We live in a your-worth-is-what-and-how-much-u-consume world, a fact that I get reminded day by day, not only here in Brazil, but whereever I go. Although it comes to extremes here, with neighbour ladies remembering that I was wearing the same t-shirt on two Sundays of the monthy.
Wow, something I wouldn t really have taken notice myself. It made me aware that a lot of women (not only here) are trapped in the lie that you should only wear most things once - or at least should be seen with it only once. Luckily I was educated in a different way and quite enjoy wearing the same t-shirt - I even have favourites that I wore when I was 15 years old and (lucky that my body almost didn t change since then) still wear today. Same with TV, furniture, name it!
But why worrying about all that? It saves so much money and time to just keep the stuff to its basics, less maintenance work, less time working and more free time to do things instead of accummulating possessions in order to throw them away when the new bigger and better "trend" comes up. It is probably one of the main things that keep people in the debt and credit card trap spending money on clothes each month, being unable to save money and eating low quality food instead... to name just one of the side effects of over-consumerism. To then watch TV while you are eating the low quality food and hear how you are not worth anything if you don t buy (so and so) - which a lot of the TV ads will make very clear. So you then have a go at your maybe even two jobs to get stuff you don t want, again, spend your free time shopping what you don t need then to relax start watching TV, get told you are not good enough if you don t buy so and so - vicious circle....
But why worrying about all that? It saves so much money and time to just keep the stuff to its basics, less maintenance work, less time working and more free time to do things instead of accummulating possessions in order to throw them away when the new bigger and better "trend" comes up. It is probably one of the main things that keep people in the debt and credit card trap spending money on clothes each month, being unable to save money and eating low quality food instead... to name just one of the side effects of over-consumerism. To then watch TV while you are eating the low quality food and hear how you are not worth anything if you don t buy (so and so) - which a lot of the TV ads will make very clear. So you then have a go at your maybe even two jobs to get stuff you don t want, again, spend your free time shopping what you don t need then to relax start watching TV, get told you are not good enough if you don t buy so and so - vicious circle....
"Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like
trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body."
George Carlin
Why not just be happy with what you already have?
A small house, the (still fitting) and maybe even favourite clothes from when you were 15 or 20 years old, a 2009 TV (imagine :D haha) and laptop (if you are lucky, no automatic destroy function will be built in yours) and stay with the same 8 year old used sturdy quality wooden furniture you bought from your husband´s aunt because she got tired of it, stop the spending on shopping stuff you don t need and instead spend the time having fun DOING things with family and friends, travelling, not living to work for unnecessary stuff you don y want and need, but working to live through doing *"good stuff".
A small house, the (still fitting) and maybe even favourite clothes from when you were 15 or 20 years old, a 2009 TV (imagine :D haha) and laptop (if you are lucky, no automatic destroy function will be built in yours) and stay with the same 8 year old used sturdy quality wooden furniture you bought from your husband´s aunt because she got tired of it, stop the spending on shopping stuff you don t need and instead spend the time having fun DOING things with family and friends, travelling, not living to work for unnecessary stuff you don y want and need, but working to live through doing *"good stuff".
They tell you that you are what you own. It´s a lie: You are what you do. You are what you are. And last but not least: You are what you chose and WANT to be. So start re-inventing yourself you are enough as:
YOU are the only thing you need to be happy ;)
YOU are the only thing you need to be happy ;)
"To know you have enough is to be rich"
Lao-Tzu
*as a Canadian photographer friend always said when he talked about spending quality (non-shopping!) time with friends and family
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