How does your stuff cage your soul?

Your Soul is a free bird but you are not letting it be.

In the last year in July, we bought a pair of cocktail parrots. I never liked keeping a pet, but my elder kid wanted them as his birthday present. So I convinced myself and brought a lovely blue cage for them. I started exploring the ways from the internet to make them comfortable- from selecting the perfect feed to decorating their cage with trinkets. Three months have been passed but even after doing my best, they didn’t seem happy to me. One day, I opened the door and brought one of them out. I did not close the door but to my surprise, neither the bird did fly nor did the other bird go out. Moreover, it came inside and this kept me thinking for days.

Don’t you think we humans are doing only what they did? We have started feeling comfortable in a cage created by our stuff, our belongings and our possessions.

We are sacrificing our freedom in return for stuff. On one hand, we are creating more and more ways to earn and on the other hand, we are finding more ways to spend that money.

So, we are in their vicious circle and return is nowhere in sight.

And then there are some, who renounce the world, and its worldly pleasures.

How Humans are always tending to get attracted towards extremes? Maybe because it’s underneath psychology.

But I feel that the middle path is the best option and yes, everyone can have their own set point, where to stop and draw the line.

While I was into a good-earning job, I always had my expenditures listed up to the point where nothing was left except for a little emergency fund and now when I don’t have a fixed source of income, we are still good. So, I realized that I had created the outlets intentionally. I had named my wants as my needs and to fulfill those, I was forcing myself into the job profile I never liked. Although my Job was allowing me to afford an expensive lifestyle, I wasn’t satisfied with.

“A cage that allows someone to walk around inside of it, is still a cage.”

Clint Smith

How strange it is but first we run day and night to earn and then we spend this hard-earned money to buy things, mostly of which we buy to impress the ones we don’t really admire. It does not stop here but continues with us spending our limited time and energy to clean, organize and manage them and sometimes, these things become the clutter, physically and mentally. The stuff which was once money in our account starts becoming a hindrance in our growth. 

We all are made to do something higher than only buying and care-taking of the stuff. But our finite capacity gets exhausted in hoarding and managing the possessions we acquire. We bind our free soul with the chain of materialistic things. But the good thing is- It finds the way out, sooner or later.

And when it does, it never looks back just like my parrots, who never came back and made me happy.

So, How to let your Soul be free?

Let’s not fall for trendy things!

Trends change every season but our style does not. Rather than buying what is in vogue, we should buy as per our style – Evergreen versatile quality pieces. It has many benefits- 

• If it matches your style, you will never feel bored of it.
• If it is a quality piece, you will feel more comfortable and you will not have to buy the same kind of cloth again and again.
• If it is versatile, you can wear them on multiple occasions and with varied styles.

Let’s not fall for advertisements!

Constant advertisements over social media have trapped our minds into buying mode.

It is their job to create innovative ads but by falling for them, we are indirectly working on their dreams and not ours.

Let’s not compare!

We all are different, our backgrounds are different, our journeys are different and our goals are different.

We can never be like someone and vice versa. So we shall not compare our lives, our possessions with anyone, offline or online.

Comparison makes the things difficult; it squeezes the fun out of our dreams. Comparison converts the journey into a race and we are not here to win over someone but to win over our own self and to become the better version of ourselves.

Let’s not earn to buy but to do!

One mistake we are doing here is listing down our wish lists without even looking at our earning incomes. This makes us run to earn more to tick off our wish lists. We are Humans and it’s our intrinsic nature to consume but overconsumption is always bad.

Shift your focus from “What to buy next” to “What to do next” and see the difference.

Last but not the least, it is a journey and you have to be patient. Keep moving and don’t stop even if you fall in between.