Awakening Consciousness

I'm concerned that corrupt politicians,
dishonest mainstream news media,
& greedy corporations are manipulating me
in ways I'm not even aware of ?
Asking all my friends
to share
your humble opinions ...

"Do U also suspect they are ?

In what ways do U see them doing this ?

How can I avoid being manipulated by others ?

What steps can I take to stop this ?"

🙏 Thx .

O.K.
asking my friends to share
your humble opinions...
" What do U consider the greatest form of wealth ?"

U have the power to choose,
U have the power to question.
if U don't use your powers now
U will lose them, they will be taken away.
"Use it or lose it"

if U were given $1,000,000.00 (1 million) @ birth
& never had to work as a wage slave all your life ....
what would U do ????

“𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧.”

― 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐚

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word “happy” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. Of course it is understandable that we seek happiness and avoid unlucky and disagreeable chances, but the more you deliberately seek happiness the more sure you are not to find it. It is therefore far better to take things as they come along, with patience and equanimity. ~Carl Jung

(Book: C.G. Jung Speaking : Interviews and Encounters https://amzn.to/3o2euoc)

“Put a rat in a cage and give it 2 water bottles. One is just water and one is water laced with he**in or co***ne. The rat will almost always prefer the drugged water and almost always kill itself in a couple of weeks. That is our theory of addiction.

Bruce comes along in the ’70s and said, “Well, hang on. We’re putting the rat in an empty cage. It has nothing to do. Let’s try this a bit differently.” So he built Rat Park, and Rat Park is like heaven for rats. Everything a rat could want is in Rat Park. Lovely food. Lots of s*x. Other rats to befriend. Colored balls. Plus both water bottles, one with water and one with drugged water. But here’s what's fascinating: In Rat Park, they don’t like the drugged water. They hardly use it. None of them overdose. None of them use in a way that looks like compulsion or addiction. What Bruce did shows that both the right-wing and left-wing theories of addiction are wrong. The right-wing theory is that it’s a moral failing, you’re a hedonist, you party too hard. The left-wing theory is that it takes you over, your brain is hijacked. Bruce says it’s not your morality, it’s not your brain; it’s your cage. Addiction is largely an adaptation to your environment.

Now, we created a society where significant numbers of us can't bear to be present in our lives without being on something, drink, drugs, s*x, shopping... We’ve created a hyperconsumerist, hyperindividualist, isolated world that is, for many of us, more like the first cage than the bonded, connected cages we need.

The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection. And our whole society, the engine of it, is geared toward making us connect with things not people. You are not a good consumer citizen if you spend your time bonding with the people around you and not stuff. In fact, we are trained from a young age to focus our hopes, dreams, and ambitions on things to buy and consume. Drug addiction is a subset of that."
Credit: Johann Hari

Timeless advice. Ignore at your own peril.

The Stoics believed that possessions were fleeting; that our opinion about a thing, and not the thing itself, mattered. All available research on individual happiness says the same: It’s not the things you have that make you happy; it’s the experiences. After a certain income level, more money really does mean more problems. Studies show it certainly doesn’t lead to more happiness.​​​​​​​​
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Always remember, that you can positively recalculate your wealth right now by adjusting your wants, by questioning your needs. The less you want, the more you’ll have. The less dependent you are on external things, the more resilient and powerful you become.​​​​​​​​
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Starting when? Now.

Unknown Author

Love this! ✌️❤️

"Your light does not come
from your successes.

Your light is not ignited
by perfection,
or achievement or body shape.

Your light is not fuelled by
popularity or acceptance.

Neither is your light at any
risk of being put out,
when other lights around you,
are bright.

Your light is simply made of the
you-ness that makes you you,
the worries you have in the night,
the music which sparks your joy,
the books you had to read twice,
the memories stored safely
in your heart,
the people you love and the
people who love you.

Your light is never dependant
on how you look,
or how you perform.

It’s just there,
and it’s quite simply brilliant,
and it’s all yours.

And it lights up every room
you walk into,
whether you activate it or not.
What a wonderful thing.

Shine bright little fighter,
this dark world needs your glow."

🌞 Donna Ashworth, from I Wish I Knew

“You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.” ― Alan Watts

Whoever is not master of his own thought is not master of his actions. Victor Hugo

Image: T. A. Kopera - Pinterest

We’ve bought into the idea that education is about training and “success”, defined monetarily, rather than learning to think critically and to challenge. We should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers. A culture that does not grasp the vital interplay between morality and power, which mistakes management techniques for wisdom, which fails to understand that the measure of a civilization is its compassion, not its speed or ability to consume, condemns itself to death. ~Chris Hedges

(Book: Empire of Illusion https://amzn.to/3QNhQEA)

(Art: Photograph by J. R. Eyerman)

Any time you want to learn – or improve, or master – anything you’re working on, some amount of healthy self-examination and self-evaluation is required. That’s the only way you can improve – and deepen your experience.