Maclean’s Magazine – Oprah’s Bad Advice?

This March 14th, 2011 magazine cover caught my eye of Maclean’s Magazine with Oprah’s Bad Advice – A surprising number of self-help gurus are now admitting they are total screw ups. How does the most trusted woman in America explain that?

While I am not trying to take a stand on this and defend Oprah you would see by reading the article that the number is more like a few, not a surprising number.

The self-help gurus that appear on Oprah are human beings and there is an expression “we often teach what we need to learn the most” so their challenges will make their hearts grow stronger and their followers will learn from the self-help guru’s experience.

In my view, the few screwed up self-help gurus that the article mentions are suffering from Affluenza … Being on Oprah is just like winning the lottery!!!

Here are some thoughts that I have written about Affluenza from a few years back.

Affluenza

The term Affluenza is often associated with lottery winners that win huge amounts of money and then, for some reason, the huge fortune is gone in less than a year.

Affluenza – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

Affluenza is a term used by critics of consumerism. It is a portmanteau word formed by the contraction of affluence and influenza. Sources define this term as follows:-

Affluenza, n. a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more. (de Graaf, 2002)

Affluenza, n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth. (PBS)

Affluenza is what people go through when they get instant money through an inheritance or through winning a lottery.

They believe all along that if they could just get this money along with the art, boats, cars, clothes, cottages, homes, motorcycles, relationships, wine and travel that went along with it, then they would truly be happy.

Problem is, once the feeling of the windfall is over they are right back where they started with the negative belief of “what is wrong with me” combined with the negative emotions of despair and sadness all fuelled by the granddaddy of all unmet needs; worthiness.

What is really sad here is The Laws Of Attraction Are Absolute; you create what you focus on. If you keep asking “what is wrong with me” you will find the answer.

Be careful what you wish for.