The world’s gone mad.
So, it’s been an interesting adventure in the world of late. War terror seems to be flooding our TV screens and social media, we are in economic distress through interest rate rises, and I am paying $2.20 for a litre of fuel. The World has gone mad!!
I often find myself thinking about how distracting both mass media, and the social media world can be. It’s hard to focus on our ordinary day to day lives when there is just a barrage of hard hitting news reports that stuns us day by day. I am no expert in the field of psychology, but upon reflecrting on how I am feeling in these times, I often find myself feeling scared or anxious about whats going to happen next. The next big war… the next global financial crisis… who knows.
I have been really interested in Mental health of late, and how to find ‘happiness’ in these times. A good friend of mine Joe Plumb recently changed my perspective on happiness, and the idea of peace beign greater than happiness. Things aren’t always going to be amazing, and you aren’t always going to be happy. But how can we feel at peace. If you’ve got an idea on achieving this, I’m all ears, but I think thats the learning curve we are all on. Fear, anxiety or sadness over what is occurring around us is inevitable, as we are exposed to so much information about what is wrong with the world on a day to day basis. Seriously, how can we feel peace in a time like this.
On my learnings, I think peace is found in the littlest of things. For me, I find peace by spending a day at the beach with my dog Finn, and partner Courtney (In that order… Courtney I’m sorry). I love technology, specifically taking photos and making them pretty later. My phone, camera and computer is filled with portraits of Courtney, and the million photos she’s attempted to take of me with the camera but can never get the focus just right. But these are specific things, and broadly speaking, what is it that is making me at peace in these times? I think it’s where my focus is. When I’m at the beach, when I’m behind the camera I am focusing my attention on the world around me, or what is infront of me. Isn’t it amazing that when we are doing something we love, every little problem in our lives seems to disappear around us. Now I’m not saying that we should distract ourselves from our problems. That’s often one of the least beneficial things we can do. What I feel is important, is being able to compartmentalise when and where we figure out our emotions. Being comfortable in discomfort to learn.
Our bodies are amazing. I know this specifically t the moment looking at my pregnant girlfriend as she has a little alien in her tummy that can’t wait to enter this world so is squirming around every two minutes. Courtney’s body has changed through this pregnancy, and I can see that not only physically, but emotionally. The nesting process that is engrained in the female DNA to tell her to get everything ready for the baby is a THING! Trust me, I’ve built a shelving unit, a chair, a cot, a pram, a couch, another cot, another chair… the list goes on. Because she needs to have everything lined up just right for the bub to come into this world. So if our bodies are so powerful that they can tell our brain to do physical things around the house, it must be powerful enough to tell us what we like, what we dislike, and learn from the things that make us anxious, or for that matter happy.
There is a lot of noise in the world, but I think taking the time to sit with our thoughts, both the good and the bad, and be at peace with our lives is so important. Validation can only give us short term gratification… little hits of dopamine that fill our bodies with the urge to feel it again. But PEACE. Peace is what I think I am striving for, what I think everyone is striving for, especially in a world where peace seems to be a for fetched concept. The world may have gone mad, but maybe, just maybe, we can all be at peace.
Jack Millar
16/10/23
