Are you drinking it unknowingly?

Our minds can easily be controlled by outside forces if we aren’t its own masters.  It is our responsibility to observe our thoughts and be vigilant about choosing which ones to entertain and which ones to ditch.  Otherwise, we could fall into the trap of giving others permission to dictate what we think, do and say, often without fully realizing it.  One of the worst-case scenarios of this was the massacre that occurred in Jonestown, where a cult leader, Jim Jones, tragically deluded his followers into imbibing his notion of “revolutionary suicide”, with this Kool-Aid like drink that was laced with poison (1 & 2).  So you see, not being our mind’s own master can lead to fatality. Unfortunately, every day, external factors aim to make us think a certain way, such as advertisements (which seem to be everywhere), as well as societal standards.  However, constant evaluation and examination of our thought processes can help keep at bay, the manipulative factors that impede us from creating our own thoughts, based on our true values. 

Advertisements scheme to trigger emotions that would lead us to purchase things we don’t actually need or truly want.  Did you know that Edward Bernays, the father of public relations and Sigmund Freud’s nephew, was responsible for getting women to smoke cigarettes despite it being taboo in 1929?  Intrigued by his uncle’s notion that irrational forces drive human behavior, Bernays sought to harness those forces to sell products for his clients (3). His successful campaign convinced women to feel that they were practicing their rights by smoking in public. While cigarettes cannot really give anybody their freedom nor independence, Bernays found a way to trigger that feeling of power in women, every time they sparked up a fag. He created a false want or need of the cigarettes, by conditioning them to feel empowered when they smoked.

Decades later, Bernays method prevails, like Coca-Cola’s “Happiness in a bottle” campaign.  Do you really think that happiness exists in a bottle?   “Human beings are more swayed by emotion than they are by logic or simple statistics” (4), therefore, even though a drink with high sugar content should signal health warnings, Coca-Cola’s well-crafted campaign basically tells us that we should drink their product in order to be happy, and many seem to act on such an irrational suggestion!  Often times, we don’t seem to think twice about how we could follow such bogus recommendations. 

In a very similar sense, our society seems to suggest we follow a standardized path in order to feel successful. The majority of us tend follow it regardless of how much it doesn’t fit with our values. By society’s standards, success often means checking off things on a time-sensitive list that’s imposed upon us:  finish school, pick a career, find a partner, get married, buy a house, have children, save for retirement, you get the picture.  While there is nothing wrong with this checklist, it just isn’t for everyone.  So, when checking off items on this list, on time, is imposed as the standard measure of success, it leaves out millions of people who, for some reason or another, cannot or wouldn’t want to follow this list.  After all, we are all unique individuals with our own unique gifts to share with the world, and thus our paths will naturally differ.  We each have our life purpose and if our actions align with our values, then we are fulfilling that purpose.  That, to me, is true success.  “There are so many outside voices telling us what to do, how to eat, dress, or style our home offices… It’s time to cut out the external and focus in on ourselves.  Maybe success is being able to create the lifestyle you want.” (5). In other words, if we take the time to listen to what is going on in our minds, we can tame it by cutting out external pressures, get to the heart of our own values and honour them; so that we may attain peace of mind which will then set the tone for us to experience what success really means to us.

Otherwise, “much of our view of reality is based on media messages that have been pre-constructed and have attitudes, interpretations, and conclusions already built in” (6).  If media literacy can help us see through the emotional triggers (that are placed everywhere by large influential campaigns), so that we may avoid its intended effects; then meditation is a tool that can help us clarify what our true values are.  It helps us discern the choices that are aligned with our values from the choices we are pressured to make.

I find it important now, more than ever, to protect our minds from all external forces that are trying to mould it to our disadvantage. There are many tools to help us become masters of our own minds. While mainstream media likes to tell us how we should feel and what we should believe in, media literacy is our shield that can help us question the messages behind the media; to initiate the self-reflection needed in order to guard us from its ill intents. And even though societal standards can be heavy if we allow the pressures to weigh us down, meditation can help us get in touch with our unique life purpose which can uplift us if we honour it. Constant observation and investigation are ways we can use our mind to our advantage, as opposed to leaving it at the mercy of those who would jump at the opportunity to abuse it for their own benefit.  Don’t drink the “Kool-Aid”, you’re better off without it!  

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References:

1. https://www.britannica.com/event/Jonestown-massacre
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown
3. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/12/consumer
4. http://straightupvc.org/coca-cola-happiness-in-a-bottle/
5. https://thriveglobal.com/stories/make-your-own-rules-how-to-ditch-societys-standards-and-create-your-own-definition-of-success/
6. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-media-five-key-concepts-stacey-goodman