The Time Trip We’re All Taking
Common advice, which should not be overlooked, is to stay present in the moment and enjoy today. Today is all we have because tomorrow is not promised and yesterday has passed. Right now, the present is difficult for everyone, stated mildly. People have been living in this new normal stressful world for over a year and half. People have lost patience and reverted to their most primitive self serving versions of themselves. People are being present, however, people are mad, frustrated, angry, sad, scared, fearful, lonely, depressed, stressed and sleepy. We as humans don’t know how to live in the present this way. So, we form magnetic fields around ourselves. We look for commonalities or signs that we can find our pairing force, another magnet facing the same direction. But for a majority of the time, not by choice, we encounter magnets facing the opposite direction. Nearly everything we encounter during the day is repelled away from us. It feels ok at first. It feels ok in the moment because we feel ok with the space around us. But it’s not ok. People need people. It is in our genetic makeup and it is also built into the foundation of humanity that we are social creatures. We need ways to interact share and connect on how we all feel in truth. We need to break down this social magnetic field and be present together.
We’re isolated when our social magnetic field repels everything away from us. We start thinking about the past and the future when we’re alone. We remember what things were like 3 years ago, 5 years ago, and even further back in time. We replay these memories and wonder why events played out the way they did. We ask the most dangerous question to ourselves.
“What if?”
What if we made a different decision, what if the events on our life time line followed a different path. We replay these memories and insert alternative hypothetical scenarios over and over again. But it’s an exercise in futility. It’s not possible to change anything in the past. That relationship that went sour can’t be fixed. The job that we got fired from is long gone. The promotion that we were passed up for is now someone else’s livelihood. We can just reflect and learn and be a better version of ourselves today.
Stay Present
Sometimes the reverse happens and in our lonely isolated state we think about the future. We try to predict outcomes that are clearly out of our control. We want and so desperately need to know what is going to happen next. Our brains are programmed and wired this way to give us insight as to what action needs to be taken now. Unfortunately, the primitive brain was not built for our digital world with media consumption. Our quick acting mind that warns us to run when we see a Tiger is doing exactly what it should be doing. The news article that we read about tension overseas or the upcoming vote on saving lives in some way or another creates a spark in our brain to get us ready for battle. The fear is real, however, the element has changed. We no longer exist in a caveman world with a Tiger as a predator. The predator of today is media. Be it in the form of advertisements, news, or even entertainment, we are exploited and have no way to control this commerce sponsored addiction. We are not equipped with the tools necessary to handle the fast paced online world. Our brain was not built in such a way to manage the stressors of today. We need to put the future on pause and be present.
We need to be present more than ever before. We need to be present for ourselves and each other. We need to unite over commonalities and care less about our differences. We are all imperfect humans.
Be kind. Be present. Believe.
