Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Does money really bring us happyness?


This often quoted phrase is so overused and jaded that even though we know that it is true, we tend to ignore it. We want to believe that there is an easy way out of being unhappy and believe me overcoming your emotions and teaching yourself to be happy can be more difficult that earning some bucks!
All of us have at some point in time or another seen extremely rich, wealthy and famous people unhappier than what we would expect them to be, given the amount of material benefits that they have. It is surprising that a large number of wealthy people do not seem to experience the happiness that one would expect goes with so much money and riches. A study conducted by University of Illinois indicated that more than 30 percent of the richest people in America were not as happy as the person who earned a modest income.
Have you ever noticed that most of the sulking, miserable people that you meet in everyday life are rich people? The misery that these people go through is not because they don’t have enough money to by two square meals. It occurs due to the fact that everyone seems to have more expectations from money. Money cannot buy you everything but in the minds of people who give up everything for money, it is difficult to accept that they strove so hard to achieve partial success.
So if you are unhappy and think that money is the answer to your problems - think again! You simply are not happy because of your own emotions. There is a saying that ‘if you are not happy here and now, you never will be’. There is a lot of depth behind this statement. A penniless child drenched in the rain can be happy at the prospect of a real shower after days of scorching heat while a rich man may view the same rain from his window reminiscing why he had lost his lady love. The idea is to understand that happiness cannot be achieved by anything external irrespective of whether it is money or any other material things. It is something you can cause yourself to be in any situation. Situations and circumstances are not good or bad but how you look at them makes it so.
Of course money IS important to help us live our life to the fullest. But at the same time, an increase in its inflow does not bring proportional happiness with it. You need to be aware of this.

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