Our lives are continuously bombarded with images; music, films, and fashion among a hundred different obstructions that make most of us on some level feel that we need things or items to make our lives have a feeling of importance or that make us happy. How many adverts have you seen that tell you directly or indirectly that you need this phone or must buy the latest computer console? There is no harm in humans needing a form of escape from the routine of daily life, but when humans are always looking for an escape and do not take the time to try and make themselves happy without these items then we can end up in a society that create people that have lost or in a lot of cases never experience a life that is detached from all this materialism.
To have a level of detachment does not have to mean to shut out everything materialistic; it can just mean from time to time to have a break from all of it. How many of us if we look deep inside ourselves would feel completely at peace in the middle of a desert for example with nothing around us apart from the food that we needed to survive for a week, a few days or even a day. If we are not comfortable with this kind of action then I feel would it not help to think why we are not comfortable, rather than to keep ourselves busy with buying products, watching films or listening to music. These actions only mask how we really feel.
If we can get to a level where we can analyze ourselves and feel what makes us unhappy then we can try and find ways to combat this. This in time may lead you to a position in life where you do not need all these materialist items to make you happy. In time it can allow you to find a way to make yourself happy or feel at peace without the feeling of wanting items. If you can get to this point in your life that will allow you to look at the images, listen to the music, watch the film or see the new fashion and not feel that you need them to make you feel important or make you happy could this not be the start of a new and healthy society for all of us?
Artwork by Manolis Anastasakos from Greece

Arash Sharifi

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