Are possessions or experiences more important?

What is more important to you: possessions or experiences?

We should spend our money and time on what makes us happy and countless researches have shown that experiences tend to bring us more happiness than material possessions. Experiences are definitely more important to me.

First of all, because experiences become a part of our identity, unlike possessions. As we say, we are the sum of what we’ve seen, the things we’ve done and places we’ve been to. They become a part of our identity and can teach us so much about people, cultures that surround us and about ourselves even, therefore making us more open-minded. They improve our relations - social interaction being a big part of travels and all kinds of experience usually - which is a source of enrichment.

Even though they only last a moment, the memory that they create last for a lifetime and influences our behavior every day. The latest car, phone or beautiful jewelry is going to make you happy at the moment but it’s not gonna change who you are whereas travels, meeting people can. The paradox with possessions is that even though objects are supposed to last longer, the happiness they provide fades quickly, and makes us all the more weary, especially in our current consumer society. Possessions can make people greedy and it’s never going to solve the innate problem of wanting more. We can say the same about drugs or anything people have obsessions for. It will never be enough and this feeling will never go away and the anxiety that it brings into their lives will never make them happy.

Furthermore, possessions lead to comparison and can never bring complete fulfillment, as there will always be people that have more or better things than you, which gives rise to frustration. We don’t compare experiences the same way we compare objects as it is hard to appraise the value of experiences, they’re priceless and that’s why we appreciate them so much. In addition to all of that, a lot of experiences are actually free, let’s take the example of some nature activities: a day spent hiking with family, friends or whoever away from work and your everyday life can be so much help. I wouldn’t think that possessions can never satisfy our deepest needs

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