When Is Enough, Enough?

When Is Enough, Enough?

by Carl Studna

Enough is an interesting word. Parents and teachers often use it with children when they’re putting their foot down and have reached their tolerance level: ENOUGH ALREADY!! In a completely different context, we’ll often use the word when determining a measurement quota: THAT’S ENOUGH. Throughout our daily lives, we’re always determining (consciously or not) if we’ve slept enough, eaten, loved, been patient, worked enough, and the list goes on.

In our Western culture, largely driven by capitalistic incentive, we’re always striving to do enough and be enough. But, when do we ever feel that enough is enough?

In many Eastern cultures and traditions, you’re taught from an early age that your soul is always perfect, and each incarnation brings greater lessons to learn, while on your path to enlightenment. From this purview, your incentive is sparked due to your quest for greater knowledge and wisdom, and less from an outer need to feel accomplished and gratified.

Eastern culture is largely focused on the good of the whole, while Western traditions place attention first on the individual, then the whole. The upside to capitalism is the breeding of adventure into the unknown, blazing your own trail, and having the freedom to be creative and successful in your own, unique, and gifted way. A benefit of Eastern tradition fosters a greater awareness on how our individual actions affect the entire community. This insight is seriously needed in our current world condition, filled with many symptoms largely caused by our blindness to how our individual actions affect the whole. We’ve become somewhat anesthetized, or numb, to the myriad of devastating conditions in our world, such as climate change, hunger, war, poverty, and disease.

When is enough, enough? When do we speak out as world citizens that we are at the limit of the greed and single focused way of operating? How can we most effectively exercise our rights and be ambassadors for the generations to come? How do we pick ourselves up from feeling discouraged and overwhelmed? Where do we begin?