by 
Carmella
ANSWERS: 6
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Wealthy people don't feel that way.
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Seems like an element of greed. The more we get, the more we want. If we finally got what he had our hearts set on, all of a sudden this one thing is not as good as we wanted. People just can't settle for what they have. It's always the next big thing that we're looking for.
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I think you are speaking for yourself perhaps or others, but not for everyone. I am not dissatisfied with my life, and I have several good friends who are not either. We talk about life openly. And we are not wealthy. We have satisfying jobs, social lives, and are for the most part feeling good and positive about our lives (in the 47-55 age group). I am sure many people are not happy or dissatisfied with their lives, but I do not think it is "inherent," and I am not sure it is a majority of the population either.
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If you are completely satisfied with your life, you have nothing more to reach for, nothing to strive towards, and so you will just coast through life. Survival of the fittest decrees that we strive to be the best we can, so that the weaker get picked off instead of us, so that we get the best mates, the best food, and the best locale. Human conditioning cannot overcome millenia of animal instinctual evolution.
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I don't feel that way at all. ANd most of the people I know are quite positive thinking people. I find that if you find work you enjoy and people that mkae you happy, and a goal in life, a purpose, life is the most exciting thing. We were designed to enjoy life. All of our senses, seeing, tasting, touching, hearing, smelling, all add so much to our enjoyment of life. They fill us up with life. If it was so inherent, then I don't think mankind would be around, we'd have died off long ago from disappointment and depression.
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The basic issue is that we're conditioned to think of ourselves as something separate from others and from the whole of life. That sense of separation makes us "clingy" -- we hang on to the things we think we need to "fill the void" caused by the belief that we're less than whole. So most people won't say they feel dissatisfied, because they've accumulated enough of the things and people they think they require (well, it would be nice to have a LITTLE more, yes?). Where the problem comes is when you try to take those things away -- when we have to go WITHOUT our comfy chair, our TV set, our constant diet of entertainment and stimulation, or whatever it is that we've used to fill in the void. Then the attachments start to show up quite rapidly, and the dissatisfaction becomes acute. Resolving the illusion of separateness allows one to be satisfied just being alive... just hanging out in life, without having to be surrounded by positive reinforcement, entertainment, stimulating activities, etc.
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