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Work Cited

Lutter, Mark. “Book Review: Winning a Lottery Brings No Happiness!” Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, 2006, pp. 155–160., doi:10.1007/s10902-006-9033-2.

Monbiot, George. “Materialism: a System That Eats Us from the inside out | George Monbiot.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 9 Dec. 2013, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/09/materialism-system-eats-us-from-inside-out.

Reve, Pavilion. “Materialism And Its Effect On Health.” Reve Pavilion, 1 Dec. 2014, www.reve-pavilion.co.uk/materialism-effect-health/.

LCSW, Swati Desai Ph.D. “Materialism Is Not Bad... As Long As It's Tempered With Spirituality.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/swati-desai/materialism-is-not-bad_b_784415.html.

“Research - Minimalism.” Happynesshub.com, happynesshub.com/research-minimalism/.
Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?q=minimalism nothing should own you&safe=active&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi21pXWidjaAhXxSt8KHZDLD9kQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=629#imgrc=CK0Fl9KWf12h8M
Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?q=less is more&safe=active&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjngd2ritjaAhWsl-AKHWlOA3wQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=629#imgrc=83u9DgXNAn1IxM:

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So you're interested in starting minimalism, but don't know where to start. In this article, there will be steps easy to follow that will help you live a simpler, less stressed out life.

1. Set goals
Minimalism is usually going to be a big change in lifestyle, and before stepping into this process its very important to know what you want to get out of it as a result so that you have an end goal. Doing this also makes it easier for you to look back on to remind you why you wanted to do this in the first place.

2. Eliminate unnecessary items in your house
Whether its donating, selling, giving away, or throwing away its important to purge the stuff in your house that is not practical or causes you joy.

3. Start small
Although in the last step, it was said to purge the stuff in your house that doesn't bring you joy, it should be noted that what you deem impractical one day you may wish you would have saved another, when eliminating stuff start by things you are sure you won't use in the future, then move on to other things if  they have a place in your home.

4. Become a conscious consumer
An important part of minimalism is also to monitor what you are buying daily and try to find the meaning behind it. Are you buying something because you truly think it will bring you joy or help you or are you buying thing on impulse?

5. Remember minimalism is a process
in addition to this all its essential to remember, minimalism is a process, and its something that you will need to work at every day. If you lose sight you can end up reverting right back where you were just with new items. When you feel like this has happened remember to go back and look up why you started in the first place.

Explanation: This article talks about the steps that I took when becoming a minimalist. In my experience minimalism helped me find both balance and simplicity, something that's very important throughout high school years. Although it doesn't talk about minimalism's direct effect on health, it does show the steps to take so that people can find the happiness and simplicity on their own.

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Materialism Can not and Will not Bring Joy to Consumers

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Materialism Can not and Will not Bring Joy to Consumers

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“When I achieve that I will be happy.” Whether the “that” is money, a new car, or an expensive house, this is a phrase almost everybody mutters once throughout their lifetime, and almost anybody can relate to. This makes sense as in America, since 1920,  has lived in a consumer culture where people are told objects are the solutions to every problem, creating the setting for materialism. Defined by its preoccupation with materials rather than intellectual or spiritual things, materialism is the true convict of the belief "items bring happiness". But the truth is material based happiness is short-lived leaving people unsatisfied. In fact, striving for happiness through objects can be detrimental as it drives people to be in a state where they are always unsatisfied. Under this belief materialism causes people to strive for an unobtainable accumulation of items, leaving consumers in a state of unhappiness and all around bad health.

Many people expect when they get what they want, happiness will ensue. But when looking at people who received what most people want, money, this isn't true. A study compared the happiness of victims of crashes and lottery winners stated: “On average, the winners’ ratings of everyday happiness were 3.33 out of 5, and the accident victims’ averaged answers were 3.48.” (Lutter, Mark) This shows even after tragedies or serendipity, people returned to being as happy, or unhappy as they had previously been. Showing when people place objects as goals it doesn’t make them happy because they will get accustomed to that particular object. This belief is even explained throughout the article; “Thus, as lottery winners become accustomed to the additional pleasures made possible by their new wealth, these pleasures should be experienced as less intense and should no longer contribute very much to their general level of happiness.”(Lutter, Mark) Materialism fails to keep people happy because it's a short-term solution to a problem that grows as people attempt to gain more stuff. In addition, another problem with materialism is to stay happy people have to keep buying more things which can by itself lead to different problems. As people get attached to the idea of stuff meaning happiness, they will continue to buy as long as they have sufficient funds to support it, which is where the detrimental aspect begins.

Materialism affects peoples health because it creates stress in two ways. By creating unachievable goals, and causing them to labor in order to achieve them. The paragraph above proved obtaining objects doesn't keep people happy, it didn’t show anything harmful about materialism. But various studies came to the conclusion that materialism is harmful to individuals. In one study people were shown images of relating to materialism such as money, commercials, and expensive items, and after recording the patient's response, In their own words the subjects “experienced immediate but temporary increases in material aspirations, anxiety, and depression. They also became more competitive and more selfish, had a reduced sense of social responsibility and were less inclined to join in demanding social activities.” (Monbiot, George) This study goes to show that being in a materialistic mindset is harmful in the ways that it causes anxiety, stress, and brings out poor characteristics supporting the claim that materialism is detrimental to health. Sadly, it isn’t the only way it can be detrimental as another article states, “Unfortunately, modern society has been teaching us for some time now that to be happy you need to earn more money and buy more things. If we slave away, often making ourselves ill by overworking, causing stress, back problems, and other illnesses, then we will somehow be happier” (Reve, Pavillion) In the case of the everyday person who may not have the funds to support always having the newest and latest trends this can be especially harmful. As the article shows above society teaches people that more stuff will make you happy and for people who don't have money at their disposal to get things they will have to end up working more in order to buy more. Creating a never-ending cycle of harder work for more pay to buy stuff that won’t make people happy.

Although as shown above, materialism is unhealthy due to it putting stress on people to keep buying and spending others argue materialism makes people happier because the object makes people happy. Articles who claim that materialism makes people happy often argue material items, are often jointed with experiences that make the user happy. One specific source that conducted a study on a theory on experimental items used this argument stating “As expected purely material purchases made people the least happy, but the experiential products made people just as happy as the pure experiences.”(LCSW) After reading that it seems to be clear that objects can bring joy to people, but this is actually contradictory to the beliefs of materialism itself. By definition, materialism is defined by the extreme accumulation of material goods. Buying products doesn't define materialism, the intent behind does. Buying products for experiences doesn't count as materialism because it the purchase isn’t made solely for the product. The study above was supposed to show why materialism can make people happier it accidentally supports a different movement called minimalism which follows the belief less is more, the complete opposite of materialism. In fact, a major component of this belief focuses on how having less stuff leads to having more experiences, and therefore makes people happier. Minimalism is both the antithesis and solution to materialism as it solves a lot of the problems the other creates. An article supporting this belief stated minimalism,“helps eliminate distressing debts, increases positive experience through appreciation and savouring, and encourages individuals to focus on intrinsic rather than extrinsic goals, making a greater positive impact on our psychological well-being” (Research - Minimalism) This article proves materialism is unhealthy as it takes a complete switch in values in order to begin making people happy. It proves this by explaining that minimalism helps erase stress, and leads to better personality traits which were the two major products of materialism. Overall showing materialism as so flawed the whole system has to be changed in order for people to start benefiting from it.

‘Having more and more won’t solve the problem, and happiness does not lie in possessions or even relationships: The answer lies within ourselves. If we can’t find peace and happiness there, it’s not going to come from the outside.’ — Tenzin Palmo. This quote truly shows the greatest fault with materialism. It relies on material goods rather than going down to the roots of the problem. While buying a piece of clothing or a watch may make a person happy at the moment, it is only a quick fix to a much deeper problem. After all, if somebody is relying on goods to make them happy, the truth is the person isn’t happy. It's only when a person self-reflects can they find true joy.

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The following image is of comic of the thinking man sitting atop a mountain of consumerist goods. Its clear in the photo the materials around him seem to not bring him any joy, and if its consider that he's thinking about his life placement at the moment, it becomes clear that the stuff around him is not the answer. This embodies the whole situation of materialism as even after buying everything his heart desires he is still left unfufilled with his life.