Fair warning, this is not a tech post, but me doing some happy contenplating. Hopefully someone might get something from this, but if you are looking for my usual techy posts, this one is not one of them. So with that in place..
If there is one thing I have been thick headed about in my life, it is how much my "problems" are created entirely by myself. It took me almost 34 years to truly acknowledge this, but when I did it hit me like a ton of bricks - really nice, fluffy happy bricks. I have let other peoples anger and lack of understanding make me angry and frustrated, and I have put myself under stress by telling myself that I am important enough that I need to check my emails, messages and social media pretty much constantly. Trust me, I am not that important, a couple of times a day is actually more than adequate. For the one time every 10 years people really need me to answer quickly, the phone and doorbell are invented. Take that in for a minute and really think about it. I don't think I am alone in this. Actually I think that is the case for all of us. Even if you are freaking Barack Obama, nobody needs you instantly. What they need is for you to be happy, relaxed and clearheaded so you make good decitions, when you finally make them.
We tend to stress out of the door in the morning, stress about being available for everyone all the time, and about every little decision no matter how small. All this while we spend most of the day not living, but planning because "what if". To my mind the truth is that as long as we are motivated to do good, and make choises for the right reasons, there is no reason to sweat it, and only negative things will come of it. Realising this has made me a lot calmer, more present in conversations and most importantly happy. After all, the most profound answer I have ever read about what the meaning of life is "living". Living, as in being present, enjoying life and making it meanningful by enabeling others to do the same.
Now, I can't do a blogpost entirely void of technology, so one takeaway from these thoughts is how I use my phone. I was actually at times annoyed about the battery life of my phone, and stressed about various notifications from email to tweets. How dumb is that. After realizing what I wrote about above I have configured my phone to check emails a lot less frequently, I have turned off the vast majority of notifications, especially social media sending me emails about stuff I already get notified about just by looking at the tiles on my phone, when I choose to. Have I missed out on anything? Not a single thing. Have I become less stressed? You bet. And happier? That too. Is the batterylife of my phone a problem? Not any more. Does this mean I don't care about things anymore? Quite the opposite, now I just have more energy to care about what matters.
Amazing how caught up we become, so we don't see the simple nature of things. I allow myself to use the term "we", because I feel confident I am not the only idiot who got trapped by modern society in this way.
Ghandi out :)
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