I think I’ve grown more comfortable with having less than having more.
It’s probably a state of mind or a flawed mentality, but I don’t care very much.
Having more is a burden. My wants are much. Once my needs are satisfied, the wants start screaming for attention and sometimes the noise can be deafening and swooning, so that you just go with the flow to silence one want after the other until you are left with probably nothing.
Or sometimes, you don’t even try to satisfy the wants, you just shut them all out, and because you’re working too hard at being prudent out of fear and anxiety, you tend to throw into the mix a few of your needs, because now it is difficult to properly label needs from wants, so you play safe and you end up hoarding and start living like you have nothing.
That is more pathetic. And it’s just too much for me to handle because I get overwhelmed easily.
But you see having less? It’s gold. It is the best place to start—especially when you don’t have a choice and you learn that your having less has value. Because it teaches you to live on the basics, to shed excess and irrelevant cravings. It teaches you to survive.
While one must not go through life merely surviving and not living, you really can’t live without surviving. And that’s what less has taught me:
If you can be comfortable with less, you have a better chance of being in control with more.
Like Picasso said, “I want to live like a pauper but with plenty of money.”
It is easier when you’ve learnt how it is to live like a pauper by having and managing less.
