Dream Chasing or Rat Racing

Illustration by Steve Cutts

To build a house, get a perfect career, get married, travel a lot, get babies, buy expensive stuff, to have many 'likes' under you posts about all of that – are these our real wishes? Or just common idea of happiness.
In the process of earning money, seeking for a better job, dating, ‘3 days a week’- workouting, cooking and laundering I felt I’m running the rat race. It was the feeling that I’m hunting false goals, trying to be someone else, someone successful in a common view and that all that efforts are doomed to crash. I was tired and unhappy, and not enthusiastic anymore.

By Dina Goldstein

Then I thought about all I desired on that time “Do I actually need this?”.

It turned out, there are already things in my life which make me happy. Most of them I can enjoy without any great obstacles.

So where from does the annoying feeling of dissatisfaction that time to time pushes us into that exhausting endless race come?

Since childhood we have been told about a perfect life model thought to be the biggest dream to chase but what about our own visions and passions?
I suppose it takes to have much courage, self-consciousness and wisdom to follow your own unique destiny.

I want to mention an American author, doctor in anthropology Carlos Castaneda. He is famous for his books about mysterious teaching of don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian from northern Mexico, whom (by his words) he met during his anthropological studies. As Carlos Castaneda told, he was researching a peyote cactus and his friend recommended him make a request to don Juan as a specialist in that area.

Illustration by Renars from society6.com

We don’t know existed don Juan or not but the author’s acquaintance with Mexican Indian culture totally changed his urban views on life. Many people start to experiment with hallucinogenic drugs after reading Kastaneda’s books and because of that there are a lot of jokes and sarcastic minds about the ‘Yaqui Way of Knowledge’ described in his works.

But it looks like drugs are used in those culture only as a secondary tool to opening the mind and unlocking it from common prejudices, stereotypes, templates of behavior and fears. There is no need to use drugs if you can free your mind in different way – just using self-knowledge, self-examination and analyses of surrounding us world.

It is not simple but it worth it. For someone it’s easier, to others totally hard – depends on each personality. You decide – to live by determined social rules or think different and not get trapped in that hopeless ‘exist’-state when despite getting all goods and profits average man only dreaming about, you feel like something is missing.