Keep your dollars, I want change.

I was in the local Forever 21 store inside the Towson Mall in Baltimore, Maryland when I was around the age of 18. I had just gotten out of school and wanted to get an outfit for the concert that evening at Rams Head at Power Plant Live. I had anticipated a short trip, just running in and picking something cute and getting out. Well, that ended up being the furthest thing from the case. They said "fast fashion" is fast, but it sure wasn't fast in my world.

Like a bull in a china shop, I searched high and low on a mission to find the perfect look. I think I spent at least 2 hours looking for something to wear. I thought, "with all these options, how can I possibly choose?" A typical girl response to the vastness of product located in a two-story super charged chain store. So, like any determined woman would do, I wandered. I picked out so many items that I thought I wanted, but I knew I would never buy it all.

Shortly after, I felt so overwhelmed. My brain was on visual and auditory overload with patters, colors and loud music. I felt hot all of a sudden, and I started to breathe really funny. I felt a fluttering in my heart that I had never experienced before. It felt like the weight of the world was resting on my shoulder to pick out this "perfect" outfit. I realized at that point that it just doesn't exist, and I was losing my sanity over an article of clothing. I cared so much about an outfit, that I stressed myself out to the point of panic. At what point did clothing become so important to me?

As a woman, I take some type of pride in the way I present myself, I'm sure that we all do. But at what point is too much, too much? How many hundreds of dollars can you actually spend on make-up, hair products, hair colorings, clothes and shoes before you actually feel horrible about where your money went? I know a few girls who spend so much money on make-up that they sometimes bypass eating a meal. Blasphemy! I love my $7 kale smoothies too much.

There needs to be a general awareness of this increasingly scary phenomenon, and I want to introduce to you the concept of materialism. If you've heard it before, bear with me..

Materialism- defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is "a way of thinking that gives too much importance to material possessions rather than to spiritual or intellectual things". In a capitalist society, we are forced to believe that we need "new" and "current" and "cutting edge" objects, which in short encourages "new" to eventually become "old", making almost everything you own seem "disposable." Each and every day of the month, corporations kick out new products that they make you think you MUST have and that if you do not have it, you'll be out of the loop. They pay hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to cloud up all of your visual entertainment sources with advertisements that are designed to make you feel like you HAVE to have it. It's pathetic, but they are praying on the one emotion they can control, fear. If you go to the store, or go to the website and buy into their product that is probably an unnecessary waste of money, you have let them win. And while you become broke, they become rich. The wealthy top corporations are soliciting on the fact that they have mentally gained all control over your buying and spending habits, and can predict that you are going to continue to be a pawn in their game.

I'm not saying that we should go back to basics and be nomadic people and run away from society. That would be too twisted. (I do however know a few folks who've done that.) What each and every one of us needs to do is to be accountable for what our actions are each and every day.

This materialistic mentality that as a society we are so guilty of, is expiring and is on the way out. So many people are becoming spiritually awakened once they are exposed to the truth behind the ways this high-paced economy functions. I have so many friends who have given up on following the news, fashion, reading magazines, because they find fault in the lies we've been taught. It breaks my heart to think that money is what makes the world go around, but that's the sad truth to living on Earth in 2016.

In brighter terms, WE HAVE THE POWER TO CREATE CHANGE. If each and every one of us can strip down a few things that we don't need, we are making huge progress. You probably don't need a $48 mascara in galactic blue and black, or a $500 purse in chocolate AND black, or even an $80,000 car for that matter. We are so lucky we get to have as many options as we do for choosing what we want to purchase, but buying more than what you think is necessary, is well, unnecessary.

I look back at that day in Forever 21 and laugh. I guess over the years I have learned that you need to find your happiness with whatever you have in front of you at this very moment. There is so much product already in this world, and if you are reading this article, I'm sure you can agree that you have more than you need to survive.

Instead of using "we" in the terms as a collective body of people, what we really need is to start with ourselves. YOU have the power to make a change. It begins with one person who is sick of the society that we created, to set examples, and encourage others. You are already beautiful. You already have everything that you need inside of you. You do not need anything to make you more desirable, to be more liked, to fit in. You deserve to thrive, not just to survive.

Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world". I made that change, I'm just waiting for you to follow. I didn't buy anything that day at Forever 21. I left with something more valuable, a transformation of consciousness.

xo Linds