All too much - just go fishing

When it all gets toooooo much

One of the constant things I get asked about is anxiety, or “it’s doing my head in”.  For many people today life is just too stressed and out of this is born our anxieties. It may be simple to suggest that much of this is something that as humanity we have done to ourselves, it does not make the anxiety any the less real though. Putting religious sentimentalities aside for a second, we are not so long out of the hunter gatherer stage of development. Within this we had an important part of our social structure in both the closeness of relatives but also in the tribe that we lived in. No one was expected to care for babies, children, the sick or the elderly on their own. These were community issues and others helped and brought knowledge and other support to a communal wisdom. The sense of the individual was less prominent. I think that also it might have been easier (although maybe not better) that people knew their role and function within the group. Perhaps because we don’t know these roles may have been more permeable and less gendered, but I guess gender was not such an immediate issue as it is today. Roles were important not as individual achievements but as the contributing factor to the whole. People had skills or were adept at things that had a practical need. Their worth was about the communal whole.

Please do not think that I am looking starry eyed back at some golden age of the past because life must have been hard. Others skilled in the worrier sense would for sure have come seeking resources, food, people, land and would have taken them if they could; it was often a life and death struggle. I think that the film Dances with wolves shows this. We need to find good people to form communities with again.

Now here we are in our smart savvy world with all the technology that bring instant news and stories from all over the planet. Watch The Social Network and you find out that people look at negative posts on social media a huge percentage more of the time than positive ones. We are wired to see danger and take notice of it. This was originally to protect us. If we saw a sabretooth tiger or a snake or other threat, we needed to be able to remember it and then fight or flight both innate responses and fuelled by Adrenalin.

Our bodies geared up to respond need this to boost us into action. We need to be able to remember what this was about, so we could both recognise danger next time, but also pass this on to the community.

Today our world is full of these danger signalling events. They come literally before our eyes as we look not just at our electronic devices but radios and TVs. We are constantly being told what we should be looking, acting and modelling our lives like. Think of the term “Influencer”. There have always been influencers people others might look up to in fashion or lifestyle but never 20million all at the same time. These are often people who are promoting a message or product, but for who and why? In a quick-fire world of the easy bargain, life can be one fast moving hype. Always on the go, don’t be the slow Mo, Instagram, meta, snap-chat feel how short concise and quick the words are.

I am not a Luddite in fact I love the electronic revolution we have, but recognise it comes at a cost. That adrenalin hit raise cortisol levels and drives both personal and social anxiety. Its why I think that our hyped minds find it difficult to slow down, to reflect and find a sense of balance. The gynie is out of the bottle now.

When we are full of anxiety and over stressed is not the best time to start learning to meditate or be mindful. It’s what we need to do but at this stage it’s probably firefighting that’s going to be needed. It’s why I try to get people to start some mindfulness when the times are quite good. We practice for those times we need to do. Often meditation is referred to as just that: “practice”.

Another good thing to think of doing is creating a mental health first aid kit. Preppers have grab bags ready to pick up if a disaster strikes. Have a go at making a mental health first aid kit up. Perhaps a simple Bach flower remedy, some essential oil, a Zentangle book and some felt pens, a motivational quote, book of poems, a meditation app on your phone. Some people might have crystals or some special food (be careful of highly sugared snacks and alcohol- stimulants and depressants) noise cancelling headphones, eye covers, soft blanket in fact anything that you would recognise as being helpful to you.

We think about and prepare for many aspects of life as it is. Perhaps in time you may come to know or recognise when such times are on the horizon – you may see them coming – and this is the real gold of self-knowledge.