Have you noticed how the word “overwhelm” has become the norm? How may times do you say “I am feeling overwhelmed.” Or “I feel too crowded”, or “Erghh I just need my space” or “I don’t have the headspace to deal with this” or “I feel too raw inside to venture out back into society”!!!
And have these sort of statements only started to come to the surface because of the pandemic which has shut down most of our normal emotional regulators? Were the feelings underneath these comments always there and when did these arrive into our psyche?
I remember the days when I was cooped up in my office cabin reading all of those legal documents and then some. Facebook became a sort of break for me to stop and interact with long gone friends or flames from the past. The whole initial concept of social media was brilliant. We reconnected with our ghosts. The new high was all the little farm games some friends or flirt friends played with each other. This paved the way for other forms of social media. Before this we had the Google revolution itself and no longer did we need to search out the libraries for ancient knowledge we simple typed into the search bar. And tada all there. Information as well as people became very available to all of us.
At the same time a lot of mental illnesses have also sprung up. People are lonelier. And we have a self care movement which advocates spending time on you for you amongst other products it might impose onto you. We have all these meditation and yoga communities too alongside very very convincing and successful motivational speakers.
Yet we find ourselves:
Irritated
Overwhelmed
Crowded
Less tolerant
Less accommodating of others
Feeling entitled
And more.
We are all overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information that is bombarding our brains right now. The brain is overloaded. Our capacity to integrate all of the information and more, is at its brim. We know this when we see a lot of isolation and mental health problems all around us despite all the tools we now have to hand. Put simply, we cannot handle it. Our brains have gone into overdrive. Even when we sleep the brain has too much gunk to deal with now and with the sort of blue light emitting from screens even the quality of our sleep is not so great.
We have formed pockets of communities and even these are becoming smaller and more choosy in how more can join them. We have simply lost the tolerance to be with another person who poses a threat to our safety in how we have cocooned our lives our views our thoughts and so on.
There’s a flavour of “I know what I am doing” going around and our ego or shall we call it individuality has become very fragile. We are now guarding ourselves ever more. We don’t want to engage with anyone that triggers us because we don’t want to face that the root of the trigger comes from us and not the trigger in itself. Why we are triggered is inside of our psyche. Yet, instead of delving deeper into our own self mastery we are led astray by our fragile sense of self into believing that it’s the other person.
Because of the magnitude of information not available at an instant, you can literally learn to paint for example without attending art school. This is just a general example although we are all artists within. An artist who went to art school having worked so hard for is now on the same level as an artist who simply took to the easel with Google.
All of this information means that we can access that something extra that at first wasn’t so easy to come by. That knowledge was guarded and secret. When we get that there is also a feeling of I am special that comes with it. The self care movement along with the myriad self empowerment communities and platforms now available on tap, have also paved way for a more self reliant individual except it’s only a facade of self reliance.
The changes to bring about this sense of self empowerment have been topical nominal and only at surface level which is why we will still feel embittered easily when something doesn’t go as we want it to even if we are now empowered. We still seek a sort of validation from outside. This shall we say false sense of empowerment has led to us creating a nest like structure around us which will hold all those beliefs and affirmations that you now hold to be true to you. Anything that challenges that will trigger you and you will be quick to recoil into your cocoon in the belief that you are taking card of self and preserving your renewed sense of you.
If this new sense of you brought out the writer in you or say the cook in you or a teacher or life coach in you, you will become less tolerant of the others who have also become empowered maybe to do the same as you. That “comparing yourself to others” syndrome hasn’t left at all. If anything it has become a beast now.
In all of this mayhem we seek solitude more often and venture off into the woods only to find temporary solace was gotten but you still cannot get rid of those feelings of overwhelm and wanting to guard your fragile sense of self. You may not even realise how fragile we have now become. Ironically we also crave human company. We want to be part of something bigger. We long to belong to each other. We want to feel surrounded by warmth and safety.
We have all become mini planets and all else alien to us. Our brains need time to heal and rejuvenate. This can happen is we switch off for sometime. Our patience and tolerance will return and we will gain a sense of self empowerment by working on us. Turning the focus in as opposed to out.
Social media is all but social. There is no new knowledge out there and by knowing less you will be no less. All that is known always existed before we did. It has knob been rebranded that’s all.
Turn off the screens, the extra lights, any gadgets devices, and sit in your little corner in a place you feel safe in. Just stay there. Start with a few minutes a day. Connect with your inner nature. Point the fingers back at you, ALWAYS. We are what we attract.