Don’t Buy It, Be Happy – But What’s Nature Got to Do with It?

SunKiss Life - December Edition

Welcome to the SunKiss Life Blog, a monthly round-up celebrating inspiring stories from our online lifestyle magazine, SunKiss Life.

Welcome to December, a time for celebration, joy and giving! With Christmas just around the corner we’ve hand-picked some great ideas that will help make for a more sustainable holiday season, including some guidelines for how to master the art of second-hand gift-giving, leaving you with that warm fuzzy feeling that is the true spirit of Christmas. May this month’s round up of stories bring you tidings of comfort and joy. Happy Holidays!

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Don’t Buy It, Be Happy

From our perspective we live in a consumer-driven society and that’s essentially how the economy works. Excluding Bhutan, that has chosen to measure progress by tracking happiness, our current system is hyper focused on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which measures how much money a country makes rather than the well-being of people and the planet.

Except, when we are encouraged to consume to keep the wheels of the economy spinning, the things we buy can end up being a burden. This happens when instead of spending precious time on things that truly make us happy, we end up spending time on taking care of our possessions. Studies have shown that buying lots of “things” diminishes our wellbeing, and chances are that if you relieve yourself of the burden of ownership, you are likely to feel a lot better and freer. So, contrary to the common myth that consumerism equals happiness:

“Happy people buy less things and buying less things makes you happier.”

Yep, you read that right - buying less "stuff" will not likely turn you into a Scrooge; instead, it’s a definite win-win: