Find Inner Peace by Reducing Your Desires

‘Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.’ – Epictetus

Desire is good because it moves us out of our comfort zone, enables us to improve our lives, and encourages us to work on becoming the person we were meant to be. However, having too many desires is bad for us.

Today, most of us can’t find inner peace because we have too many desires. We desire an iPhone 11, a PlayStation 5, a cool car, good children, a beautiful/handsome spouse, a vacation in the Bahamas, a mansion, fame, riches, and so on. These desires, which are mainly ego or society based, prevent us from finding happiness because they cause anxiety when we wonder whether we’ll attain them. They also make us vulnerable to envy, sorrow, and depression when we compare ourselves with people who have attained them.

Thus, we suffer more when we desire more. Many ancient Africans found inner peace because they had few desires. Most of them were mainly concerned with eating, drinking, sex, dance, art, and spiritual devotion. However, we (modern society) never find inner peace because we have too many desires, which we can’t fulfil in one lifetime. Also, no matter what we achieve, we create other desires, which we believe we must fulfil for us to be happy. For this reason, we always feel incomplete and dissatisfied.

We must reduce our desires if we want to live in a state of peace. We must only desire a few things strongly even when these things appear impossible to attain. Reducing our desires will enable us to attain inner peace because we will only be bothered by a few things.

For this reason, after reading this article, you must write down the few most important things that you truly desire, decide to only focus on them, and ignore ego and society-based desires. Ego/society-based desires will prevent you from finding inner peace, and attaining them doesn’t guarantee long-term happiness. Attaining them will only strengthen your ego or desire to compete, thus preventing you from being happy and peaceful.

THE END