I have been thinking about how deliberate we can be in filtering what we are exposed to. It is both very difficult and very powerful to our conscious. People who aren’t that interested in politics get sooooo freaking tired of the news and can turn it off, or even decide to never even view Fox or CNN. Parents can practically eliminate all tv from their children. As an adult woman, there is one thing I have been very conscientious of: ignoring the magazine stand at any grocery store!

There are 2 main reasons why i do not subscribe to or even read female magazines: Consumption and Disease. Here’s what i mean: Every advertisement is based on consumption: have to have, need to have, must want this to be like this…’your life will be better with this product or clothing item bullshit’. I also don’t need any products or items unless I run out and need to replace them. When i buy extra things, it is when I am out exposed to them and impulsively purchase or when i come across examples on the internet from various other mediums. Mainly, i didn’t NEED those things. I wanted them. I wouldn’t have wanted them if I didn’t know they existed. A child raised on fruit leathers and granola doesn’t think they want candy until they try it. There were many sad videos of children on youtube after Halloween throwing temper tantrums when candy was refused. Hmm…unfortunate.

And every.single.female. magazine has ads revolving around breast cancer, breast cancer awareness, any cancer for that matter!! AND then the entire month of October. I have relatives that have suffered from breast cancer and I don’t need the color pink or a damn walk to reflect on this fact. As a matter of fact, I don’t need any day of my life to think about illness or dis-ease in the body.  I am not saying people shouldn’t be taught healthy ways to live to prevent disease in the first place. But why keep these images and ‘other’ reality floating around in the psyche. Where we put our attention is where our reality goes. Out of site, out of mind…especially with illness. Comparatively, I have never understood why a recovering alcoholic wants to go to meetings every week and stand up to proclaim, ‘My name is … and I am an alcoholic.’ Well, no actually, you’ve stopped drinking, but for some reason beating the self over the head with it seems to ‘help’ people. Again, I’m not trying to be unsympathetic. Having a support group is not the same as constantly proclaiming you have a problem. If you want a different reality, the focus has to change. Instead of thinking about the discomfort or the illness, shift into seeing yourself well and energized. Breaking a habit means substituting with another activity.

Both dis-ease and consumption will always exist. These are the new death and taxes. Why make life more difficult by feeling like you need to have things that aren’t going to make you intrinsically happy AND why reflect on an illness that is inevitable but not necessarily suitable to how you want to live. Nobody needs it!

Travel is the ONLY thing that you can purchase that will make you richer. Taking a vacation will also help with stress, which is the main cause of dis-ease in the body anyway. Bon Voyage!