Smoke + Mirrors
Hiya DLW Community,
I hope you all are having a wonderful week and look forward to diving into this blog. It is an honor to share what I have learned and experienced, personally and professionally. It feels like the greatest gift to pay forward what has served me so abundantly.
Honesty, integrity and vulnerability are values DimensionL Wellbeing are founded upon. I want to support you in waking up, feeling good and sustaining this harmony for your lifetime.
Sometimes this honesty doesn't always come packaged with a pretty bow. Sometimes truth will hit you like a ton of bricks, right in the gut, as to ensure you felt the blow.
It is untrue and an illusion to think that a life of happiness is completely devoid of hardship. Rather, truly happy people have sustained this bliss by moving past the conditions of their experiences and into a state of emotional sovereignty; one that experiences the array of options without being stuck in a state of any one emotion.
You may be wondering why I am mentioning this at all. I share this with you because today I want to talk about something that is not so peaches n' cream, but I believe having an understanding of this topic to be a necessary facet of supporting your multi-dimensional wellbeing.
This topic is dear to my heart because I have a really hard time with dishonesty and people being taken advantage of. Today we will dive into the topic of the ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ we are subjected to as citizens and consumers.
As a consumer you have so much more power than you may be aware of, or currently exercising.
In fact, the average person's lack of awareness is what many companies bank on.
Uh, why? Because if you were to truly pay attention to what you were buying you may think twice about the brands you have supported. I will use the food industry as the example today because this is currently a huge area of concern in the U.S.
The US Food Industry is a major culprit of creating Smoke & Mirrors for their consumers.
What is this Smoke & Mirrors you ask?! According to Wikipedia, it is 'an idiom for a deceptive, fraudulent or insubstantial explanation or description.' The term is derived from the way in which magicians performed their illusory tricks.
Let's speak candidly about what is happening with our food supply.I will keep it high level and offer 3 main points of relevance, because this is a big topic and I could go on for days.
Because price is typically the bottom line, the majority of companies compromise quality to compensate, leaving our food supply much more like pseudo-food rather than wholesome and nutritious, like we need to thrive and be dis-ease free. This means even food that is considered 'healthy' can be filled with preservatives, additives, etc and still deem this title. The Food Industry has created an illusionary experience for consumers by placing words on the front of the box, like 'nutritious, healthy, well balanced, etc.' Meanwhile, the back of the box tells a completely different story!
Examples
Special K is a perfect example of a 'healthy' marketed brand that falls very short of this title when you actually read the ingredient list. This Nourish cereal contains several corn ingredients (typically genetically modified and a common allergen), natural flavors (which can be over 2000 different ingredients, including human fetal cells), corn syrup (which is deemed much worse for your health than sugar) and BHT (one of the first preservatives recommended to remove from your diet because of the connection to an increase in the risk of cancer, liver enlargement, and a reduction in the rate of healthy cell development.)
Using canola oil (which is created through genetic modification) in a healthy dressing to drive down the cost. This can be found in the popular 'healthy' dressing brand, Brianna's. It can also be found in almost every prepared food section, like Whole Food’s, Central Market, Trader Joe’s and so on.
Resources
2. The Food Industry stays up on the health & social trends, like gluten-free, and use these as a way to market their products, including flashy labels on the front of their products. Often, the front of the product hones in and highlights these health trends knowing that many are in a rush and will not take the time to read the label or even turn it around. Also, they use play on words and/or are vague or deceptive language in their delivery.
Examples
We have known for quite a while the potentially harmful effects of MSG, a common preservative in processed foods. Did you know when scientists want to create a study on obesity and are testing on mice, they feed them straight MSG to fatten them up? Because it is popular knowledge, food companies have created many names to try and fool the general population.
This popular chip brand claims, on the front of the product, to be cooked in 100% Avocado Oil. When we turn the package over we see the ingredient canola oil, meaning the potatoes were first coated in canola and then COOKED in avocado oil, or vice versa. Take a look at the other potentially detrimental ingredients, like natural flavors (over 2000 identifiable ingredients, often processed or genetically modified), citric acid (often derived from corn which can also be genetically modified) and maltodextrin (a potential MSG containing ingredient).
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3. They are coercing our children and poisoning them too.
Example
Marketing companies have paid advertising that is directed primarily to children and are placed in time slots, and on channels, children will be watching. There are especially more toy and sugary food commercials during Saturday morning cartoons. These companies are aware of children's persuasion over their parents and their buying decisions. The foods advertised during this time are typically high in sugar and bad fats and low in overall nutritional value. It is no coincidence that we have seen a surge in degenerative dis-eases in children with the rise of pseudo-foods. Children under the age of 6 are operating mostly in the brainwave space of learning through imprinting, they yet lack the cognitive ability to discern and make more conscious choices, making them particularly vulnerable to these marketing schemes.
Yes, I said poisoning our children. Between the additives, preservatives, artificial colors and extremely high amounts of genetically modified sugar, the nutritional value of many popular children's food brands are highly questionable. As mentioned above, children are experiencing alarmingly high rates of degenerative dis-ease once experienced only by adults. Since we depend on the nutritional value of the food we consume to nourish our bodies, it is no wonder our children are suffering on the Standard American Diet (SAD Diet). Because of this rising epidemic, the current generation of children are estimated to not outlive their parents. I hope this resonates with you and you can see why NOW is the time to act to create change for our current and future generations. I sure will be!
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So what do we do about it?
The point of this blog is not to leave you in fear, rather I want to empower you to exert your power to choose. The more we demand quality and integrity, the quicker these companies will adjust to the consumers' needs. What we value creates the environment of consumerism.
Make it a point to let your values lead your buying choices.
I also find it valuable to support businesses that provide their employees with a great working environment and evolving employment opportunities. The impact on our environment is another important factor in my buying decisions. Our earth is what allows us to be alive and well here, as our environment depletes so will we.
So let's all flex our buying muscles! We CAN make a difference and ONE person DOES matter!
Another way I become aware of these Smoke & Mirrors is through creating present moment awareness. This means not rushing to the next, and next and next thing. Instead, I get clear on how long a task actually takes and I provide myself time for each one and time to travel to and from. This means I can enjoy my grocery shopping and take that extra time to read labels and be a food detective. If we are always stressed out it is virtually impossible to be present! Below is one of my favorite breathing techniques to calm and balance the mind as well as activate the relaxation response.
Getting mad can be a wonderful start to cutting through illusions. Anger is an emotion that motivates us to DO SOMETHING. Sometimes we have been stagnant in our awareness and we need to shake things up. I sure hope you do! When you have the courage to do so it will be oh so rewarding!
Yours in courageous awareness,
Danae
Ps. These insights do not only apply to our food industry. The cosmetic and beauty industry have put up these smoke & mirrors, too! This is why I have created The Conscious Collection, to provide clean, life-supporting products that nourish the skin you are in and stand for a bigger cause. I believe we can live in a world where we can trust the companies we purchase from because we know they are operating in honesty and in integrity.
I live by Mahatmah Ghandi's words of 'Be the change you wish to see.’
