Are we sleepwalking our way through life?

In an ever-changing world where many of us are consumed by daily anxieties and fears, and the pressure of the never-ending to do list, it seems only natural for us to live a life only partially awake to the joy of living. I mean, seriously, where is the time in the day to appreciate being alive? The current and omnipresent anxieties about CO-VID 19 serve to exacerbate these already high conditioned fears. So, I cannot help but wonder whether all of us, and in particular, the young, will live more and more internally (literally – leaving the house less in general, and metaphorically – living more and more in our own heads). From an early age, we are conditioned to think and behave in a socially ‘acceptable’ way, we are educated in the tools of technology and information. Does it seem alien to you, like it does to me, that we are not educated in the tools of being alive and being human? All of us, if we are not mindful, are overtly stimulated on a daily basis through a normalised dependency on technology. It makes me ask the question (or rather, it makes me asks all the questions); where in the growth of a child are, they enlightened? Why are we desensitising our children through a bombardment of information, rather than waking them up? Why is there an ever-growing mental health crisis in our young people? These are of course big questions, which would be better explored in a book than a blog! I couldn’t possibly tackle them all right now. Ultimately, in this moment of writing, I’ll need to narrow down to a single thought (at least for today).

My thought for today, then, is:

How do we nourish ourselves as humans and avoid the tendency to sleepwalk (act and react on autopilot) on a daily basis?

If we really think about our day to day lives, how many times a day do we engage in activities that really nourish us? Scan through your mind or better still, write down everything you do on a daily basis. Be specific. We all wake up in the morning and go to bed at night; I expect most of us brush our teeth, eat meals, answer emails, look at our phones, talk to our family, watch TV. How many of these regular, every day, perhaps even mundane activities fill us with joy and connect us to the sense of being awake, and being alive? A few of them perhaps? My feeling is that many of us tend to go through the rigmarole of life on autopilot, with occasional glimpses to connect us to the meaning of our lives. For instance, ever been on holiday and sorted your whole life out there? Being free of the autopilot – the tendency to sleepwalk - we soak our senses in the sights, smells, sounds of a new experience on holiday, and rediscover our joy for life and for ourselves. This often results in us planning new idyllic paths for ourselves which we promise we will fulfil when we are home. Then no sooner has the plane landed on the tarmac, we are back on our phones responding to all the emails that have been accumulating whilst we were away. Why don’t we nourish ourselves on a daily basis, like living a holiday every day? And these habits are passed onto the next generation – children and young people who no longer see the purpose of an education (I mean, most of its boring!), who live on their phones, because the world has taught them that technology rules and without their 24/7 connection to their friends and the world, they will be left behind and ridiculed. A new generation who, in some cases, are scared to even leave their house now and must cover their faces – symbolically this has many implications to their life learning (perhaps a discussion for another time!). We have little time for nourishment – normally its reserved for special occasions – so no wonder more and more young people struggle with their mental health in my opinion; they literally don’t know how to nourish themselves. They, too, are sleepwalking through life; reacting on autopilot without very little awareness about themselves and the miracle of life.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic solution. These habits are so deeply ingrained in our society it would take a revolution to shift them. I am typing this whilst my 6-year-old daughter plays on my phone, I mean, I am no pioneer myself! But what I have come to realise is that it is not necessarily about going out on a ‘nourishing’ crusade, rather just by bringing my awareness to the issue in the first place is a steppingstone in the right direction. I believe in awareness. It is the first step in the process of waking up. First, I am aware that I am awake, then I react. If my awareness is nourished, then perhaps my reactions will be less ‘sleepy’. This could be taken literally too, of course. Why not start with the moment you wake up tomorrow and dwell a moment in awareness? Take time to awaken your senses, your body, your thoughts before reacting with movement and the habitual actions that follow with getting out of bed.

Awareness is a steppingstone to nourishment initially as in awareness we begin to appreciate – or at least consider - what is around us and ultimately, within us. Awareness is a steppingstone to consciousness; being alive, being present. In consciousness, we are more human. We realise our choices, act and react with mindfulness and avoid the tendency to sleepwalk. There is peace in awareness. Take the breath for instance. By bringing your awareness simply to your breath in moments of anxiety or fear, we can come back to a part of our self which is stable and present, no matter what is happening (and if we practise enough to feel the benefits). And in awareness, we may come to find what nourishes us most and so, nourish ourselves with full awareness. Even the most mundane day to day activities could be carried out with full awareness, and therefore, dare I say, we can find nourishment within them. I mean, I hate cleaning the toilet – I have never tried full awareness with cleaning the toilet – but you know what, I’m going to try it tomorrow and see what happens! At least it might make me smile like a goof. Then I might hate it less.