--- title: "Happiness In The Modern Age: How to Dematerialise Your Life and Go Back to Basics" description: "Take these simple steps to simplify your life and create sustainable and consistent happiness." author: "Tom Fallon" published: 2019-04-25 canonical: https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/10395/happiness-in-the-modern-age-how-to-dematerialise-your-life-and-go-back-to-basics category: "psychology" tags: ["happy", "material", "psychology"] reading_time: 3 minutes --- # Happiness In The Modern Age: How to Dematerialise Your Life and Go Back to Basics Happiness can sometimes seem like a distant and unattainable entity in the hustle and bustle of [daily life](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/106766/are-there-hymns-for-daily-life-in-the-vedas), but I am here to tell you that it is. Not only can you find and re-establish happiness in [your life](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/274/weed-out-negative-people-from-your-life), but you can also find priceless ways cut out the materialistic lifestyle and live for [experiences](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/13062/designing-compelling-site-experiences-for-seo) rather than things! Take a look at a few of the anti-materialistic actions that you can take in pursuit of a more meaningful and happy existence. ## Remember that work is not everything Money is great. Happiness is better. While having career aspirations is great, they should be personal and attainable goals that you want to achieve, not monetary ones. Make sure that you are in it for the right reasons. This will help you to really feel satisfied in your work, rather than drained! ![Happiness In The Modern Age: How to Dematerialise Your Life and Go Back to Basics](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/viewsolution/813cbe78-c079-421f-b187-bdddd40baaeb/images/5fe736ea-dcad-442c-86a3-6c07a2c7154f.jpeg)\ ## Putting experiences over materials Putting too Much weight on material things can, in time, make us unhappy. Research suggests that experiences, memories and spending time with the people that we love is much more influential in our overall happiness than having “things”. This includes clothing, technology, fancy cars and excessive jewelry. Though they produce a small high in the short term, they do not contribute to long term, sustainable happiness. A family holiday, on the other hand, can be a lot more stimulating for our overall happiness. Not only do we look forward to it and then enjoy actually being there, but we also come away having bonded with the people that we love and having gained lifelong memories. This is a lot more emotionally stimulating than a new pair of jeans! If you are hoping to utilise the power of experience then make sure that you check out promo codes for gift experiences, holidays and weekend breaks! Being happy really doesn’t have to cost a lot of money! ![Happiness In The Modern Age: How to Dematerialise Your Life and Go Back to Basics](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/viewsolution/813cbe78-c079-421f-b187-bdddd40baaeb/images/c3e6b813-d9d8-40da-813e-02c4096701ae.jpeg)\ ## Exercise over social media [Social media](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/13056/how-to-leverage-social-media-to-attract-lots-of-blog-traffic) has gained a bad reputation in modern society as something that robs us of our ability to really live in the present. The [advancement](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/41330/what-was-the-early-focus-of-the-national-association-for-the-advancement-of-colored-people-naacp) of social platforms has taken the necessity out of face to face conversations [as well as](https://www.mindstick.com/interview/2481/can-you-write-a-java-class-that-could-be-used-both-as-an-applet-as-well-as-an-application) presenting us with an unrealistic expectation of what life should be like. Spending time on the sofa scrolling through social media accounts may well be better spent undergoing activities that are proven to release endorphins and promote both [physical and mental](https://yourviews.mindstick.com/audio/1253/the-impact-of-mindful-eating-on-physical-and-mental-health) health. If you have been feeling a little unhappy recently then it may just be time that you put the phone down and put on those running shoes. ### How you look doesn't matter as much as you think Social media and adverts in the [twentieth century](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/43196/what-challenges-did-women-encounter-in-the-workplace-at-the-end-of-the-twentieth-century) have put a [huge amount](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/97639/why-are-people-paying-a-huge-amount-to-buy-nft-art) of weight onto the way that we look. Being surrounded by airbrushed models and feeds that only record the good times would be enough to make anyone feel inferior. But in reality this can only hinder our happiness. So take what you see with a pinch of salt, and try not to care about how you look so much! There are so many things that you can do to start living a more happy life, rather than a false and materialistic one, and these are just a few of them. Overall the most important thing is that you are happy, so make sure that you find what it is that makes you so, and pursue it! \ --- Original Source: https://yourviews.mindstick.com/view/10395/happiness-in-the-modern-age-how-to-dematerialise-your-life-and-go-back-to-basics Copyright © MindStick Software Pvt. Ltd. This Markdown version is provided for developers, AI systems, and offline reading.