Mental Yoga
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room." — Blaise Pascal
I'm constantly surprised, and, by this point in my life, I shouldn't be, but I am. What of? People who feel the need to constantly be busy or doing this, and that, and, well, the other. Is it something that happened slowly, over night, I wonder? Is it since the advent of smart phones, or maybe TV even? Or was it always there and I just didn't notice it?
Because, I'm of a mind that I really don't feel the need to be constantly doing something, anything, or going somewhere to do something (like sports), whether to participate or watch. I'm not always in front of a screen, or TV. I have a life outside of smart gadgets that involves me walking around a garden, or sitting in a park staring at, well, trees, or the grass, or a bird flying over head.
I can quite happily just sit somewhere, quietly, and do absolutely nothing, other than breathe. I don't feel the need to justify myself by any other activity other than knowing I'm alive, and I exist. And that I have a keen fascination with just observing. Whether that's clouds in the sky, people passing by, or a spider making a web between two plants.
I can sit in a coffee shop sipping my brew and be the only one not on a smart device, or making loud conversation. I don't feel the need to be heard let alone seen. And am content to be, to all around me, invisible.
That doesn't mean that I cannot make myself heard or noticed when I want to. I know how to be forceful when necessary. It's a skill I learnt dealing with life's idiots.
So I wonder, why so many try so hard to be seen, heard, and noticed in a world that is, quite honestly, totally indifferent to us all?
Maybe I'm from that generation, or it was how I was brought up, or what my parents instilled in me. I don't know. I do know there are others like me, who don't feel the need to be a performance and on 24/7. But somehow, in today's society, I think we may be a dying breed, the last of our kind in a world where nearly everyone is suffering burn-out of some kind, stressed by the life they think they must live.
And I think to myself, maybe everyone needs to start taking yoga classes, and learn to still their minds and bodies, and maybe, just maybe, stop for a moment and realise, they don't have to compete, don't have to be in the race to nowhere, and can, instead, just sit this one out and take in the real world they've been missing all this time.
I feel like I want to close by saying, go hug a tree and have a conversation with it. But maybe, that's a bit flippant. So I'll go do it for you.
Thanks for reading, Alex