Shields Up - Think and Decide

Do you ever feel like you are being told what to think, what to desire, what to buy, how to eat?  Do you realize, “The average American is exposed to about 3000 advertising messages a day, and globally corporations spend over $620 billion each year to make their products seem desirable and to get us to buy them.” http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/guide.ch1.html  

One statistic stated that drug companies spend twice as much money on advertising as they do on research. Huge amounts of money are spent trying to convince us that we are "loving it" when the product being promoted is known to be unhealthy.   Companies spend millions of dollars researching the right color packaging, the psychological impact of a certain image, and even the ingredients being utilized despite the fact that some of these ingredients are addictive, harmful or even dangerous. Is the dollar really that important?  

As Dave Ramsey says, "Advertisers try to get us to buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we don't care about."  Many times we are sleep walking through our choices, not realizing we are being led to places we may not really want to go.

Maybe it's time to wake up and take charge of the direction our ship is sailing, deciding where it is we really want to be.  We live in a free country where we are blessed to be able to decide how we will spend our money, what we will do with our time and who we will listen to and trust.

How do we take charge of our thoughts, decisions and educate ourselves? How do we decide what is really best for ourselves and our families?  Personally, I have found that turning off my TV (or at least muting and ignoring the commercials), avoiding some magazines, and reading to educate myself have all helped me to limit the number of messages screaming for my attention, which then allows me to make decisions based on facts not emotions.  Many manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies do not have my best interest at heart, so I need to learn how to decide for myself what I will allow and what I will avoid.

My hope is that this blog will offer you resources, challenge you to explore healthier paths, and encourage you to take the next good step on your journey to vibrant living.