Become a producer, not a consumer.

A consumer frame of mind disempowers us. It puts us in a passive position of accepting whatever the “market” produces.

The “market” is us. Everything that exists that was made by humans was instigated by a human need. The need drove the production.

As our consumer “market” stands now, production is driven by greed. With mindless machines pumping out products way beyond fulfillment of authentic human need, the “market” attempts to create need through advertising so there is somewhere for its surplus of products to go. Within this scenario, we are trashing the earth. More products always means less earth.

Think like a producer.

Products are being produced in response to the money they will earn for the producer, rather than in response to a genuine human need on the side of the purchaser.

We must switch our thinking from being consumers to being producers. This puts us in the driver’s seat. In this scenario goods are produced in response to genuine human need and within the context of the natural system from which they arise.

Satisfy your hunger.

When we are hungry, we produce food to fulfill our need. This is different from grocery shopping. We can go to the grocery store and stuff our baskets with all the blingy-box pseudo-food in the myriad isles, take it home and put it in the cupboards. We are still hungry.

The only part of that food that fulfills our hunger is the part that makes it into our bodies. And the need is fulfilled only to the degree that the food can satisfy our hunger.

Junk food is made to make money for the producer. When we buy it, we are giving the the producer permission to produce it for us. Or, we could make it ourselves. Either way, we are producing it. But, since it is not nutritious, we have to ask ourselves what need does it fulfill for us?

We produce everything.

The physical world and all of its objects are a reflection of our internal states. When we look around our homes, we see evidence of the choices we made for fulfillment of our needs. The chair we sit in, the bowl we eat from and our food are all evidence of our choices.

To become effective producers, we must improve our ability to determine our needs. Who has ended-up shopping when lonely?

What we really needed was to consciously recognize our loneliness and reach out to a friend. As we strengthen our friendships and families, the loneliness is fulfilled long-term. No amount of aimless shopping can ever do that.

Take back your power.

Don’t let the “market” make you a consumer. Take back your power and become a producer. When we do this, we make the world well for everyone.