bogus affirmations

a lot of bogus affirmations that you know

aren’t true.

Any philosophy that requires you

to deny reality is a false path. In fact, studies

have shown that insincerity is every bit as bad

for your heart as anger.6 Your body feels the

tension between the truth and the way you’re

acting, and finds it very destructive. It’s

important to look for the good in a situation,

but it’s even more important to be real.

These are all traps, but they’re very easy to fall

into, especially with media and advertisers

giving us a push every chance they get! In

case you don’t already know, the main purpose

of television, magazines, newspapers, and all

popular media is to sell advertisements. That’s

how they make money. They produce content

to get your attention so you’ll see as many of

their ads as possible.

Meanwhile, the advertisers’ goal is to get you

to buy products. This is obvious enough; the

insidious part is that if you’re generally content

with your life, you won’t feel compelled to buy

much. To get you to buy, advertisers

intentionally do everything they can to

convince you that something is missing in your

life, and if you were just prettier, had whiter

teeth, used a different laundry detergent, or

whatever, then people would like you better.

They try to convince you that something is

wrong in your life now, but if you buy their

product, it will fix it, and then you’ll be happy.

Meanwhile, the advertisers’ goal is to get you

to buy products. This is obvious enough; the

insidious part is that if you’re generally content

with your life, you won’t feel compelled to buy

much. To get you to buy, advertisers

intentionally do everything they can to

convince you that something is missing in your

life, and if you were just prettier, had whiter

teeth, used a different laundry detergent, or

whatever, then people would like you better.

They try to convince you that something is

wrong in your life now, but if you buy their

product, it will fix it, and then you’ll be happy.

They get you coming and going: they tell you

you’re inadequate and shouldn’t be happy, and

then they give you a solution that will never

make you happy. The more you watch or

listen, the harder it is to be happy. These

messages make a difference, so protect

yourself from them as much as you can. Use

an ad blocker on your web browser. If you

listen to commercial radio, switch stations

when the commercials come on. If you watch

tv, at least mute the commercials, or better,

watch a recording and skip past them. Better

still, stop watching tv. Most of the shows are

also designed to make you unhappy so you’ll

buy more of the advertisers’ products.

If this all sounds too hard, just try it for a week

and see if you feel more peaceful and content.

It’s much easier to be happy without all those

negative messages