Do you think we humans are programed to want what we don’t have and to under-appreciate what we do have?
Lately I have been feeling weighed down by the responsibilities of my life. There is my home (expensive maintenance) my busy healing practice (rent, super tight schedule, appointments, administrative work) and the other parts of my life. (Book writing, website upgrade and continuing to “parent” my adult children, which is more like herding cats…)
The list of my life feels heavy and there is a to-do list that I don’t literally sleep with under my pillow, but it sure is often on my mind.
Last night I was having dinner with a friend of mine whose life couldn’t be more different than mine. Her life is so FREE compared to mine. She house sits, doesn’t own much or have much structure. To me it seems as free as the wind and I have lately been indulging in a fantasy of dropping everything and running away to live on a remote island in a hut. With (gasp!) no Wi-Fi. Apparently, you can live in Belize, beach front on the very cheap and Wi-Fi is spotty at best.
“Everyone’s life always looks good on Facebook,” she said. “The grass is always greener, maybe we are just programmed to want what we don’t have.” We agreed that we if we swapped lives, it would be fun for a bit, but we would be trading one set of problems for another, one set of joys for another. And that ultimately the lives we each had created for ourselves suited our core and our soul’s mission here.
Is there some primitive part of our br
ain that longs for variety? That squirms away from daily, dull routines and longs for the grass in the next pasture? Or no pasture at all?
Don’t get me wrong, I am very grateful for my life. Living in mindfulness and gratitude helps me appreciate what is going well and working for me.
I also pay attention to my internal complaints and resentments. I see them as good information about my current state of being. The longing to chuck it all and run away to the tropics might just mean that I need to take a break. Schedule a vacation. Remember that I like to take Fridays off in the summer and get in a little R&R and find some balance without swinging the pendulum too far to the other side.
And on that note, I am going to put my computer down and back away slowly. Have a wonderful weekend!
