Determine to Be Free of Problems as a Way to Happiness

To deal with the stress of the Information Age, we need to examine the ways we use the Internet, with its social media, messaging, and so forth. Once we identify our self-defeating habits that just cause us further stress, we need to recognize that the source of our unhappiness is in our own minds. With the determination not to be stressed and with self-discipline, concentration, mindfulness and discriminating awareness, we will be able to handle the challenges of modern life with more clarity and calmness.

Whether we live in big cities, small towns or the countryside, we all face problems in our modern world. Most people would sum them up with the word “stress.” We want more and more, as more and more become instantly available – information, movies, TV stations, music, social media feeds, instant messages, online products, and more. They may on the surface seem to improve our lives, but they make them more complicated and stressful, especially when there are so many choices. We don’t want to miss something, like in the news, or an email or instant message. We are afraid of being left out. Even if we choose something, like a TV show, we are filled with doubt that maybe there is something better on to watch that we’ve missed.

We want to belong to society, to a group of friends; we want “likes” on whatever we post on social media, so that we feel we are accepted. We are not calm, and we are never satisfied with the number of “likes” we get or the information we read on the Internet. We feel excited with anticipation when our phone indicates we have received a message, or in checking our Facebook page to see if we have received more likes, or as a news junkie, looking once more at the news to see if something new has happened. We don’t want to miss anything, but it never satisfies and we want even more.

On the other hand, we feel overwhelmed by the situation around us and so we try to escape by looking at our mobile devices and listening to music while on the subway, or when walking around. We try to shut out the reality of what is around us and escape into our private virtual world. We also feel the compulsive need always to be entertained. On the one hand, we yearn for peace and quiet, and on the other, we fear the vacuum of the absence of information, music, and so on. We are determined to be free of the stress of the external world, so we give it up and retreat into the virtual world of the Internet. But even there, we seek the company and approval of our so-called “friends” on social media, and we never feel secure. But, is retreating into our mobile devices the solution?

We need to recognize the unhappiness we experience when we are stuck in these habitual routines and identify its sources. We then need to develop the determination to be free of this unhappiness, based on knowing the methods to rid ourselves of its sources and being confident that they work. But we don’t want just to feel like nothing, like a zombie; we want to be happy. Happiness is not just the absence of unhappiness; it’s something in addition to the neutral, unfeeling state of being rid of unhappiness.

Top