The inconvenience of convenience.

Taking the tram to work is the most convenient mode of transport for me, in terms of speed, traffic and parking fee avoidance. However, it is also a reminder that we humans for all our advancements are mere animals who forget all our usual boundaries concerning of personal space and decorum when it comes to everyday activities such as getting to work.   

Having just had someone jab me in the back with their ridiculously oversized handbag, I toss my head in despair and think no she didn’t roll my eyes and give her my best death stare and ask “Really?” She backs off the most she can -  about 1 mm – and keeps glancing at me nervously for the entire 10 minutes we must share atoms. I am standing beneath a fellow sweaty passenger’s armpit and read another’s WhatsApp message as she pretends not to hear the impatient request from commuters hoping to get on the already packed tram, I let out a sigh and ask the universe why it is punishing me so. Seriously people won’t look you in the eye or even say hi before brushing up against you, making you smell them and accidentally on purpose sharing their oh so glam social media pics and engaging in rather personal conversations quite loudly e.g “…my man’s just been sent down and I don’t know what I’m going to do about the rent.” As amused as I am by other people’s lives I would rather be at home reading a book or thinking up ways in which I can heal the world and I can’t help thinking how inconvenient life’s conveniences are.

Take for example convenience food which Uncle Wikipedia tells me is “commercially prepared (often through processing) to optimise ease of consumption…. Including ready-to-eat dry products, frozen foods such as TV dinners, shelf-stable foods, prepared mixes such as cake mix, and snack foods.” Thanks to our dear brothers’ industrialisation, technology and capitalism convenience foods are thriving, but what are they doing to us? Slowly killing us that’s what and taking the joy and challenge out of providing sustenance for oneself both of which are fundamentals, in my humble opinion, to our stability. Imagine explaining to a caveman that rather than preparing tools for his hunt developing crucial skills in the process while satisfying the human need to be useful and getting all pumped up with his boys for their adventure ahead filled with social interactions and stories to keep the young’uns entertained for generations he could simply pop over to the shops buy some sugar filled synthetic yumminess that will fill him up for a bit, damage his health but leave him plenty of time to sit about indulging in idle gossip and other pointless activities. I am sure he would worry for our sanity.  I’ll admit I often consume and condone consumption of convenience foods for convenience although I know I am definitely inconveniencing my body and health. Why can I not just stop the madness?

On a personal heart and growth level I have conveniently stopped blogging and creating because I was too busy being inconvenienced by life which has severely inconvenienced my soul. I started off saying that I would get back to writing in a week, I was just taking a break to get used to my new schedule but the longer I stayed away from it the more I filled my life with less soul satisfying things like worry, guilt, Netflix and random staring into space, but something was always missing, and I knew what it was it just took a little while for me to admit it to myself. As a person who likes to analyse and learn lessons and move on (no matter how long it takes) I have accepted the lesson here which is life is about balance, it’s about change, adaptability and finding out what matters to you and what needs are being met. While I loathe the tram at rush hour I have learned to endure it and be thankful for it as I means I get to the place that provides me with my monthly pay. To amuse myself more than anything, now I smile at people and say hi some smile back others back away and give me space, either way I am winning! As for food I am taking baby steps to reduce convenience to find the balance that works for my constitution.

There will always be good versus evil, yin and yang, bitter and the sweet, deficit and surplus. It’s about balance.

Happy balancing x

If you need help balancing I am offering free coaching sessions this month to the first 3 people to reach out,

smilelifemgt@gmail.com

Breathe … It’s life.

Pausing for a minute, an hour, a week or even a year is something we do less and less in this microwave one-click culture we have created. We want everything now and are led to believe if we don’t have it or can’t get it now we are somehow inferior or less deserving of success and all the good stuff. I know time waits for no man and truly these days you blink and there’s a new iPhone out but we can get so busy trying to keep up we lose focus of what really matters to us and makes a difference to the way we experience life. On the flipside, there is the rebirth of the Nokia 3310 symbolising a return to slowing down and simplifying of life to me. I remember a time when there were no mobile phones and therefore we were uncontactable for the majority of the day sometimes even days if we were relying on the post. Life didn’t stop, there was no FOMO, you simply were where you were and got to hear great stories about events you were unable to attend.

I used to love receiving and writing letters the waiting gave me something to look forward to and the writing helped me process events whilst practising an actual skill. Now the only letters I receive are bills and emails are nothing to look forward to. With all the advances in technology and communication devices we are losing some basic language skills like spelling and talking, I know I used an acronym before, I too am occasionally a culprit. Messaging or IM or whatever the kids are calling it has killed conversation, I would love to sit down and have long phone or one on one conversations with people but there is just not enough time in the day, what it is I am busy doing I could not tell you. There is so much pointless distraction out here.

Browsing through magazines in a shop the other day I read an article warning about the danger of rapid weight loss and fad diets and how they speed up the ageing process. As a “passive diet addict” (I plan diets that I will attempt sometime in the future to unleash my inner size 8 who has never and possibly never will be seen) this was reason enough for me to journey towards getting happy with myself as I am and focus on health and increased enjoyable physical activity. The magazine had pictures of celebrities who have achieved and some over-achieved their weight loss goals and added years to their looks in the process. I am not a medical professional but to me that signifies that something isn’t quite right. Slow and steady wins the race, I want to stay looking as young as I can for as long as possible, although my grey hairs are telling on me lately.

I sometimes catch myself holding my breath and need to remind myself to breathe. It’s normally when I am over thinking, worrying, stressed or anxious about something. The fact that I am thinking so much that I am cutting off the one thing I cannot live without tells me that I need to pause and simply just breathe.  What good does thinking or worrying actually do? As someone who suffers from anxiety, I can tell you it does no good at all, this does not mean that knowing this I don’t worry it just means I acknowledge my worries and move forward the best I can asking for help if needed.

We have a lot to gain from slowing down. Call someone or invite them over for a drink. Tell a story,  breathe.