At this point I feel like I may just end up ranting and complaining about what’s wrong with society / modern life and dissecting topics lol. Anyhow I hope we as a society can remove or at least reduce the value sentiment away from materialism-centered values, and more towards soul / human-centered values in Earth.

For example, we tend to acknowledge and congratulate everyone for things like marriage / engagement, getting a job, mortgage, educational achievements / accolades, travelling, or in the younger generations case their social media followers and views etc. I do get that for some individuals these values could mean a lot to them on a deep deep personal level, but sometimes we humans tend to make these sets of values, ‘the default human values‘ aka the life milestones.

These values influence everyone else and then people start to have sheep mentality / hive-mind ‘tick box exercise’ approach in life where individuals may start worrying about their ego-identity and lose sight of what they actually want in life, and some people feel left out for not achieving these milestones – like these are ‘the‘ life accomplishments.

These milestones tend to become expressions of materialism.

For example…

Milestones	Materialistic values
Engagement / marriage	– Can become materialistic when the ring becomes the focus and the status of symbol. – The actual bond of the relationship is secondary. – The wedding becomes a performance.
Mortgage / home ownership	– Having a house becomes a badge of success. – Debt becomes a symbol of ‘making it’.
Education	– Degrees are treated like ‘prestige tokens’. – The paper matters more than the understanding.
Career / job / income	– Burnout is rewarded as ‘ambitious’ or hard-working = successful – Job title becomes whole identity
Travelling	– Takes photos for mainly Instagram. – Eats at places because they’re ‘trendy’. – Overall proving that the trip happened compared to deeply experiencing it.
Social media	– Post to show wealth, popularity or lifestyle – Counts likes / followers as measures of self-worth – Overall focus is validation, image and external approval

(I mean, whatever makes people happy I guess… But materialism values have to decrease if this world is to ever change, otherwise we might as well be living in a dystopian world)

That’s not to say that we can’t be inspired by others, or copy people and do similar things, and I can’t speak on behalf of everyone, as we can only speak for ourselves on what we truly want out of our lives on a personal level, and admit to ourselves if we’re acting out of our true non-ego based intentions or just following the crowd.

(this is another one of those introspective things only individuals can admit and answer for themselves only, but us being conscious of our own personal wants / goals cause we actually want to, and not for external validation)

But then what else are we meant to do in life?…

Again… Not saying we should remove materialistic things or remove marriages, education or anything like that – that’s not what we should be doing. I’m saying that our appreciation on these milestones can lose meaning, and we should push more towards acknowledging Soul level values first, including within these milestones.

Have we reached a ‘ceiling’ point in humanity?

Recently I was saying to my fiancé I feel like everything has already been done in life (or maybe it’s just me reaching mid-30’s or the internet has exposed everything to everyone) – every hobby has been maxed out, every lifestyle from all social classes, every way of living or choice of living, every ‘aesthetic’ has been tried, posted, and everything in Earth has been turned into something to consume or a business. There’s no wow factor in anything anymore – whether that be technology, fashion just seems to be recycled aesthetics, same goes for music, cars, hobbies, travelling, you name it all.

Nothing really feels new or special anymore, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It feels like we’re reaching a point where, without the promise of attention or ‘uniqueness’, people will actually start doing things just because they want to (imagine a society full of authentic people *sheds a tear*). So doing things not to be seen – just for themselves.

After COVID, it’s like the whole human population went ham on everything – travelling, going out etc.

(another thing, I swear every time I go into the city, I’ve noticed a massive increase of people with ‘flex’ and vanity behaviour, or is it just me noticing this? I’ve noticed an increase in younger generation getting German branded cars in the UK and designer hand bags like people are walking on fashion runways in the London tube)

If you’re hyper aware, then we can kind of tell who is actually unique and who stands out from the crowd by not trying, seeking attention and being their authentic selves, as opposed to who is just following ‘trends’ for their ego-identity.

Bad things about material-centered culture

The thing with a material-centered culture is that it can contribute towards traits like ‘status and image’, competition and comparison behaviour, accumulation (we think ‘more’ is better and productivity is better), and possessions become people’s whole personality trait and identity, and the time is money mindset. People acting like they’re mysterious celebrities lol I could go on about materialism for days tbh.

What has bothered me about society growing up as a millennial, was that how can someone be deemed ‘successful’ who tends to have ego-centered or narc traits working a job they may hate on an annual salary +£110k, compared to someone who is content, selfless and heart-centered and doesn’t expect anything in return from their children, but they’re not seen as ‘successful’? We made ‘successful’ up.

We gotta change the narrative on what successful means.

Chasing strictly for materialism

Change your ways of thinking

Soul / Human-centered values

We could start to implement Soul values into our everyday life and our ways of thinking / communication.

Compassion	How we can care for each other on a soul level by feeling the ability to feel others and act, to reduce suffering.
Meaningful connections	Deep relationships / community – this could include friendships, family, love and overall feeling seen and understood.
Wisdom	Not just knowing facts / book smart, but understanding how to live well and move through darkness and become a certain level of resilience by learning from experience.
Creativity and expression	Rather than having a consumption behaviour, we can control consumption and transmute that into creativity and expression.
Simplicity	Knowing to yourself when enough is enough. No need to want more with a ‘power’ mindset.
Growth on character	Rather than asking each other ‘what whip do you drive?’ or ‘when are you going to do xyz milestone?’, questions like ‘what type of person do you want to become?’ or ‘how do you suggest I approach this type of scenario?’ to encourage forever learning behaviour.
Cooperation	No competition. Instead of thinking you’re a mysterious main character, share knowledge instead of hoarding it. Asking for help without feeling ashamed. Supporting each others’ successes without feeling like each others a ‘threat’.

How Soul values can be implemented into expressions of materialism

For the past decades these type of milestones ended up becoming proof of worth, not expressions of meaning – which shouldn’t be how each human is measured. We gotta change the narrative for these milestones too.

Milestones	Soul level
Engagement / marriage	It can represent the commitment of shared values, mutual growth and the commitment of the bond.
Mortgage / home ownership	The scale matches actual needs and provides stability, safety and a place to belong.
Education	Education expands curiosity, understanding, skill and wisdom.
Career / job / income	Work aligns with personal values and contribution. Income supports a meaningful life. Balance and dignity.
Travelling	Observation on culture. Reflective on how the place makes them feel and living in the present moment. Focus on connection, living, presence, experience and meaning.
Social media	Sharing thoughts, experiences, ideas that can be meaningful. Following accounts that inspire self-growth. Overall focus is expression, connection and authenticity.

Hopefully one day ‘successful’ will measure people by how authentic, loving, caring and resilient people are. I know nothing changes overnight, but our ways of thinking, will influence other people’s ways of thinking.

This doesn’t mean we gotta deprive ourselves of materialism as a whole – it just means we have to be more conscious of Soul values, and move with a certain amount of clarity on what matters to you as an individual without external noise, and how we as a society can contribute towards this change / shift by acknowledging soul values first and how each expressions of materialism can have a soul level meaning to you.

Once you start to embody Soul ways of thinking, the materialism values will mean much more to you on a personal level and you’ll start attracting what aligns more with you overall in this physical realm (how the Law of Attraction works).

(if you end up chasing money, then money gonna run away from you)

Don’t feel like you have to buy a house, don’t feel like you have to travel, don’t feel like you have to go into further higher education if it doesn’t align with you, don’t feel like you have to have a big wedding, don’t feel like you have to get a high paying job unless you really want to, don’t feel like you have to do anything that, does, not, align, with, you.

Life is not linear – be prepared for the unexpected and the ‘worst’, whilst still remaining in a gratitude / resilient state-of-being.

Next time you have a thought on something you want to try / get / do, just try to be more conscious, and ask yourselves ‘but why?’.

(not saying you always have to have an answer, but it doesn’t hurt to ask yourselves why)

Intention is key to self mastery, especially using the Law of Attraction:
(for example, why do I want to buy a Mercedes? Is it to show people my level of social status? Or do I need a car just from A-to-B? Is it cause I have genuinely wanted this car for a long time?… Or why am I posting on social media? To genuinely inspire people without expecting anything in return like followers/likes? Or am I trying to prove something? Is social media my form of ‘expression’, or to create an ego-identity / show my vanity? Why do I want to travel? Is it to post on my stories x1000 and create my highlights like I’m the only traveller in the world like any random NPC would and look rich? Or is it cause I genuinely need a break / new scenery / explore cultures?)

Once you start to embody soul values first, they may look ‘less impressive’ from people who are living in a materialism mindset, but you’ll start to feel much more alive.

Also it shouldn’t be about participation in expressions of materialism, it’s about being more conscious of what expressions of materialism means to you.

Try to be aware of your thoughts, what type of things you observe and attracts your attention in order to trigger certain thoughts in your mind – this level of self-mastery can be quite a challenge, but that change to your inner-world, will ignite change to your personal outer-world, and that change to your personal outer-world, is just that one step closer towards the whole world changing with Soul centered humans.

Change starts within you, so are you going to live for yourself or live for others?