding behavior to make ourselves feel happy. We all know “money can’t buy happiness" . But we have experienced that dopamine surge in our brain when we bought something new. Again that happiness is for a short term. I am sure lot of people are in dire need of that short term happiness when you are stuck at home on a cyber Monday, of course you are going to spend!

But it still amazed me as on one side people in USA have no money to buy food and on the other side people have 10 billion dollars to waste on things that they don’t need to survive.

So how much is too much? 

That is very relative. One person can live with same car for a life time and one person will need a new car every year!

In a spiritual language it is called “maya”- “attachments”. People will not be able to let it go till they die or if they choose to let maya go.

I would like people to make some commitments for the coming year to avoid long term unhappiness.

- Spend money on healthy lifestyles like buying healthy food, joining an exercise or yoga class or going to places where you can be away from the materialistic world.

- Before buying anything, ask yourself “ do I really need this or do I want it”.

- Donate things to people in need like food, clothes, medicine.

- I do not believe in donating toys cause again you are encouraging happiness in objects. I would suggest donate your time to volunteer for children, art, seniors or animals.

- At the end of the year, go over things in your house and let things go that you haven’t used for years.

- Teach good value of money to kids not just teaching them to buy things. Teach them to use it for a good cause.

Happy holidays!

Think before buying!