So often people misunderstand my take on money and consumerism. They believe that I reject having “The good Life” Which couldn’t be more false! To simplify my view on money and consumerism I just don’t believe it should never be allowed to drive your choices and decisions. It should never be the reason that you “Have to ” do something. It should not come at the cost of happiness, health and joy…

     What Do You Want?

     When asked what you want, do you respond with “more money?”

     Have you ever thought about what would you do with the money if you had it, and why you don’t wish for that? Money is just a means to an end. Why dream about the vehicle instead of the destination?

     Daydreaming about how to spend money that isn’t there, probably seems like a waste of time. Most people stop daydreaming all together when society gives the coming of age talk about hard work and money. The talk that leaves you spellbound. It begins by informing you that life consists of struggle and the only way to get ahead is get money. Money will give you security, safety, and freedom. If you want to get ahead in this world put money first, you are told.

     This, is the “Real World.” This suggests that up until that point you had been living in an entirely different world and if you wish to become like mom and dad one day you must pay close attention. You must earn your dreams. Focus first on getting money, there will be plenty of time to enjoy it later. You got a job, put on a name badge, and became a number. Following in the footsteps of many generations before you voluntarily placed yourself in the first of many cages and began accumulating stuff like awards to showcase your success.

     Money became priority, and your worth and how much money you had, became synonymous. Before you know it, money has taken precedence over your happiness and health. This system built on enslavement to money leaves you feeling powerless and craving freedom. You have forgotten that you have willingly chosen to participate in the system, and you can always choose otherwise.

     Most people work their whole life hoping one day to make enough so they can feel free, completely unaware that the more they accumulate the deeper the enslavement becomes. Those who seem successful by the “Real World” standards, are just bound deeper and often experience an unsettling sadness because they have guilt in having so much and yet, feeling so dissatisfied and unfulfilled.

     Why have we created the system we have accepted as the “Real World.” We didn’t create it. We have just accepted it. It is the American way. Make more and consume more, that is the path to happiness. Yet, in America 1 in 6 people is medicated for depression and the suicide rate is astronomical. Is it possible that being told you are not enough over and over again leads to depression, angst, fear and loneliness?

     This desire, and longing to be enough is a bottomless pit created by consumerism. Consumerism is the fuel the machine of society runs on and it will continue to tell you that you need more. Bombarded daily with the message that happiness is something you purchase. The subconscious mind chooses which thoughts and emotions the body will experience as it plays in the background like white noise. The recording is coming from the file folder full to the top, labeled, “I will be happy when.” Every item on the list born from an underlying fear that love and happiness is earned.

     Working at a job you dislike succumbing to the status quo will only make you resentful of others who have remembered and taken back their power. You may even find yourself upset if someone else is happy for seemingly no reason. They don’t look like the magazine cover or have money. How dare they be happy. Don’t they know that happiness has a price? You can choose your freedom from these shackles just like them. Don’t condemn those who are happy, celebrate them. Stop celebrating those who talk about hard work and suffering being the way. Nothing you do feels like work when you are impassioned on purpose and filled with Joy.

     Just by being born into this world it has been forever altered. The biggest impact that you can ever make has no action, effort or purchase price. Remember who you are. Return to that space of unconditional love that you came from. Love yourself and everyone else. Notice where you tend to make people behave a certain way before they are worthy of your love and see is you can remove the qualifications. Begin loving everyone and everything without condition and watch your whole world change.