Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Never Enough Syndrome


This is something I've taken time to think about more than once in my life. It's looked me straight in the eye and told me to evaluate my life. I've seen it in friends and family and felt sad for them. It's something I'm sure every one of you have seen, just maybe didn't recognize. Or maybe you have? I'm not too sure where I'm going to go with this post. But here it goes...
There have been many times in my life when I've felt dissatisfied. Even when I had many things in my life to be happy about I still didn't feel "full" inside. Sometimes when I'm feeling down I go shopping. Sometimes I go for a walk. During these times I'm writing about it didn't matter how many new shoes I bought, or how many miles I walked, it didn't make me feel any better.
One Sunday after a week of feeling this way I found myself sitting in church. Let me just make it clear that I did not go to church looking for answers. I do not attend regularly or because I thought it would make me feel better. It just so happened I had some friends who went often and I had decided to go with them. You can imagine my surprise when the Pastor started talking about this empty feeling I had been experiencing. Although he was referring to this empty feeling as not having God in your life, he said a few other things that really hit home for me. One of the things he said was that we all have spirits in us that need to be nurtured. Although I was neutral to the debate on whether there is a God or not, I do believe that we all have spirits within us. So, I continued to listen. He then went on to the topic of how materialistic our world is. How we want and can have the best of everything in our homes, the nicest cars money can buy and the nicest clothes on our bodies. But in the end, we will all leave this world and none of that will mean anything. We can't take it with us. I left the church that day really thinking about life and how I lived.
Years later I still get that empty feeling inside. Every time I feel it I stop and think of that day when I found myself in church. I can't help but think that those words were spoken to me for a reason. If no other reason than to plant the seed of what would grow into be a very strong belief of mine.
It is important that your life is one of substance.
In the end it doesn't matter how much money you had in the bank. What kind of car you drove. How big your house was, or what exotic materials it was made of. It doesn't matter how many pairs of stilettos you own, or what designer bags you carried. You will not be able to take it with you. In fact you might not even have these things 5 years from now. But one thing that does stick with you are memories. Things you can think about that leave you feeling happy inside. Experiences.
So when you are sitting there surrounded by all these things you've bought that are supposed to make you feel happy, but you still feel empty inside, please remember that you are deeper that just the surface. Remember that there is more to you than just the flesh. Take some time to breathe. Explore your spirituality. Take a mental vacation and really look inside yourself. You might be surprised where it takes you.
I'm not saying don't indulge in the finer things in life. I'm just saying there's more to life than just the finer things. There's people to meet, places to see and a part of you that takes some work to satisfy. So if you find yourself surrounded by reasons to be happy, but constantly saying "If I just had a...(nicer house, better job, more money etc.) take a look at yourself, you could be suffering form the never enough syndrome. And nothing you buy will be able to fix this, you will have to look deeper.

2 comments:

  1. I think it has a lot to do with enjoying the now rather than wishing for the future. Of course if it was only that easy.

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  2. Very insightfull...I enjoyed every word

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