Do you read magazines (online or print)? Do you watch television? Do you look at billboards? Are you on one or more social media sites? My guess is that almost everyone does at least one of these. It's rather obvious. But how much are you discerning that this is in fact, manipulating you, and more importantly, how much of it are you actually looking at with a measure of critical reasoning in order to determine what it is doing to you? The answer to that question may well determine your state of inner well-being.
FOMO (fear of missing out) is a term that sprang to life some years ago with regard to people's feelings as they 'watched' their FB friends' lives unfold (in apparently beguiling fashion) in front of their eyes on their monitors. FOMO has even garnered support groups for those who have become depressed due to the apparently more 'fun' or glamorous or popular lifestyles of those online friends. We may laugh. How silly, we may think.
How about this: you watch that reality TV show and feel worse afterwards because you have not yet managed to buy such a mansion, or have such a body, or carve out such a lucrative, celebrity life-style for yourself. We may laugh. How silly, we may think.
What about those glossy magazines or tabloid newspapers (sometimes even disguised as serious press with their occasional articles about subjects not pertaining to gossip) you look at? Those amazing ads with those amazingly young people in them with their amazing looks and amazing clothes, all telling you that if only you buy that cream, or this perfume, or that article of clothing, or that suitcase, or handbag, or briefcase, you will also - just like those people laid out so seductively on the photo spread - live such a lifestyle. We may laugh. How silly, we may think.
And yet, I wager that most of us have been there and felt that. Our culture, our mass media, our very way of living wraps sticky tentacles of desire around us. We may have sprung back very quickly, realizing what it does to us, and decided not to go down that road, or it may have taken us longer to recognize the dangers and eventually remove the blinders, or we may have found ourselves deep in that hole of comparison, desire, envy, depression, feeling bad about ourselves, or desperate yearning for something that we don't know how to fulfill.
Understand that what speaks to your mundane or outer self will rarely give you the satisfaction and joy that something different, that speaks to your eternal or inner self is capable of doing. The place where you will find inner well-being, peace, happiness, harmony, and freedom, will almost never come from that which is out there, with empty promises of being or having more than others. Remove those blinders and start looking inside yourself for all that so far you have deluded yourself into believing you can find out there.
A marvelous quote by the Dalai Lama that refers to this says: Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace. He also said: True happiness comes from having a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved by cultivating altruism, love and compassion, and by eliminating anger, selfishness and greed.
FOMO (fear of missing out) is a term that sprang to life some years ago with regard to people's feelings as they 'watched' their FB friends' lives unfold (in apparently beguiling fashion) in front of their eyes on their monitors. FOMO has even garnered support groups for those who have become depressed due to the apparently more 'fun' or glamorous or popular lifestyles of those online friends. We may laugh. How silly, we may think.
How about this: you watch that reality TV show and feel worse afterwards because you have not yet managed to buy such a mansion, or have such a body, or carve out such a lucrative, celebrity life-style for yourself. We may laugh. How silly, we may think.
What about those glossy magazines or tabloid newspapers (sometimes even disguised as serious press with their occasional articles about subjects not pertaining to gossip) you look at? Those amazing ads with those amazingly young people in them with their amazing looks and amazing clothes, all telling you that if only you buy that cream, or this perfume, or that article of clothing, or that suitcase, or handbag, or briefcase, you will also - just like those people laid out so seductively on the photo spread - live such a lifestyle. We may laugh. How silly, we may think.
And yet, I wager that most of us have been there and felt that. Our culture, our mass media, our very way of living wraps sticky tentacles of desire around us. We may have sprung back very quickly, realizing what it does to us, and decided not to go down that road, or it may have taken us longer to recognize the dangers and eventually remove the blinders, or we may have found ourselves deep in that hole of comparison, desire, envy, depression, feeling bad about ourselves, or desperate yearning for something that we don't know how to fulfill.
Understand that what speaks to your mundane or outer self will rarely give you the satisfaction and joy that something different, that speaks to your eternal or inner self is capable of doing. The place where you will find inner well-being, peace, happiness, harmony, and freedom, will almost never come from that which is out there, with empty promises of being or having more than others. Remove those blinders and start looking inside yourself for all that so far you have deluded yourself into believing you can find out there.
A marvelous quote by the Dalai Lama that refers to this says: Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace. He also said: True happiness comes from having a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved by cultivating altruism, love and compassion, and by eliminating anger, selfishness and greed.
***************
See the preview (click the image) to my latest online on-demand video course:
Freedom From the Torture of Your Thoughts
Now Available
"Freedom From the Torture of Your Thoughts"
Click HERE for the introductory pricing of US 15
**************************************************
See the preview (click below) to my first online on-demand video course
NOW available
"Emotional Unavailability & Neediness: Two Sides of the Same Coin"
"Emotional Unavailability & Neediness: Two Sides of the Same Coin"
*****************************
Si hablas español:
*****************************
Si hablas español:
Hace poco di una charla en Marbella sobre el tema
Se filmó y se puede ver en YouTube aquí:
*****************************
Also visit my book website: www.gabriellakortsch.com where you may download excerpts or read quotations from any of my books (also in Spanish & German). My latest book Emotional Unavailability & Neediness: Two Sides of the Same Coin is available globally on Amazon in print & Kindle. You can also obtain it (or any of my other books) via Barnes & Noble.
Angefangen mit Rewiring the Soul - auf Deutsch: Deine Seele und Du, jetzt weltweit erhältlich als Taschenbuch oder Kindle E-Book (Blog hier), werden auch meine anderen Bücher in Zukunft auf Deutsch bei Amazon erhältlich sein.
My blog posts are also featured on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest & you can find me on Instagram
Bücher von Dr. Gabriella Kortsch (Deutsch) ... JETZT bei Amazon (Taschenbuch oder E-Book) erhältlich
DEINE SEELE UND DU
Libros por Gabriella Kortsch (español) ... ahora en todo el mundo en Amazon en versión bolsillo y Kindle
Note: Also see my other other blog The Tao of Spiritual Partnership, so named for another one of my books. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed.
My blog posts are also featured on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest & you can find me on Instagram