Maybe we’ve become a little too used to the unrest. Caught up in the endless hunt for what’s next or the illusive something that will fill the ever-growing void. Day after day we are sold on the fact that what we need is just a purchase away. If only we had a better phone, a bigger TV, or the newest car, we’d certainly be happier, whole, and living our best life. Don’t think marketers are unaware of the buttons they need to push in order to keep us trying to buy what seems to be lacking in our lives. All our little hang-ups, self-doubts, and comparisons about how worthy we are come into play when we absolutely have to have something that’s completely unnecessary or a waste of our time and energy.

The hard truth is, feeling more whole and fulfilled only comes when the endless pit of consumerism goes on the back burner. Repeat after me, we don’t need to buy more to be more. What we really need is more inner peace, presence, and awareness and this looks less like a slick movie trailer and more like an unkempt mess. Learning to be more rather than buy more is an on-going journey and how it looks and feels can be very unfamiliar. But what’s for sure is that it often turns out to be the opposite of what we’ve been promised or the tidy assembly-line model of the life we had in mind.

Each of our paths to that meaningful more will look different from one another, which is why copying or coveting doesn’t work. In the end it’s about how we feel rather than how we look or what we have, and these feelings can’t be purchased they need to be developed over time. We’ll know we’re onto something by our insides and how peaceful, excited, joyful, or grateful we are about what’s going on in our lives. Not only is this not fakable, it’s not for sale.

As it turns out we are the investment we need to be making, an investment in a well-lived, thoughtful life in community and connection. Getting there can be a crooked, winding, confusing path, we fall off the trail, get turned around and completely distracted. But we can always come home to the truth of ourselves anytime we decide to, and it won’t be a new dress or a new diet that gets us there.

It always comes back to what’s on the inside. When we look inwards, get clear, and consider connection and continuity we discover the things that matter most don’t come with a price tag. Do some digging in unfamiliar territory, happily give back. That’s how it works, the more we give, the more we receive. And strangely enough, we end up finding what we’ve been desperately searching for in places we never imagined.

Filling in the blanks comes with our sincere questioning and a willingness to look deeper and think bigger. Step away from the lies you’ve been sold, stop comparing yourself to others, and look for what it is that resonates and makes you come alive. Go into nature, take a hot bath, daydream in a hammock. What we need will find us when we come home to greater stillness and silence. It’s openness and honesty that bring new worlds into being, not another diversion, or another thing we acquire then grow tired of.

A soulful life isn’t for sale, it’s fully lived.

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