Internal Well Being

Today I encountered a number of people who are indulging in all sorts of activities like going to loud parties, owning the right car, having a lot of money, having the right job, taking vacations to the right places or leading a totally carefree life in order to have “fun” and feel better about themselves and life in general.  Why not?  They live within a culture that says if the externals are just right then a person will feel good internally, a message they hear several times a day.  It seems that most people, including me, need to experience some of these things in order to know that they are hollow and will not improve my internal feelings.  In fact, the more I tried to fix my internals by adjusting my externals, the worse I felt, since nothing seemed to work.  Quietly being of service to others and having a good connection to God/love seems to work, an internal shift toward living within love.  I took notice of the fact that the happiest people I knew, had very few material possessions, while many who had a great deal were miserable, or even committed suicide.