Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. ~ Guillaume Apollinaire
The confusion around spirituality is higher than ever which has led to an increasing number of people confiding in spiritual bypassing while indulging in spiritual consumerism.
With so many mixed messages floating around the internet combined with the glamour of the spiritual products, it is easier for one to get trapped in the more “accepted” form of consumerism: spiritual consumerism.
Here are 11 signs that the trends of spiritual consumerism have caught hold of you:
1) You Yoga Slay by the Bay for the Instant Gram
Yoga is the union of the mind, body, and soul. To derive the complete benefits of yoga, one has to move beyond the “Yoga Babe” and “Yoga Dude” phase.
It can’t be emphasized enough how Yoga has been reduced to an exercise form to get that beach body worldwide. Move beyond hashtags and try exploring the “Yoga Bliss” in the genuine sense.
2. You are trying to Spark the Kundalini the Consumdalini Way
The sacred energy sitting at the base of the spine won’t categorically break open by indulging in Kundalini Yoga or by applying that sacred Kundalini oil. This is because for every human being the course of awakening the kundalini can be an entirely different process and can occur in an entirely different moment.
Kundalini awakening is an amalgamation of the psyche, emotion, and the physical body. A painter may awaken his Kundalini by finally expressing his true emotion in a painting while a surgeon may awaken her Kundalini while trying to save a life of a human being.
3) You like the Sanskrit (fied) Version of Every Product
Knowing the Sanskrit word for every word is definitely not your gateway to being spiritual. Knowing a new language is of course, very special, and Sanskrit indeed is a very special language just like Hebrew, Arabic, Italian, Icelandic, etc.
The ultimate realization is that the spirit comprehends no language and all the language at the same time. The appropriation of one particular language for profit and spiritual business is inherently confusing.
4) Your life holds no meaning without a spiritual tattoo
Tattoos are beautiful and are a unique expression of art. But imagine every part of your body covered with a tattoo to remind you of your value and connection to the universe. And one day, you want to add more meaning but you run out of skin. It doesn’t have to be this way when you realize that your eternity isn’t confined to tattoos on your body.
5) You are Retreating yourself to escape the reality
Retreats and wellness hotels are a full-fledged profit-making industry now and they’re more about creating a space to escape than going deeper into your psyche to meet your true self.
Some retreat centers also advertise themselves as “Escape From Your Reality.” The automatic assumption is that a retreat is your direct ticket to the universe. (once you have ignored all your real issues) If you have anything like “Retreat Withdrawal Symptom” then you know, your retreat wasn’t really a retreat.
6) You are sacralising meaningless goods
The true magic ritual lies in the innate power of your focus. No magic sister candle is going to connect you to the source within yourself the way you and only, you can. The rampant production of products through sacralization of meaningless goods with holy texts is another version of branded spirituality.
7) You buy products corresponding to your zodiac sign
The trend of drinking power shots according to one’s zodiac sign isn’t something that makes sense to the cosmos.
Astrology is powerful but it isn’t a field that asks one to revel in one’s astrological sign in an obsessive manner. It is an aspect to understand ourselves from a planetary point of view, which is not the only point of view. Also, here is a fact: we have all the sun and moon signs within us.
8) You go to any event that promises “tantric sex”
The commercialization of Tantra or Mantra is harming the same way the commercialization of Yoga and Meditation is, the true wisdom is getting lost in the process of glamorization.
The “Tantra Massage” and “Mantra Magic” stalls at the so-called spiritual festivals devoid people of the real essence of spirituality.
9) You need Self-Help from all the Self-Help
The ultimate goal of self-help is to help you in developing a mindset where you know how to decode your thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
You learn to help yourself through your inner wisdom. Any sort of co-dependency to a book, speaker, or a teacher is rewiring your brain for an addiction in a way no different than addiction to drugs.
10) You feel crippled without crystals
Crystals are beautiful and their presence is certainly healing. They exist in nature to teach us how to tune in with all the healing vibration within ourselves.
The new age culture is using crystals as a clutch while reinforcing the belief that all things good exist outside of us and not within us. So, re-examine your relationship with crystals.
11. You cannot live without a self-help guru
All self-help, in totality, is self-help and any guru or spiritual teacher that doesn’t echo this in their teaching isn’t healthy for your holistic growth and development. Above all, your inner being waits for your true attention to its existence so that it can take you to the world of your personal inner wisdom.
Any teacher that says their teachings are extremely special and that their teaching is a special piece of cake you have been waiting for your entire life and no other teacher is serving that cake, then you know you’ve gotten yourself into another marketing gimmick.
“A free spirit is not bound by this, that, matter, materialism or opinion. They sing, dance and flow on the wind – for they are at one with it. They are nothing and everything – void and expanse. Even space and time does not confine or define them. For they are pure energy itself.”
~ Rasheed Ogunlaru
Image Sources:
- Yoga Apprentice
- Yoga Meme
- Kundalini Meme
- More Spiritual
- You Only Live Once
- Zodiac
- Zodiac Body
- Tantra Burning Man
- Bestselling Book
- Spiritual Discipline
- Self- Guru