What is it that sustains and drives YOU? Is it an addictive tendency? Are you driven to success or to distraction?
We have become so addicted… so dependent on living the same way. We have become our habits… and our habit is so hard to break!
Are you living a lie? Can you break the habit?
INSTEAD OF BEING DEPENDENT ON OUR LIFE FOR THE SOURCE OF OUR MEANING... WE SHOULD EXPRESS OUR MEANING THROUGH THE WAY WE LIVE OUR LIFE. Let’s start with THE BACKGROUND on how this all begins. THE FACTS OF LIFE: Welcome to our brave new age! Massive information is now globally accessible, especially via the Internet. This empowers us, but it can also feel overwhelming.
We should personally & wisely choose what we reduce & how we filter our information. This is Key to maintaining our Sovereignty! WE SHOULD USE OUR OWN INTUITIVE DISCERNMENT & WISDOM. Unfortunately, we have delegated this critical role to others! We have allowed our perception to be limited & biased by others. As individuals, we have allowed our narrative to be crafted by someone else! As a society, we have also unknowingly agreed to this! It’s part of our education & social conditioning. The global media, in all its forms has become the major influence. The media initiates & directs THEIR OWN narrative. The storyline is voiced by our political leaders, social celebrities & other icons. We unknowingly give up our personal sovereignty by attaching to their views, even when we think we’re doing the choosing! We are just selecting from the biased views & narrative we are given.
WE ALLOW OTHERS TO DICTATE or SHAPE OUR WORLD VIEW.
We then naively express this bias through our favourite social media platforms. We specialize in our areas of interest and feel like experts; even morally superior… So, we behave like critics!
WE HAVE BECOME TOO CRITICAL. If only we would use our new resources & inherent freedom well: to think deeply & really question. To use our research for wise & good purpose. Instead, we forsake this and embrace a new bondage. We become slaves again! This time to political correctness, social media memes & viral videos. Plus, the high fashion of our time is … cynicism. WE HAVE BECOME SO CYNICAL. Scepticism has become our ‘new knowing’, the new chic. We have realized that the information & narrative fed to us is not beneficial or nurturing. We could instead search for truly independent & unbiased reporting. We could look for alternative sources of information. Instead we just become frustrated and more sceptical of what we are fed. WE HAVE LEARNT NOT TO TRUST & INSTEAD BECOME SCEPTICAL. By being cynical, we aim to distance ourselves further from this false narrative. We want to be perceived as being astute, shrewd or worldly. By being cynical, we can’t easily be proven wrong: for time could still prove us right! We can remain smug & impenetrable; provided we don’t risk doing something constructive!
IT’S MUCH EASIER TO DOUBT & CONDEMN THAN TO CREATE ANYTHING. This scepticism has become the new playing field, with its own rivalry. We even compete in who can be most critical or cynical: They appear to be the ‘most clever’. This has almost become an art form! We could instead try to be more selective in our information and practice intuitive discernment to resolve this. Unfortunately, we usually choose to do what’s much easier. We compete at being sceptical & negative instead. What then results from this? THE ART OF NEGATIVITY LEADS TO DESPAIR. As we we play with sarcasm & pessimism, this takes us further in the wrong direction; towards defeatism. This leads to a growing sense of gloom, helplessness & hopelessness. Finally it leads towards despair and possibly even our own destruction. DESPAIR IS THE PATH TO DESTRUCTION – OUR SELF-DESTRUCTION. This basal negativity also provides a rich ferment for other powerful negative emotions. OUR NEGATIVE WORLD VIEW INCREASES OUR FEELING OF LACK & SCARCITY. As a result, we become more fearful, both individually and as a society.
OUR PERSPECTIVE & OUR SOCIETY PROMOTES A CULTURE OF FEAR. In the presence of FEAR, we instinctively engage in survival mode. We become even more self-oriented, selfish & greedy. We clutch at much more than we need. We jealously guard & angrily defend what we consider rightly to be ours. JEALOUSY & ANGER ARE FOSTERED IN A SETTING OF FEAR. These powerful and highly activating emotions become undeniable. We thus become more aggressive & destructive. Our alertness becomes heightened. Our defensive resources are mobilized. The whole mechanism of our being is being recruited … for fight & flight. Our powerful negative emotions now have full sway. A POWERFUL AGGRESSIVE FORCE IS MOBILIZED BY LACK & FEAR. This powerful pent-up energy then demands a release. Our destructive potential is now so close to fruition. Only a minimal provocation is now required to finally trigger this. BY MOBILIZING OUR AGGRESSION, A DESTRUCTIVE CONSEQUENCE IS ALMOST INEVITABLE. The consequences of our aggressive actions are complex & considerable. These trigger further reactions from others, so we are impacted yet again. THE CONSEQUENCES OF AGGRESSION AFFECT OTHERS & OURSELVES TOO. The cycles of action & consequence continue. WE BECOME TRAPPED IN A VICIOUS CYCLE OF SUFFERING. We can’t easily escape. It’s as if we’re hooked or addicted to living this way. We just can’t seem to break free from this cycle, this same habitual pattern or behaviour. What a sad state! WE SEEM TO BE ADDICTED … TO THIS WAY OF LIVING. How do we cope with all this? Is there a way out? This discussion continues in the second part of this blog titled ‘ADDICTED TO LIFE: Part 2. The way we cope?’