AVOIDING a life of pleasure and luxury involves shifting your focus toward a minimalist, purpose-driven lifestyle. Philosophies like Stoicism and Epicureanism emphasize that chasing constant comforts makes you fragile, breeds endless cravings and distracts you from personal growth and mental tranquillity. Transitioning away from a comfort-based lifestyle to one of deeper fulfillment and resilience can be achieved through a few actionable steps: Focus on what you want to achieve rather than what you want to consume. Stoics believe that dedicating yourself to service, art or duty creates a more satisfying, enduring joy than direct indulgence. Intentionally abstain from certain luxuries for short periods.
Taking cold showers, fasting or giving up digital entertainment temporarily helps you realize you can survive—and thrive—without constant comfort. Instead of trying to add more luxuries to your life, remove the things that cause unnecessary stress or pain (like unhealthy foods or excessive spending). Distinguish between necessary desires (like food, water and genuine connections) and unnecessary desires (like status symbols and gourmet meals). Epicurus suggested that mastering self-control over unnecessary things brings profound peace of mind and limit distractions that promote impulsive consumption. A popular modern approach, often discussed on forums like Reddit simple living, involves stepping away from the endless cycle of upgrade culture to focus on the simple, meaningful moments of everyday life.
Epicurus is considered a major figure in the history of science as well as philosophy. For him the most pleasant life is one where we abstain from unnecessary desires and achieve an inner tranquillity by being content with simple things and by choosing the pleasure of philosophical conversation with friends over the pursuit of physical pleasures like food, drink and women. While we have lost most of Epicurus’ treatises on ethics and happiness, his basic ideas are very clearly outlined in his famous “letter to Monoceous”. He begins with a claim familiar from Plato and Aristotle: that we all desire happiness as an end in itself and all other things are desired as a means for producing happiness. But what is happiness? Epicurus gives a straightforward definition, influenced by Aristippus, a disciple of Socrates and founder of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy. Epicurus claims that there are two self-imposed beliefs that do the most to make our lives unhappy or full of pain. They are first, the belief that we will be punished by GOD for our bad actions and second, that death is something to be feared. Epicurus makes an important distinction between necessary and unnecessary desires.
Necessary desires are those which are necessary to produce happiness, such as desiring to get rid of bodily pain or desiring a state of inner tranquillity. He writes that “the end of all our actions is to be free from pain and fear and once this is obtained the tempest of the soul is quelled.” Only when we are in pain do we feel the need to seek pleasure, a need which inevitably only produces greater pain. In order to get rid of this pain-pleasure-pain cycle, we need to cultivate a mindset in which there is no pain. Thus the aim is not the positive pursuit of pleasure, as it was for Aristippus.
The aim is rather the attaining of a neutral state which is best described as “peace of mind” or even “emptiness,” to use a Buddhist expression. The Greek word Epicurus uses for this state is “ataraxia”, which literally means “freedom from worry.” Epicurus notes further that we need wisdom to see which pleasures are really pleasurable and which pains are necessary to produce pleasure. Some pleasures lead to greater pain, like imbibing copious amounts of alcohol and so the wise person will shun them. On the other hand, certain pains, like sadness, can lead to an appreciation for life or compassion, which are highly pleasurable states. We should not, therefore, get rid of all negative emotions but only those that lead to unnecessary pains. This, by the way, is also one of the main conclusions that positive psychologist Ed Denier outlines in his latest research on the empirical basis of happiness.
Another one of the main conclusions of recent research on happiness concerns the limited role that external conditions play in making one happy. It has been found that income, marriage, good looks, even winning the lottery only have a small impact on one’s lasting happiness. Epicurus anticipates this with his claim that the greatest secret to happiness is to be as independent of external things as possible. Being content with the simple things in life ensures that you will never be disappointed. If you put your stock in unnecessary pleasures like costly luxuries and food, you will be 1) upset when you lose these things, 2) anxious to obtain them and 3) continually pushed on wards towards greater luxuries and hence greater anxiety and disappointment. In keeping with this sentiment, Epicurus disparages the “crass hedonism” which emphasizes physical pleasure and instead claims that the philosophical pursuit of wisdom with close friends is the greatest of pleasures. When we say that the pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality as we are understood to do through ignorance, prejudice or wilful misrepresentation. By plea-sure we mean the absence of pain in the body and trouble in the soul. It is sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of choice and avoidance and banishing those beliefs that lead to the tumult of the soul.
—The writer is Former Civil Servant and Consultant (ILO) & International Organisation for Migration and author of seven books.
