10 Times Happier?

When I was walking around the streets of Byron Bay after relaxing near the beach on a lazy Thursday afternoon, I saw the unit pictured above at number 45 was for sale -
The Shamanic Artists of Byron Bay: The Medicine of Karuah and Sean O'Shea

I thought how cool it would to be living here going for beach walks most days, sitting on my balcony at night watching the light from the lighthouse spin around, plus being able to walk around the streets of Byron whenever I want.

The Byron Bay library is just across the road, too

The Byron Bay Masonic and yoga centre

I could even walk to the Masonic centre and do yoga, thereby becoming a Master Mason Yogi and rule the world while in a deep trance state;-)

I was thinking that if I won the lotto, I might just buy this unit and fantasied some more about living there.
But when I got home, I looked on the internet and found out that unit was over ten times the price I paid for the unit I owned outright in Queensland.

The price tag was $3,600,000 and the stamp duty alone was $192,000, which was two-thirds what I paid for my Queensland residence.

I would have to win the Monday/Wednesday lotto first prize four times over to be able to buy this unit.

And then as I was reading Matt Haig's book 'Notes on a Nervous Planet' in the chapter 'Diminishing Returns', Matt writes, "... somewhere along the way we have raised the threshold of what we need, or feel we need, to be happy.

We are encouraged to buy stuff to make ourselves happy because companies are encouraged to make more money to make themselves more successful.
It is also addictive.
It isn't addictive because it makes us happy.
It is addictive because it doesn't make us happy.
We buy something and we enjoy it - we enjoy the newness of it - for a little while, but then we get used to having it, we acclimatise, and so we need something else.
We need to feel that sense of change, of variety.
Something newer, something better, something upgraded.
And the same thing happens again.
And over time we get used to more and more stuff.
And this applies to everything."

There was even another unit in the same complex for sale with a price tag of $5,400,000.

 Then Matt writes, "And think about it.
If you could afford a holiday ten times more expensive than your last holiday, would you feel ten times more relaxed?"
Probably not.
But if I had that sort of money, I probably could have stayed on that same holiday for a good many years to come.

But I couldn't help thinking if I would be ten times happier living down here in Byron Bay in 7/45 than living in Queensland in my ten times less expensive unit.

I probably would though. 
But as Matt writes, "How much extra happiness am I acquiring?"
Good point.
Because what if the neighbours on the top floor, or next to me are party all-night assholes that keep me awake all night, or maybe even drug dealing gangsters?
Fantasies always sound ten times better than your current lifestyle until reality hits and real life kicks in to show you the pitfalls in your dream that you didn't imagine having to put up with. 

Then when I got home from my little holiday from Byron Bay I saw this penthouse for sale in the local paper for $3.75 million.
Oddly enough, it is located in the same building as the clock tower pictured below, in a still from Halfasheep's 'Occult Brisbane' video.

And would I be ten times happier living there?
I doubt it.

The question I have to ask is, that if you are happy, what does ten times that feel like anyway?

If I'm happy where I live, then I guess the price is right, right?-)

Sometimes happiness is just being content with what you have now ... and never mind about chasing the times ten.
Feeling in Contact with Nature on a Nervous Planet?
And if the climate scientists are right, maybe I would be better off investing in a submarine anyway;-)

A yellow submarine painted on
a Byron Bay substation

Synching in the Submarine?

Anxiety, Crossing Our Bridges When We Come to Them and a Plate of Shrimp?

Or dream about happening:-)