Separating Your Needs From Your Wants
In this modern era of manufactured overconsumption it can be very difficult to separate our needs from our wants. Many of us find ourselves confusing the two usually to the detriment of the quality of how we live.
Reality is subjective to every one of us. The only empirical reality is that there are molecules bouncing around everywhere, there are chemicals everywhere, there are different forms of light everywhere, there are temperature gradients, and there are vibrations. The prisms we all have in place created by our conditioning and life's experiences project a unique hologram that is our subjective reality. Contained in these realities are our needs and wants.
The fundamental difference between what we label as our needs and wants are simply we can not continue to exist without the things we need and those things we want are luxuries. The physical needs are pretty straight forward for us. We need food, water, and oxygen otherwise we simply cease to exist in the physical. Where things get tricky are in our emotional and psychological needs.
We are so complex in the realm of our emotional and social constitution it is both amazing and at the same time frightening. Let's face it we do not need cell phones but there are many of us that simply can not function without them. There are people whose emotional well being will in fact suffer without their smartphones or internet access.
As social beings contact with other people seems to be something we need and there are many studies that now show loneliness is as dangerous as obesity and smoking to ones health, but there are more than a few historical instances of people living in solitude for many years (monks, writers etc.) that lived long lives in solitude.
I understand that loneliness and solitude are not the same which illustrates how we can construct our own prisms of our needs and wants. This is something that is under our control to manage. The mindsets we employ matter a great deal and we have free reign over how we construct them. Once we can work to start to separate one from the other an interesting thing starts to develop, gratitude. We start to develop an appreciation for having our needs met. We can also work to fulfill our own needs and self regulate. These two practices when combined open us up to constructing a new prism that projects an amazingly new hologram. One in which we can actively and wholeheartedly pursue our wants with reckless abandon because we know we don't need them.
Take time out to audit your life and ponder whether your needs are truly being met. Where can you work to fulfill your needs yourself? Are some of things you've believed were your needs actually your wants? Start to put things in the categories that work to provide you with a quality of life you desire and you will create space within yourself to operate more freely and project a hologram that is your desired reality.
Reality is subjective to every one of us. The only empirical reality is that there are molecules bouncing around everywhere, there are chemicals everywhere, there are different forms of light everywhere, there are temperature gradients, and there are vibrations. The prisms we all have in place created by our conditioning and life's experiences project a unique hologram that is our subjective reality. Contained in these realities are our needs and wants.
The fundamental difference between what we label as our needs and wants are simply we can not continue to exist without the things we need and those things we want are luxuries. The physical needs are pretty straight forward for us. We need food, water, and oxygen otherwise we simply cease to exist in the physical. Where things get tricky are in our emotional and psychological needs.
We are so complex in the realm of our emotional and social constitution it is both amazing and at the same time frightening. Let's face it we do not need cell phones but there are many of us that simply can not function without them. There are people whose emotional well being will in fact suffer without their smartphones or internet access.
As social beings contact with other people seems to be something we need and there are many studies that now show loneliness is as dangerous as obesity and smoking to ones health, but there are more than a few historical instances of people living in solitude for many years (monks, writers etc.) that lived long lives in solitude.
I understand that loneliness and solitude are not the same which illustrates how we can construct our own prisms of our needs and wants. This is something that is under our control to manage. The mindsets we employ matter a great deal and we have free reign over how we construct them. Once we can work to start to separate one from the other an interesting thing starts to develop, gratitude. We start to develop an appreciation for having our needs met. We can also work to fulfill our own needs and self regulate. These two practices when combined open us up to constructing a new prism that projects an amazingly new hologram. One in which we can actively and wholeheartedly pursue our wants with reckless abandon because we know we don't need them.
Take time out to audit your life and ponder whether your needs are truly being met. Where can you work to fulfill your needs yourself? Are some of things you've believed were your needs actually your wants? Start to put things in the categories that work to provide you with a quality of life you desire and you will create space within yourself to operate more freely and project a hologram that is your desired reality.
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