The Never Enough Syndrome
It’s cloudy today as I sit in my one-bedroom apartment in Eastern Europe looking at the cars drive by below. I am away from the collective energy in the States, away from the controlled media and away from the controlled masses. This morning, as I drank my coffee, I wondered, why does America always react differently than other countries from political to pandemics?
At the core of America are the Americans whose intergenerational traumas run deep. Detachment is the best word I can come up with when I look at America as a whole. But not in the detachment of self and things to ascend higher into the realms of God. No, I mean detachment of the basic human values of consideration, awareness, kindness, and compassion.
The want and need for more, more, more is best served hot. More likes, more money, more home, more cars, more Amazon purchases, more, more, more. Two-day delivery not enough? One day. One day delivery not enough? Same day. Not enough, never enough, it’s never, ever enough.
This is the feeling I get every time I visit back home. Creations of food disasters shared with the world as art. Over sauced, over layered food creations of junk food with bright colors. If you look underneath the surface of the pretty picture, you will see that it was never art or good for you in the first place.
The consumerism that exists in America, and around our world is a sad sight to see. Magical burgers where the buns are filled with toxic dye chemicals to put in your body? Coming right up! Why is it that America allows banned foods and products into our stores while the rest of the world prohibits them?
There is an enormous difference in the quality of foods in the States and the rest of the world. I first noticed the difference with our packaged loaves of bread. It was my first time coming back home from moving abroad to Italy. I stood in my neighborhood Sprouts to buy a loaf of bread. As I turned the plastic packaged loaf over, my heart stopped. There were about twenty-ish different ingredients listed on a very popular name brand.
I began reaching for other loaves to read the labels. Same amount, fewer ingredients, higher!? I settled on one that had ten ingredients which were better than the others. Food tasted different, almost synthetic. You would have to make six figures to buy organic foods and Jamon from Spain.
I grew up on burgers and fries and colored cereals that glowed in the dark when you walked past them in the kitchen. They always had colorful and inviting animals, a captain, and even a tiger to signal that they’re great!
Since the ’80s, things have changed. The ingredients have doubled and tripled in size. Why is this okay? How? How is this okay for these companies to feed us lies and toxicity?
The bottom line is always the same.
Money. More profits, higher margins, and larger bonuses. More, more, more. As these companies and departments within our nation have broken down the structure of our lives into numbers, our spirits as humans have been broken into pieces.
And crushed under the weight of the never enough syndrome.
A thousand likes and followers will never be enough. This home is not enough. This one car or two cars is not enough. My husband or wife is not enough. For a country that was a superpower, I am saddened to see what it has become. I love my country, I do. I love the fact that I was born in the United States of America and am privileged to be called an American. I know I am privileged every single time I travel outside our country.
I have consciously chosen to live in a country where the average monthly salary is less than a car payment in the States. I have chosen to live in a country where the vegetables still have dirt on them in the supermarkets and is a third world country.
I have chosen to live here because while they are not rich in monetary terms, they are wealthy in spirit. I am still the only American here that I know of who has chosen to live here without a contract with a government body entity or embassy. It was on my own free will.
As I watch what is happening in the States right now, I grieve. I grieve for not only the loss of George Floyd’s life but for the many others whose lives have been taken too soon. I grieve because the inhabitants in this first world country act more primitive than some third world countries do.
The country has moved forward in technological advances while regressing in basic human decency. When will it be ever enough?
The moment each person can stand up and say, “I am enough. I do not need all this excess in my life to prove to myself or anyone that I am enough.”
In Blessed Oneness.
Shaman Dao is the creator of The Quantum Why Meditation, an effective blueprint for discovering another level of self-greatness and awareness. Subscribe to her email list to access valuable insights and to read more of her private thoughts.
