This will NOT make you happy.

The fact that nowadays we cannot afford important things like a place to live, good healthcare (often requiring private services to get help fast or of satisfying quality), or education (even in countries with free education, it's more and more common that people cannot afford additional lessons for kids, different courses and diplomas that have somehow become necessary to get a decent job etc.) makes us crave some compensation.

Fast and ultra-fast fashion brands only wait for that. Hundreds of thousands of new items are available each day (SHEIN alone offers up to 10'000 new designs EVERY SINGLE DAY). Same goes for everything home-related, décor, kitchen stuff, books, toys, you name it.

To make it even worse, we all scroll and subconsciously compare ourselves to people who are (often pretending to be) reach and famous. Of course we then feel some sort of lack, like we don't belong.

And oh boy, our primal brain will scream whenever there's a chance of "being kicked out of the tribe". That deep-seated fear of social exclusion (in the jungle by yourself you DIE) never left our amygdalas, even if we're out of the caves (both literally and metaphorically) for a long time now.

And so we buy. Trying to at least mimic what others have. Then we buy some more. At some point you don't have enough room in your closet. The kitchen cabinets don't fit your coffee mug "collection". There're stacks of unread books here and there and yet, we still want this one more thing.

Aaaand that other one.

Yet somehow, it doesn't make us happy, does it?

Maybe if I changed my sofa to this trendy shade...
Yeah. No.

Arthur C. Brooks who in his work studies happiness points out that satisfaction has nothing to do with achievement, money, or stuff in general.

I think somewhere deep inside of us we all intuitively know that the true and lasting satisfaction can be achieved only through more "internal" things, like meaningful relationships, having (even an uncertain and small) life purpose, admiration of little or everyday objects and situations.

So next time we want to buy something, lets pause for a moment and think:

Do I really need that?
WHY do I actually want that?
Is this super short burst of dopamine worth spending my hard-earned money on this?