Rachel Pens

Today I must write something. It is my plan. To pen. When I set up this blog at the beginning of the year I was going to write frequently – to flood the world with my thoughts. Ten months later…..I have space, a space that has not existed while I have ben studying, but one that I am aware of now, if only because of what fills it. What fills is are thoughts, feelings, feelings of anger. And sadness. Being able to lift my head now, finally, I feel distraught at what I see around me. And me, so usually full of hope, feel hopeless.

I wondered today which is more painful – to have and experience a thought or to ‘see’ the thought on the internet. My conclusion as probably to have thought and to experience the feelings that come with it; to face reality. Once it’s in our heads we cannot swipe past. And herein lies the dilemma. When things feel tough, we want relief so turn to our phones. There is more horror and distress within these devices, more than we can contemplate. But we just look and swipe past. We do not have to stop and question what we are seeing, to really consider the impact of the images. And we have seen so many images, so much horror, we are now desensitised.

I know for me, that when I pick up my phone and look at social media, my brain slows. I lose focus, I get lost. Minutes become hours. My brain has been hijacked. I have watch good things and bad things and come away, from all that invested time, with nothing. Just like buying game packs off the internet – I have nothing to show for it.

Our brains have not evolved enough to manage the onslaught of information we subject them to. And while we are lost in one image or another, we become disconnected from what our brains do need – people and nature. Is it any surprise nature gets to take a back seat when we don’t connect with the very thing that we have relied for centuries, that we have evolved along side and are intrinsically connected to?

As a mental health practitioner I am all bout dong the best I can for my brain and my body. And you should be too. If you want to feel good about you, it’s to on the internet, in the grocery store, or in the mall. It’s in a good diet, being out in nature, in movement, in good relationships and in rest. Everything else is just a placebo. A short-term fix. And here is the Dilma. When you pick up your phone you forget this, you become numb to it all. And when you put it down, you feel the isolation of being in the minority. As big business right roughshod across our plant, perhaps ask yourself how are they getting away with it? The answer may lie in our lethargy, disconnection or even I our own perceived powerlessness.