Absence Of Desire

In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear writes, happiness is simply the absence of desire. Happiness is not about achievement of pleasure, but about the lack of desire. It arrives when you have no urge to feel differently. Happiness is the state you enter when you no longer want to change your state.

It’s very hard to not get distracted in this day and age of social media, where everyone is ”performing for one another” trying to impress their piers. In the process, struggling to find this inner contentment can leave us feeling empty, constantly looking for the next dopamine hit.

Our standard of living has increased dramatically over the last 120 years. The average human lives better today than the top percentile did all those years ago. Yet, we still chase more… stuff.

When l finally got rid of social media and stopped reading the news as much as I used to my life improved and my happiness levels have increased. I’ve been noticing this change more and more as time has passed. I no longer feel these emotions attached to the endless scrolling that is social media.

Whether we want to believe this or not, the fact is that we all feel a feeling when we look at these posts, videos or tiktoks on a subconscious level, without even knowing it. I know this used to happen to me a lot. I would feel drained and even frustrated that I just wasted all this time scrolling for the pointlessness of FOMO.

Now without these apps I have much more enjoyable days and so much free time it’s ridiculous! It’s lead me to discover the art of writing and thinking. This was something l never thought I would being doing…ever!

I know it’s hard to break free, but starting small and compounding these small steps over time can work wonders.

Nothing is more permanent than change.

J.H.Repetto