Heeeyho Readers! I'm back after a short break!
Anxiety is one hell of a matha facka distraction.
Nobody is at home and the street is quiet. There's a breeze coming from the sea and the sun is setting. I decide to sit down at the front yard to appreciate doing nothing. Five minutes into breathing and my back hurt. It's been sore the whole week along with light headaches and stiff neck. I know it's stress but can't identify the source. Inability to generate a solid income? Too much cellphone? Or everything altogether? Comes to mind the realization I haven't posted anything and that blogging IS my income. It bugs me. And now I'm hungry. And having an itchy arm trying to reach the cellphone that I purposely left on the sofa. That's when I realize my meditation attempt is not working.
Why is it so hard to meditate?
Modern life is full of addictions. Do you remember the last time you sit down to stare at the landscape without any distraction sucking your attention? I don't. In fact, the cellphone has become an issue in my life. Short videos on Youtube are destroying my time. I always thought I'd never fall for this trap. This is worrying when acknowledged by a guy that has no other social-media, and that understands how said medias are designed to bait us.
When we have so much information bombarding our brains it's hard to empty our minds. It's impossible to concentrate when we operate in 380V. Just today I heard a psychologist saying that humans are not designed to multi-task. But how can we avoid this frenzy when hours go by so fast. It feels time is shorter and there's no time to meditate. Supposedly, if we are meditating we are not completing something (like producing content), which defeats the whole purpose of relaxing.
“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” ― Lao Tzu.
We are so conditioned to technology, internet, computers, etc that we don't realize we live in constant alert. Modern life moves in a different pace. {Heyo to those who watch Youtube videos on 2x speed}. Meditating is about slowing down our brain activity, heart rate, and breathing. But damn, it's hard.
Fear. I get that gelid sensation rushing down my guts and now my body is releasing those weird hormones again. I give up my meditation attempt. After all, the economy is collapsing and I can't sit and meditate. I open my computer and decide to write about it yet I cant quite understand what's going on. What the hell is going on?
In the end, this post is more about a search for answers than a conclusion. It's a text to vent some struggles. I've been unable to do nothing comfortably. I'm also unable to write daily because my time is so mismanaged... let alone meditate.
Are you going through the same?
Let me know in the comments.
Peace.
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Disclaimer: The author of this post is a convict broke backpacker, who has travelled more than 10.000 km hitchhiking and more than 5.000 km cycling. Following him may cause severe problems of wanderlust and inquietud. You've been warned.
"Are you going through the same?"
Yes, I am. Kind of. I usually feel good and even relaxed during the day, doing my stuff, but it´s in the night when my restless mind starts "fighting me" as it just wouldn´t calm dawn and that´s where my insomnia kicks in... Tried everything, including meditation, but few things have really worked so far... I am yet to win this battle. But I will.
I feel you, brother. I'm glad you aren't having the physical symptoms of what (I believe) is anxiety: stiff neck, headaches, fatigue. It drains our energy. And then you don't sleep well, which drains even more energy.
Just make sure you don't deep dive into those strong medications. My brother is having a hard time quitting them.
We'll be good. Praying.
It's certainly difficult to concentrate these days. I keep thinking even more about children, starting their contact with cell phones at a young age, like 4 to 5 years old. I'm a father and I try as much as possible to keep my children away from their cell phones, but it's complicated, I'm really afraid of it getting in the way of their studies and their concentration.
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It's gonna be challenging for our generation, the ones who know how life was before internet in the 80's and 90's and also know the impact internet/cellphones have in our life. As you said, I'm too worried about the kids. I'm afraid the human interactions will lose that warmth of being close to each other (they are even creating metaverse, so we don't have to meet irl).
I'm not a father, but I'd encourage and bring my kids to outdoor activities to see if they develop a taste for being out.
I wonder what would happen if each time we sat we told ourselves It's easy to meditate and this place of detached calm is my natural state - I'm just gonna hang here for a minute.
SO MUCH written about the challenges of meditation now that we're almost creating the problem.
You have a very important point here @artemislives! If we keep on believing, it'll become true. It's pure energy, isn't it? If we invoke positive energies we'll attract positiveness; gotta switch that mentality.
Whoa, I did not know you can watch youtube on 2x speed! I only do that with udemy 😁
As for you, my friend, get some iodine and stop watching those short videos. Do some work, for god sake 💃
Iodine? What's that for? Tryna drug me? \o\o\
For your information, iodine is quite good for keeping you busy. Look at Japanese, they eat kelp or other seaweed. It is full of iodine 😋
I gotta shake that buttie indeed. I've been busy studying this Ukraine conflict and not really feeling like posting lately =/
Feel you. There's a documentary somewhere about a zen monk who says that true meditation doesn't mean sitting down, crossing your legs, and attempting to breathe deeply. It's something you should learn to do in every day life. In other words you can even meditate while watching videos or blogging if you're reminding yourself to stay aware of what you're doing and your breath. Of course, there are no final answers but it might help.
Some say that it's not enlightment that's important but rather the practice.
I get what you mean. It's something I learned once when I tried Pilates. They said breathing is part of our life: eating, exercising, talking, listening. I guess if we can't control that, it won't work when we are sitting doing nothing.
I'm surprised by the amount of people having anxiety these days. I guess our generation is just now collecting the results of just a few years connected to the internet.
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