As we become strangled by the burden of our anxiety and suffering, these feelings start to control us, bind us and take a toll on us. We slowly begin to identify with them, we become them.
From a broader social aspect, when consumerism has gotten us in a stranglehold, we become defined by everything material - what we own and what we buy. This infringing reality lives through us, and consumes us. All we need is to earn a living, are we not worth having a living in the first place?
