EduKating for Consciousness

I found myself staring at bottle brand, Philosophy.

It is just a product for skin I use every so often. What drew me to write was the message that they put on it. I stared at it and immediately thought, we are living in the era of mass consumption: let it be goods, information, social media and institutional expression. This is no means an offense to those devout to their faith and the practice but nowadays, we’ve seen the extremist side of faith and the practice of.

The brands we buy are always advertised with their labels: they have a unique way of calling attention to our innermost desires and we give into them. It is of no surprise that in NYC, labels are everywhere. We live in the era of mass advertisement and marketing. They are also used for the places we go to, i.e. the cultural and religious institutions we deem essential to our beings. For Example, this vintage style messaging of Maybelline..

Maybelline Advertising Back in the Vintage Days

As a child, I never felt satiated for my need for knowledge. This is a true trait of an Aquarian: I am curious in how everything works around me and why people do the things they do. It never ceases to surprise me, as a New York Native, how incredibly attuned, sensible, and connected we are. (millennials, self included, hi), we are always looking for ways to adapt. Now why is that?

As you may know from my first article, What Aunt Becky Taught Me, I was a B+average student. I loved science, history and English, but more science. To be exact, biology. In fact, I took an after-school honors science program dedicated to biology. I loved that shit. However, when it came to the discussion of evolution, I panicked. I panicked because my belief system taught me to disagree with the idea that we, mankind, descended from Apes. This is where things become interesting…

I converted to Christianity in my high school years. HOW is not important here. So, everything I learned about the “outside world” was perceived as: worldly, ungodly, the devil, possession of spirits..” I felt not only insecure in my projection of faith and uncomfortable in my skin, but led me to think of others as: “ they are tempting me, they’re not from God, they must think I’m weird.” Sigh. Exhausting. There were many instilled views that did not give me, or better yet, did not teach me how can I be inclusive when I felt like an outsider to myself, really. I felt that my beliefs, self included, was too extreme. I simply did not know how to evolve without somehow breaking up from “the rules” or “mindset” of my Christian upbringing. I felt like I would be punished by God if I challenged my preconceptions (i.e. imaginary punishment below)..

Condemnation

A reminder: We all bring our own set of preconceived beliefs, values and experiences into the world we unconsciously project. As mentioned before, much like the make up brands we use, we all have our own message. Whether it intimidates or invites others, we only hope that we, ourselves, can take the idea of evolution and let our images of self, beliefs, and our consciousness be transformed. To allow ourselves the process of evolving , we must embrace the old and challenge it or risk staying frozen in our views and close ourselves to what we perceive as a threat to our consciousness..