The cycle of loneliness and consumption

Science says, there is a “vicious cycle of loneliness and consumption.” Good for the owners of shops in shopping malls. Bad for the consumers: they should re-animate another kind of satisfaction.
cycle of loneliness and consumption
by frizztext

And yet over and over we find that filling the hunger isn’t about acquiring more things; it’s about noticing what we already have and already are.How can I be present in my life as it is, if that life makes me unhappy?”

You start by feeling alive in your arms and legs.The reason that living in your body is quite helpful is because the alternative — living in your mind — can drive you insane. There is no particular pattern to your thoughts; in a split second, they zing crazily from the time you fell from your swing when you were 6 to what you are going to say to the person who insulted you yesterday.

If you try to follow your thoughts, you get lost in fantasies, resentments, and anticipated disappointments. There is no ground, nothing solid to hold on to, no way of bringing yourself back to what you are doing now, this very second. You get to the end of a day — or the end of your life — and you wonder where you’ve been. (And the answer is: lost in thought!)

During the day, every time you remember, sense your arms and legs again, just for a few seconds. (I do this about 100 times a day.) This will help you land in your body and bring your mind back to the present moment; it will give you a kind of mountain-solid feeling.
When you are present, nothing is missing. Time seems to stretch. And the reason it does is because it’s our thoughts — our crowded, worried minds — that make us feel so rushed. When you are present, a day seems like a week, a month, like a year.

Coming home to yourself satisfies the deepest hunger of all: your longing to fully live and not miss the moments as they fly by. When you are aware of your own presence, you get to see that this body, your home, the place you’ve spent years trying to change, is a pretty cool place to be.
by Geneen Roth