Mind over Materialism: Joy to the World

The  Holiday Season is upon us, and it appears that ever year the pressure builds to create a "perfect" Christmas: a media campaign designed to mind control and brainwash as many people as possible to spend as much money as possible.  Crazy making that results in highly unrealistic expectations that can not possibly met, increased emotional and physical stress, crowded malls, increased traffic and pollution, lack of natural light, cold, wet, damp weather, overindulgence on high calorie meals loaded with cholesterol, fat, and sugar, increased alcohol consumption: it does not take a lot of mindpower to figure out that this can not possibly be healthy or desireable for anyone, and is more likely to create a hellish experience than joy to the world, peace on earth, peace of mind, happiness, joy, enlightement. Christmas, as prescribed by the media contributes joy and  merriment and beneifts only  merchants, bankers, loan sharks and credit counsellors.

In the virtual world of the media, there are large, affluent, perfectly functional, happy and joyful extended families that live in huge mansions, or chic condos furnished and decorated to a perfection that would challenge and shame professional decorators. Healthy, fit parents, grandparents, friends, in-laws, children and teenagers in designer clothes sit around a perfectly set table to enjoy a picture perfect, succulent and lavish holiday meal, exchange extravagant and expensive gifts. Cute kids scream with delight, romantic couples share a moment of bliss, friendly neighbors and perfect strangers share gifts, hugs and warm handshakes. Pit bulls are becoming cute puppy dogs with Santa hats, school yard bullies become Big Brothers and Girl Guides, abusive partners become loving husbands or wives, war lords stop warring, drug dealers stop dealing, the earth stops quaking....all sit in a big circle around a Christmas Tree, hold hands and sing Silent Night....
Everything is to be perfect at Christmas, and perfection is sold near you at a department store, or conveniently online. Christmas Spirit is available for sale, for twelve easy payments of $99.99, plus applicable taxes, shipping and handling, no refunds, no exchange.

Become the master of your mind, body and Christmas Spirit this year: resist the temptation to spend, buy, outdo the Joneses, or the Kardashians. Remind yourself, that everything that truly means anything in this life (love, joy, happiness, friendship, companionship, passion, compassion, peace, fun just to mention a few from my own wish list) IS free. Christmas Spirit might not be ordered on line, picked up at the drive through window, can not be bought on credit, and is not likely to impress your neighbors, or facebook friends.

Getting Christmas right might take a bit of effort: you might have to accept that resentment, anger, disagreements, family feuds, dysfunction, war, conflict and other "plagues" will not magically be resolved and go away for Christmas; if you are poor, you will probably just as be poor, if not more after the holidays, if you are rich, you will likely be just as rich, your sister in law just as awful, your brother just as annoying, and your life not much different than it was the night before Christmas.

But, if you can resist the temptation, pressure, brainwashing and mind altering influences of those (let they be the media, merchants, airline personnel, or your annoying sister in law) who are attempting to make you feel inferior, inadequate, imbalanced for their own personal benefit, if you can accept that people, earth and the world is how it is, if you can make a decision to be happy, joyful and loving  right now, right here, if you can put down your cell phone, texting device, game and TV controller, if you can stop and reflect instead of  rushing, if you can sit still, if you can find the Christmas Spirit in your own heart, if you can find joy, happiness, peace and love in your own life, then, just like magic,  your  Christmas will be magical.
Now, hold that feeling....and have a wonderful, abundant, passionate, loving, joyful, harmonious New Year in 2011, and forever more.

Merry Christmas, Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All.

The Insanity of an Insatiable Society

Maslow's Hiearchy of Needs

Humans need surprisingly little in the physical and material sense to survive: according to Maslow, our basic survival needs include air, water, food, shelter from the elements, and sex. (the last one, as a basic survival need has been subject to much debate).


Even though in North America and Europe, the "Western Culture", or "Developed World", as we call it, at least for the majority of people there is an overabundance, and we are self proclaimed to live the healthiest and fittest lives (no where else in the world are so many fitness clubs, programs, nutritionists, counsellors, psychologist, self help gurus, self improvement groups,etc...) we are, at large, overweight, unhealthy, unfit, a Prozac and Viagra Nation.

This is not an accident: the truth is, that we have everything that we need, and more in this society, in fact, we have an overabundance of material and physical resources: the only way to keep the demand for goods, services and material things up, and therefore our consumer and consumption based economy going, is to deliberately drive us unhappy, dissatisfied.

So, instead of being "happy with what we got", we want more. We want this:

and this:
 

and this:

and this:

and this:

and of course, this:

and we are led to believe, that unless we have all of this, we can't possibly be happy, satisfied, fulfilled,  if what we have is not good enough, we are not good enough.

 

 

The perfect rebuttal of this myth,  is that those (celebrities, the rich, the famous, the powerful) who got all of THAT, appear to be the unhappiest, unhealthiest of all of us, and those who climbed to the proverbial top, seem to be the loneliest of us all.

 

Instead of happy, satisfied, healthy, fit and beautiful, they might end up like this:

 

 

They, the celebrities, the successful and the famous people we are to follow, aspire our bodies, our things, our very lives to be modeled after, become obese, anorexic, addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, plastic surgeries, and more, they change partners more often than some of us changes underwear, they get married, divorced and married again faster than most of us can post a profile on a dating site, they are literally dying for attention, dying for  our love, dying to be happy, and instead, they become poster children of failure, unhappiness, chaos and dysfunction. 

People who are unhappy, or down right depressed are led to believe, that their depression and unhappiness is a fault, a sign of weakness, and could be cured if only they would buy this product, follow that program, get richer, sexier, skinnier, smarter, had a bigger breast, penis or bank account, a smaller waist,  if only they would look, think and live like the rich and the famous (the "successful") they would not be depressed.

Right? Wrong. There are long  lists, too expansive to include here, and sadly, not all inclusive of celebrities and famous people who suffer from depression, the list of celebrities who died of drug overdose or under suspicious circumstances and the list of rich and famous people who ended their own life.

.

So, how do you avoid or  cure depression, mental illness, addiction, unhappiness, misfortune,mishaps and tragedies of life? I do not know, and I can't tell you. But what I do know, is that the first step to feel that our needs are met, is to realize, that what we want is not always (almost never) what we need, and what we need, we already have.

Right now, in this moment, you are alive, breathing,  safe from the elements, you are not freezing to death or burning up under the sun in the desert, you are not dying of hunger or thirst, you are not dying from lack of sex, and even if you are lovesick, chances are, you are not dying of a broken heart in this very moment. Even if you do have a terminal illness, physical, (i.e. cancer) or emotional (i.e. depression),  even if you are dying, like everyone else who was born to this planet, you are not dead yet. You are alive, your basic needs are met, and everything else is a bonus from here.

Do yourself a favor: for the next year, next month, next week, next day, next hour, next minute (however long you are willing and able to go), try not to be anybody, try not to be like anybody else, try not to imitate, in fact, don't even pay attention to the lifestyle of the rich and famous, do NOT watch a reality TV show, do NO compare yourself or your life to the images of commercials and ads, don't try to be anybody or anything. Just BE.