Could there be a hidden time-bomb from hustle and dopamine?
Yes, Virginia, there is a reset button
What if there’s a hidden time bomb ticking from the hustle culture and dopamine drivers that are sucking our attention and life energy?
What if the long-term effects of being always-on is worse than we think - that it's actually deadening our ability to respond to life?
While I am an optimist by nature, unexpected zombiehood is a chilling thought worth considering.
If we can just slow down, it’ll all be OK…
Worth considering especially because there's a pervasive and silent assumption that if we can just quit social media and figure out the right productivity hacks we'll auto-magically return to "normal," even if most people aren't sure what normal and healthy is anymore.
How would you feel if you couldn't be moved by the power of a magnificent sunset in the raw? If it was just pretty stripes in the sky to you? Many of those 35 and under, "Native Digitals," think a digital image is more real than the real thing.
What would happen if we became dead to sensing the immense vastness of life in wide-open natural places that stretch to the horizon? And feeling ourselves as a tiny speck in that vastness? Arguably, many already are dead to it and see only "profit potential" in the "empty land."
What if we were stripped of the ability to notice the tiny miracles of awe and wonder interwoven into our daily lives if we take the time to notice - the intricacies of moss, the gossamer beauty of a dandelion head about to burst, the abstract art of butterfly wings?
Is there a point of no return?
Could there be a point where we've been disconnected from Nature for so long without active awareness that the connection "times out" and no longer functions?
Can we prevent a permanent disconnection?
Good lord, is there even a reset button?
The power to reconnect is your Earthright
Yes, and yes. We can prevent it and there is a reset button.
The way to prevent permanent disconnection goes beyond unplugging from the dopamine drivers, managing how much time we spend on social media or becoming super-productive.
We have to not only reconnect with Nature, we have to actively maintain that connection as the central connection to all life in our lives.
We have to make time to spend time with Nature - no matter where we live and what our days look like.
I can hear you sputtering, "But, Marsha....!" Honestly, it's actually easier than you think.
Pop Quiz: Where’s Nature?
See, we've been sold a contemporary myth that the only way to "connect" with Nature is to go "out into" Nature somewhere that isn't where we are.
Horse pucky.
Think about it: As long as there's sky above your head, you're with Nature. It can’t be any other way.
Yes, you may have more manmade environment than Nature-made environment and you may have to be more curious and creative to connect with Nature, but there is no place on the planet where Nature isn't.
To be fair, it's more obvious and arguably easier to reconnect when you're immersed in a sensory rich natural environment and there are no urban sounds and sights to distract you.
Hint: Look in your DNA
But here's the thing: With a bit of fine-tuning of your natural curiosity and awareness you can find the same sense of mind-blowing awe and wonder to rekindle your connection anywhere, even between cracks in the sidewalk.
How?
Nature is fractal. There's as much Nature in a common dandelion as there is in the whole of the Grand Canyon. You can learn how to look for it.
That's the reset button. Hidden-in-plain-sight. Boom.
There's as much Nature in a common dandelion as there is in the whole of the Grand Canyon.
I get so annoyed by the productivity, minimalist and simplicity gurus who treat Nature as "nice to have," as one of the things you can do to destress and ultimately be more productive along with picking up an old hobby or a fiction book.
Nature isn't "nice to have" only if it's convenient or easy. It's a must-have. It's in our DNA.
Let’s not ignore it at our peril
Time with Nature reactivates our natural operating system that evolved over eons with the rivers and the oaks, which has been overridden by fast-paced lives that ignore the natural cycles. I call it our NaturalOS.
Time with Nature is the key to harmonizing our days and rhythms into a sustainable pace so we can step back from the artificial hustle and grind culture that is chewing us up to live a naturally slower, richer, meaningful life.
It was the short clip of an upcoming film, "Fool's Paradise (Lost?)" that sent me on this rant. It's about about "how we heal ourselves through reconnecting to nature, and the symbiotic necessity to heal what’s left of the wild – our own inner wild and the outer wild."
It's worth 3.34 minutes of your time.
More from me on this topic next week.
Til then, get yourself outside!
Loved everything about this piece Marsha, including the term "horse plucky" ha! Even though I'm one of those "annoying productivity people" who recommend time in nature alongside other tools for busy, stressed professionals, I'm absolutely with you 100% on the need for deeper (re)connection with our origins, it's a non-negotiable. Recognising that we are part of this larger ecosystem, this natural consciousness, and not overlords of it (via things like the pretty wallpaper on our screens) is a message I'm so pleased to see you leading the charge on. More please! :) (And thanks for the film recommendation, very moving).
Thank you, Marsha. This is powerful stuff. It’s also refreshing and hopeful and life-giving.