There are moments in life when we live on another planet — that nothing squares with our understanding of reality. Old friends suddenly seem strange, children walk out of our lives without explanation, and work loses its meaning. Too often we cope with these feelings by looking out there and claim, if these were happier times I'd be happier. So, for many of us, our default strategy for unhappiness is to look outside ourselves for answers. However, some of what goes on out in the world that dampens our enthusiasm for life is pervasive and unavoidable. Let look at just a few of these toxic scenarios.
Technology like I-Pads, Smartphones, and children's Xboxes can leave us feeling stupid. Rapid growth in technology leaves many adults (me) feeling like a strangers in a strange land.
Then there are social networks, which I eschew like a picnic of small pox victims. These networks steer new "friends" to our own site yet these internet "friends" are rarely old fashioned types of friends that are loyal, good listeners, and understand out foibles. Don't believe me, try this. Try borrowing money from a social network "friend."
Watching television is mind boggling. News casters today are mostly young, sexy women in tight dresses, with flawless hair styles and spike heels. Some newscasters — men and women — lecture, but rarely inform. Throw into this toxic mix today's politics and politicians and you're besieged with lies, ranting, hyperbole, and distortions. Political candidates read scripts written by ideologues — rarely do we hear what the candidates themselves think . . . if at all.
I used to think realtors were the best distorters of fact. They can take a shack and make it sound like a Hearst Castle. That was until I listened to faux news casters like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. These men became rich because their listener base has become intellectually lazy and follows the sheep with the loudest bell.
Now take the many over-stated and depressing drug ads on television. These drug ads describe — briefly — illness and conditions their products will hopefully cure. But, don't listen to the disclaimers. They portray drug side effects far worse that the illness they purport to cure. These drug ads can turn a health nut into a full blown hypochondriac in days.
Problems like erectile dysfunction (actors sitting in individual bath tubs holding hands while looking out to sea), is the ultimate voyeur fantasy, and the fear most men have after middle age. And the ad for mesothleoma has the pitch man look as if should be on a suicide watch, this one can't make you feel good.
Is it any wonder at times like these we feel alienated from the world, that we hope the time train stops at the next station so we can disembark?
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Recommended reading:
Mihaly Csizszentmihalyi -
Flow: The Psychology of
Optimal Experience. (1990).
Harpers Perennial, New York. |
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Can we fight this stuff without succumbing to the allure (if any) of these changes? Is there an antidote to this madness? Yes, it's called, " learning how to live in a state of "flow."
Next month we will continue our look at flow and how to achieve it, and examine how nature might promote this special state of mind.
