Extreme Shopper Highs Like Heroin Say Some, Others say Like Orgasm

The addiction to stuff is ruining our lives and our society.  It really is a culture of greed not to mention false gods such as expensive toys for adults, status symbols, and the rest of the junk.  The shopping addiction is a result of things like anxiety, loneliness, and low self-esteem.  

Some addictive adult shoppers keep buying more things than they know what to do with to spite their parents.  Shopping, say shopaholics, relieves the emotional discomfort of everyday life.  It also relieves the tensions of craving.  "I want..." is an all-consuming (pun intended) battle cry.  Shopaholics compare the high they get from buying things to shooting up heroin or freebasing coke.  Others say it's more like the high of an intense orgasm.

Children and teens become craving consumersas well because unscrupulous companies market to them. Check out the brain washing your kids are getting during Saturday morning cartoons.   Sometimes they are coaxed by media to suggest to their parents that they not just buy the kid a toy but a certain expensive car or other adult toy the kid can brag about.  And some parents actually are persuaded by these begging. whining little snobs.

If you watch Oprah, you've seen the unbelievable amount of crap that addicted consumers bring home.  Some are called hoarders.  They can't live comfortably in their homes which serve as warehouses for their wall-to-wall crap. They have so many possessions they don't remember what they have, and so when they want an item they don't remember buying, they just go out and buy another one, which results in multiple purchases of the same item.  Then Peter Walsh, the hotshot professional organizer comes over with a teamof workers to get everything out of the house and out on the front lawn so they can see what can be sold, donated, or tossed.  And after that they show the residents of the home crying and thanking Walsh and crew because they have a chance now to live like a normal person.

But everything you've heard about money and possessions not bringing happiness is true.  Addicted shoppers are always chasing the dragon.  Buying stuff brings diminishing returns when it becomes a way of life, and is no longer a thrill like it was initially.  So they keep buying more trying to satisfy that craving with a shopping fix, but it doesn't happen and they just get unhappy but stuck in a buying mode because they don't know how to stop.  Stress builds, anxieties grow, and the bank stops the credit lines.  Now the addicted materialist is really in a bind because their coping mechanism for stress is to go out and buy more.

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Anticonsumerism Information:

verdant Web site

list of anti-consumerists

Simple Living

How advertising turned advertising into a secret weapon

Adbusters (org)

anticonsumer-organizations.htm

Donate/Receive Goods

The Story of Stuff

Books:

What Would Jesus Buy? 

Cultural-Studies-Anti-Consumerism-

No_Logo

And Many More

Google "Simple Living" for ideas on how to live well without dependence on materialism.

When Will Your Dreams Come True?

Here is one of my favorite quotes on this topic:

Whatever you can do or dream you can begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

              --Goethe

Don't let anything stop you from beginning.  Don't let fear stop you, or low self-esteem, or procrastination or what others will think of you.   Studies have been done on the old and dying and their biggest regret is not taking advantage of an opportunity or failing without even beginning. 

Do you know what your soul's mission and life purpose is?  Follow your passions and you'll find it.  You will be guided to them by love.  What do you love?  Usually people find that their passion is doing something they are good at.  What are your talents, skills, interests...?

If you think you need more education to do what you want, now is definitely the time to go.   There are so many free and low cost courses to take and you can take them online.  Google your passion and see what educational resources are available.

Get a mentor.  If you know someone who is doing what you dream of doing, ask them questions.  If you've only heard of such people, write, phone or send an email.  Amazing things open up when we finally take action on making our dreams come true.

Pray if you believe in a higher power who loves you and wants to co-create with you. 

Listen to the voice within--your intuition. It might speak to you in your heart or a book or someone's words of wisdom or almost anything.  Pay attention and listen.

 Write down your dream in detail.  What is the overall vision you have for your life next year, in five years, in ten years...What service do you wish to do for others, because that is the way to true happiness.

Begin today. 

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Pope Doing More For Poor Than Selling His Harley

 I like this new pope.  I'm not saying I'm ready to become an unlapsed Catholic, but you got to give him credit.  He says some great things, and he has lots of good intentions that just might get fulfilled.  Today he is attacking the "Idolatry of Money."    Money and greed and the increasing gap between rich and poor is going to kill us all.

Pope Francis uses the commandment "Thy Shall Not Kill" as meaning  killing the poor through money and greed.  Money and greed and the increasing gap between rich and poor is going to kill us all he states.   
















November 26, 2013 | Pope Francis launched a long overdue campaign against inequality and out-of-control capitalism in a 84-page document released Tuesday. "In what is known as an “apostolic exhortation,” which means communication from the Pope of the Catholic Church, Francis called on politicians to guarantee “dignified work, education and healthcare” to their citizens and also criticized the “idolatry of money,” according to Reuters. Francis “beg[ged] the Lord” to deliver politicians who were more concerned with the poor and inequality. Francis blasted the current economic system as one that is profoundly unequality," according to this recent article. h

http://www.alternet.org/pope-francis-inequality-and-capitalism?akid=11189.316678.i1uD3g&rd=1&src=newsletter929418&t=3

This new pope has stated his intention for the Roman Catholic Church to strip itself of all “vanity” and humbly become “a poor church for the poor.” Meanwhile one German Catholic bishop, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the so-called “Bishop of Bling,” ’s a message that stands in stark contrast to the Bishop of Limburg, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, whose personal requests for lavish fixtures such as a $20,000 bathtub for his private residence drove the cost of the bishopric estate’s renovation up to $43 million – more than five times the original estimate.

http://www.alternet.org/pope-francis-inequality-and-capitalism?akid=11189.316678.i1uD3g&rd=1&src=newsletter929418&t=3 http://www.alternet.org/pope-francis-inequality-and-capitalism?akid=11189.316678.i1uD3g&rd=1&src=newsletter929418&t=3 http://www.cai.org/bible-studies/vatican-billions http://www.economist.com/node/21560536 he molestation and rape of children by priests in America has resulted in more than $3.3 billion of settlements over the past 15 years, $1.3 billion of that in California. The total is likely to increase as more states follow California and Delaware in relaxing the statute of limitations on these crimes, most of which were reported long after they happened. For an organisation with revenues of $170 billion that might seem manageable. But settlements are made by individual dioceses and religious orders, whose pockets are less deep than those of the church as a whole.



http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/1103/Ouster-of-Bishop-of-Bling-puts-heat-on-wealthy-German-Catholic-Church



 http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/08/wealth-of-roman-catholic-church-impossible-to-calculate/

 http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/03/catholic_church_and_pope_francis_religious_institutions_are_exempted_from.html

 http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/03/catholic_church_and_pope_francis_religious_institutions_are_exempted_from.html

 the best one--go to first:


 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/pope-francis-evangelii-gaudium_n_4342964.html?ir=Religion&utm_campaign=112613&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-religion&utm_content=Title


auctions off harley forhttp://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/
 pope-francis-auctions-off-his-harley/526020b478c90a6d92000277

Pope Francis has donated his Harley Davidson motorcycle to be sold to raise money for a hostel and soup kitchen that serves Rome’s homeless.

Watch Full Segment (10/17/2013)

http://www.newsweek.com/pope-francis-auction-his-harley-charity-202