Thursday Thoughts : This World We Live In

Today is Thursday!

Thursday Thoughts:

Some days I can’t help but feel this strong urge to want to resist the world as it is today and to go back to my roots. How our great grand fathers and great-great grand mothers’ lived. Without the chaos, stress of driving in traffic to go to a store to buy things that we don’t even think about where they come from, how they are made, the quality of ingredients, how producing them effects us and the world, etc.

Although our ancestors also had life challenges, the world we are in today is much more complex whereas their world was a bit more simpler.

Think about what you buy on a weekly or annual basis. Are you buying ready to eat food and then sitting down to watch tv or getting on one of your electronic devices? We’ve gone too far away from being mindful. We’ve stepped so far back from awareness of ourselves and what’s around us that we are on autopilot. Hurrying to get ready for work, forcing ourselves to be in front of computer screens and typing for 8 hours a day, eating fast food, not knowing or thinking about where the food even comes from, perhaps driving to the gym to look and feel better about ourselves, then hurrying home to make dinner and spend maybe an hour or two with family. Then go to sleep and wake up to the same routine, day in and day out.

The weekends are what we strive for and yearn for throughout the entire week. We look forward to not having to clock in and out for two solid days. Instead we binge drink, party and stroll up to the bars in what we think is a fancy outfit that makes us feel good about ourselves masking what and who we really are.

The struggle of going back to work for another 40 hours or more on Monday morning haunts us on Sunday evening. Mentally preparing ourselves for the week ahead. Hopefully there’s something exciting going on during the week or the next weekend to keep us going. To gain momentum again. But what is it all for?

What do you do all of this for?

Are our lives just for working and a little bit of play here and there? Is that what we were put here on earth for?

These “fancy” cars, outfits, the bulk items on pallets to satisfy our hunger needs…behind the scenes you don’t see the mass produced vegetables being grown, harvested, put on a truck to drive across the country to be delivered to stores along the way. Some getting spoiled and thrown out during transport, rotting in the store when nobody buys them or tossed in the trash at home because we forgot we bought those avocados last week.

What about the cows to be bred, fed, slaughtered and then their body parts packaged into a flat styrofoam box for us to cook and eat for dinner?

Flowers being grown to just be cut off, put in a vase then thrown out.

The vicious cycle of mass consumption is consuming us and our world. We attach ourselves to wanting these things all the time which makes companies have to pump them out like crazy and then in order for us to buy these things we have to work and make money.

What if we realized we don’t need all of these materialistic things?

We don’t need the fancy car, clothes, etc.

We don’t need to be working to sustain living. We can cut back on what is destroying the world and we can find happiness within ourselves instead of buying more items.

We mass consume because it’s there. What if we became more grateful and thought of things as being more precious than we do currently? Would we be less wasteful?

How can we be less wasteful and consume less?

Water bottles, paper towels, water usage, food, clothing, where is it made? What is it made out of? Think before you buy.

We can become grateful for the things we have, mindful about the way we eat and bless ourselves and the food we buy/harvest to nourish our minds bodies and souls.

When we are grateful for the things we have and can be happy from within we can live more simply.

The marketing ploys, advertisements on every corner, lurking at us, making us feel bad about our bodies, subliminally teaching us we need the new next best thing.

Going back to your roots. Our ancestors didn’t live like this. They grew their own food, were thankful for the soil and the rain to make their crops prosper. They ate with the changing seasons.

Our minds are cluttered with chaos, worried about what is happening in the future, what situation arose in the past and how it was handled. What about the present?

Can you put your phone down for an entire 24 hours? Notice how often you want to pick up your phone to check Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, the news blogs, texting, etc.

How often you need to feel connected to what’s going on? But what about what is going on within you? Or immediately around you?

Resist the urge to pick up your phone for social media, news, emails, etc. You might find that it quite difficult to do. You might notice your mind wanders wanting to look something up, to find instant gratification, instant connection, instant results.

Go with the flow of the natural life, for one day and be aware of your thoughts and feelings.

When driving, drive calmly and without rage. How do you react when someone pulls in front of you or doesn’t let you in when trying to switch lanes? Can you calmly flow through or do you create anxiety and have the urge to curse at the person in front of you driving or get frustrated with someone honking their horn?

Ask yourself why you feel that way?

Is it because you feel entitled?

Do you feel ignored by the person who won’t let you in to change lanes?

Perhaps they didn’t see you? Are they focused on the road?

Perhaps they didn’t want to let you in because they feel that driving is like a competition. They might want to have the upper hand and be in front.

There are many different scenarios.

But the next emotion that makes an appearance within you, ask yourself why you feel that way, what made you feel that way and what would be a kind, calm and peaceful response be instead of a reaction.

You might gain some insight on why you do things, who you are and what makes you tick.

Encourage more awareness and you might notice life starts taking you on a different path. Maybe something in life becomes more fulfilling or sparks an interest on being more in touch with nature.

Creating more gratefulness within and around you will in turn create more positivity in your life.

Can we find balance?

Can we slow down?

Think about how and why you feel a certain way when emotions stir up, think about your food choices before shoving them in your mouth, be mindful with your actions and words and don’t always be in such a hurry that you forget to live in the present.

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