Caterpillars Never Enough pay attention: less stuff is better for your health

It may be my luck that every three years, due to my urge to move, I pack up my belongings, because then you at least know for sure that you are getting rid of your junk. I deliberately call it junk, because you probably also have a drawer filled with received keycords and USB sticks that you never do anything with. Why do we actually keep those? And while research shows that you are happier if you have fewer possessions.

Did you know that humans are the only species that, when fed, are not satisfied but actually want more? A bigger house, a newer car, a more expensive bag, flashier airpods. I called my airpods flashy, yes, that is incredibly medieval of me, but you get my point. Once you have that somewhat pricey bag hanging on your arm, the step to that expensive one is easily made. We are caterpillars never enough, only decluttering is much better for your mental health. Too many possessions and a messy house literally give us stress.

Research professor Brené Brown simply explains where that constant desire for more comes from. We humans never feel good enough and we try to make up for it by improving ourselves with all sorts of gadgets. Which of course doesn’t work, so it’s also a bit sad to strive for that unattainable ideal image. What does work? Learning to see what you do have and realizing that you do not improve yourself with possessions, because you are already good enough.

Happiness is not a dress, happiness is not a bag, happiness is within yourself. Once you realize that, your mental health will become very happy again. The unfortunate thing is that it is very common in our society to associate happiness with a lot of money or objects. The pitfall is precisely that you only need more, more, and even more to feel happy, which in the end is very unhealthy.

By the way, it helps me to do the cleaning on my most rigorous day. Or my emotionless day, maybe we should call it that. The last time I threw away 95 percent of my elementary school notebooks without hesitation in that state. Let me do this at the wrong moment in my cycle and I’ll be sobbing over a box. I find it dreadful to start, but when I drop off the boxes at the thrift store or dump, I feel incredibly tidy. And maybe even a bit happier.

Something to think about when you are waving your debit card to buy even more stuff.