Our minds and hearts have been colonized. For many of us, happiness isn’t something coming from within, or built upon engaging our interests or passions. Instead, it’s either directly or indirectly tied to being successful or not at accumulating material possessions, social connections, and perceived social standing. Simple pleasures like taking a walk don’t bring peace. Even the smiles of children are often missed in the rush to either make ends meet, or gain enough to feel like it’s okay to enjoy what’s right in front of our faces.
In the U.S., the narratives of consumerism, global capitalism, and the “American Dream” own us to the core. The hundreds and even thousands of hours of absorbing advertisements, corporate-driven media news, and corroborating messages from family, friends, and co-workers have left many of our brains swamped in poisons, to the point where some folks can’t distinguish themselves anymore.
You may have noticed a rise in popularity over the past decade or so of “zombie” narratives. Movies, novels, faux documentaries, songs – all with zombies at the center. There are many ways to read this phenomenon, but I believe one possibility is to see how the zombies are, in many ways, forms of “us.” An end point, if you will, of the colonization process mentioned earlier.
Things are starting to crack. Social upheaval is becoming commonplace in nations across the globe. Which in my view is an opportunity to reclaim our hearts and minds. To remember that happiness and joy are not products, are not dependent upon getting more and more stuff or social accolades.
Whenever you do something purely because it brings you (and others) joy, you are committing an act of rebellion. Whenever you set aside the story that you can only be happy if you make “X” amount of money, or gain promotion “Y”, or award “Z”, you’re poking a tiny, but important hole in the bubble of colonization.
Beyond our jobs, possessions, credit scores and the rest, we are humans. That’s what more of us need to remember. That our hearts thrive in doing what we love, and in being love itself.
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