You know, let your mind drift on to another life you could live? Or some better story than the one you are currently living?
I’m sure that most of the world has done that at some time or other. And plenty of us have been doing it today.
When we do such things they feel good to us. They lift our mood and take our head somewhere better than where it currently is.
But others see this behaviour as a mistake. They see it as us believing in some fairy tale or miracle that just won’t happen. We will get advised to come back to reality, be realistic, and stop living in a fantasy world.
And so we go back to our normal humdrum existence accepting that perhaps it wasn’t good for us in the first place.
But, that would be a mistake as our well meaning advisors are wrong and we are very right to enjoy escapism.
Because, in fact, it is a very healthy thing to do!
These sugar sweet Christmas tales revolve around someone who has been badly hurt suddenly finding love at Christmas. Usually they have travelled to some small town and discover happiness where they least expected to find it.
And we watch these Yuletide love movies in our droves. In 2021 for example over 80 million people viewed one of their Christmas editions in the US alone. They may seem far fetched and a fantasy, but we love the made up illusion.
Maybe it’s love we seek or belief that amazingly great things can happen out of the blue.
In truth, we know it’s escapist entertainment, but our minds love it and need it. Because they need to escape too.
The pressure of life on our mentality today is intense. From increased stresses at work or getting work, the cost of living, energy crisis, affording a home and bills, and wars and conflicts regularly springing up, mentally we feel besieged. Our heads are exhausted watching and worrying at the next potential threat or concern.
The figures are stark. Some 1.2 BILLION people worldwide are now living with a mental issue. This is DOUBLE the number recorded in 1990. Our mentality is struggling to cope with modern life. I have written about Stress on this blog and new ways of approaching it.
For now though our minds need a break from the negative it has to deal with it. And that’s where escapism comes in.
We don’t disappear into Cedar Hollow for a Christmas film. We escape our pressure cooker existence to see if Beth will find love with Matt as she bakes grandma’s old cookies for the Christmas Cookiethon competition.
Which saves out head health and makes us feel better all over!
Imagining a happier world.
What do you imagine?
If you are like the vast majority of humans, you imagine all the things that could go wrong. From losing your home due to the spiralling costs of living to having no job plus other personal pitfalls you are worried over.
We are brilliant at imagining…..the worst.
Far from escaping into an amazing life, we take our minds into some hell hole type existence. Again and again. Come on, be honest, when did you last think and see an awful event coming your way in your mind? Last week? Last night? Ten minutes ago?
By now we all have learnt what this leads to. Anxiety, high stress levels, blood pressure issues, poor sleep and concentration, irritability, and emotions all over the place.
All from seeing a bad self played movie in the mind.
So what do you think indulging in mental escapism will do for you? You know it! Enhanced health at every level and a far more enthusiastic outlook on life. So long as you escape into existences that can occur (nice house by a river, your own marketing company, getting a book published) you will be alright. Go off into la la land envisaging yourself the best friend of Richard Branson and his new business advisor or Kylie Minogue falling in love with you (ok that was mine), and you’ll end up hating your current life.
Be a personal escapist and you will drift off into nice places and into improving health too.
Imagining a happier world puts a smile on your mouth and in your body.
Nothing lost, everything to gain.
Imagine being on a white sandy beach in Barbados.
Or swimming with dolphins or opening your own coffee shop with its own pet zone.
Whatever your escapism moments are, don’t stop having them. They protect your health and project your aspirations. Two perfect outcomes. In fact, mental escapist souls become the happiest and healthiest among us.
Their active minds almost activate a complete life change. It’s like a magic spell that lifts them out of their long rut and transports them to better places, a better total experience with life with the best self coming out to lead it all.
Follow suit. All the clouds that hung over you, will melt them away as the new sun that rises in your mind burns them away with great scenes you love.
Which speaks of one undeniable truth of the whole process – there is nothing to lose and everything to gain.
It could end up helping you turn the corner, turn the page somewhere in your life, or finally take your turn at being happier than you ever, well, thought. Imagine that.
It’s not mental escapism, it’s mental freedom!!
References – Fortune.com – Hallmark’s catalog of 300+ Christmas movies.
Healthdata.org – Global mental disorders have nearly doubled since 1990 (published 21.5.26).
Virtually everything we need to do now has an online option or we are directed there to access services. To do this we have an array of devices we use that marry together from phones to laptops to car navigation aids.
With this the physical side of life is being slayed by companies. Try buying a road atlas or keep receiving paper bank statements in the post. Or purchase a vinyl record on the average high street to take home to play on your turntable .
The technological rush has destroyed much of the way we used to live and you can see that everywhere. It rules us now.
It’s taken over the world and it’s fast taking over our human activities too in rapid fashion. And we are letting it.
But worst of all with this is it’s destroying our minds and pretty much everyone hasn’t even noticed.
So let me show you the 4 top ways technology is killing your mind.
1. You’ve stopped thinking.
That may seem a stupid thing to say because we all think.
But go back just a few decades. Not that long ago.
It was a very different mental world. If you needed to do something, develop something, remember something, or complete something, you had to use your mind to do it.
The tasks that you had to think about and work out a schedule for – writing the food shopping list and fitting in time to go buy it, working out your finances and what bills you have to pay, sorting out dates for nights out by calling people and arranging your diary etc – have died off.
Now they have online or mobile phone options that will send you notice they need to be done and when. A job your mind used to have to do for you, now it’s been made redundant and out of work in this respect.
As a result, your thinking reduces a huge amount.HUGE!
Thinking you did, you now don’t do. It may seem a saving but it’s meant your mind isn’t doing what it was built for like before.
You have stopped thinking and thinking is what you must never stop because…
2. You are killing yourself.
Yes, I mean this.
Your mind is your supercomputer. It doesn’t just remember tasks like above. It manages and regulates your whole body. From breathing to moving, keeping you safe to firing you up, your mind is the fulcrum to everything YOU.
That’s why you have a central nervous system for example. The mind is front and centre at ensuring you have regulated health and remain alive. It’s the operating system for your human body and without it, that body doesn’t work well. Or at all.
The sheer growth in dementia should be a warning to us all.
In 2021 over 57 million people were living with dementia worldwide, with 10 million new cases now diagnosed year on year. But more scarily, the number of cases has DOUBLED in the last 25 years. Our minds are going wrong.
We are at the start of the mental degeneration era. The effects that take time to show tally exactly with the onset of technological use in society and this has grown exponentially since the mid 1980’s.
We are sitting on a mental timebomb.
The widespread reliance on technology to take over tasks, roles, and activities we used to engage our mind to, is seeing those cells dying of far quicker. The phrase, ‘use it or lose it’ is medically true. If you stayed in bed for a year, your muscles would waste away due to no oxygen supply as they are not active.
The same goes for your mind. But, remember, it controls everything in your body; every function, every movement, every decision and every facet of staying alive. Which means if you continue to use technology for what it once was regularly doing….
You will be degenerating yourself!
3. You are becoming addicted.
Our addictions used to be social scourges.
Alcoholism, drug use, gambling, promiscuity. All of these were viewed as people out of control showing abnormal behaviours. They were things normal everyday people would not do.
Until technology came along.
It has steadily infused itself into our daily lives so that we can’t get by without it. Take social media. We need a device to log onto the various platforms and over 5.8 billion of us do that in some form every single day. EVERY day including Christmas Day. There is no let up.
We are not just connected to the internet now, we are connected to our phones/laptops as if they are part of our body.
The cyber world offers a Narnia type experience in every moment. You never know what world and what people you can open up when you log in and enter. The physical realm you live in is boring by comparison to this place. And so you need to be in that other world……often, which becomes any minute you can.
Not necessarily to look at anything, just to be there. For the vibe, for the excitement, for the energy, for as many hours you can get it.
Just like an alcoholic with their drink or a drug taker with their class A stuff.
Like them your addiction has taken over your mind. It drives all you think about and craves it. Which is not healthy.
It’s harmful and it’s your mind that will carry the harm the most.
4. You are losing focus.
Time to take a short break.
Some fun for half an hour on the Playstation for a couple of online games. You want to get to that next level. You have a few jobs to do but you’ll crack this first.
Next level achieved or not you are not focusing on what you should do or have to do. You are merely entertaining yourself. When that happens any true focus goes out the window.
The focus you need isn’t on Reels, Facebook or game where you shoot the invaders.
That’s artificial focus that does zero for your life and zero for any responsibilities and tasks that are of prime importance. Ones that you then miss or rush and get wrong which need re-doing.
The truth is technology is stopping us all from living a life.
If we enjoyed an hour or two a week like someone who plays golf, that’s a good use of downtime. But we’re not. Globally and shockingly we spend 46 hours weekly on the internet. Virtually 2 whole days. Take off an average 7 hours nightly for sleep, and we’re techno busy for 40% of our weekly lives. The vast majority of this is simply for pleasure not progress. For fun and not future life building.
So if your life never seems to bring you anything check what has your focus. Where it is and what you are using. Because instead of building a real life offline that you give your whole focus to you’re focusing on the latest football gossip or aiming to smash King Snurge in his castle to win the golden crown.
Remember this golden rule – focus is future!
But also remember all of these four. Technology is taking over our world and turning us into robots. Automatons who log on. Don’t let that be you.
Stop your technological suicide through killing your own mind.
As a tribe of humans we all tend to fall in line with our fellow members overall thoughts and beliefs. It’s our ancestral survival mechanism housed in the mind developed over many thousands of years. If our thinking matches the mass thinking, it’s a safety in numbers thing.
After all, if everyone is doing it, they can’t be wrong….can they?
Well…..maybe not.
Even though, yes, the accepted normal thinking base has kept us alive and able to lead a reasonable life. What it has also done has put up untrue red flags and fear opinions that have stunted potential progress.
True that we have crossed the seas, climbed the mountains, and flew to the moon. But current thinking has also poured bad waters on common opinion and almost wrecked our potential before it has even started.
We get there with some things in the end, but at the start we kill plenty else off through the thinking of the day.
Let’s catch a train and I’ll show you.
The Mind of Fear.
Have you heard of the Bullet Train?
It is perfectly named. These Shinkansen super fast Japanese trains travel at up to 320 km/h and have been in operation since the 1960’s. More impressive is that Japan now wants to go one step further. The Maglev Train is in development that has the potential to cross the country at a phenomenal 600 km/h.
A far cry from the early days of train travel in the 1800’s.
Where the concept of mega quick trains appears exciting, back in the pioneering days thinking on the street was far from thrilled. In fact, it was in sheer panic.
The earliest trains were open to the air and even though barely going above 20mph, the belief was that passengers would suffocate at that ‘high’ speed. Roll on slightly to the 1860’s and the Victorian era and the advent of covered carriages. Problem solved?
Quite the opposite. A new fear filled belief took hold called, ‘Railway Madness’.
This condition was a mental anxiety caused by the movement of the train over the tracks with the motion causing a quick onset of hysteria. Having read everyday newspapers that revealed growing instances of this lunatic reaction, the public of the day soon contended that train travel would turn you mad.
The only thing crazy about this is how crazy it seems to us today with our 100+ mph trains.
But, that’s how current thinking spreads into wider minds and creates narratives that aren’t real.
But, it wasn’t just the Victorians, we have always practised this.
Bad for the eyes and the mind.
The humble television, as normal in our homes as any device there has ever been.
So much so that in 2016 there were an estimated 2 billion TV sets across the world. And that was 10 years ago!! We’ve loved our TV’s from the very start, Er, well, not quite so.
In the 1960’s General Electric released a small batch of faulty sets. They emitted the wrong type of radiation and needed a simple fix to solve which occurred not long after the problem was identified. Too late for some. Before checking the situation and remedy, officials warned people not to sit too close to the TV screen as it was likely to cause eye sight damage.
Of course, it was a current thinking fear projection and wasn’t true.
But have you heard of this advice or even been told it by a parent or teacher at school? There you go, a myth that still persists to this day though was never medically diagnosed. TV set sales fell for a while due to this and even today we sit our TV away from us (though that’s also partly due to them being so huge and have to go on a wall).
Current fear mentality can hang around. It can even prevent progress pretty damn quick.
Nearing the end of 1999 it was everywhere and on everyone’s lips!
Computer meltdown.
As the last Century closed, the use of computers was surging.
In 1999 in just the space of a few years global home computer sales had hit 213 million. It was an epic rise by over 50% on the previous year. The market was surging and computers were the future. Until the future threatened to kill them off. At least in some people’s minds.
The media picked up on a little known issue whereby to save memory space computers only recognised the last two digits of a year. As 2000 fast approached and millions of people were using their computers daily, fears grew what might happen.
These worries became growing alarm became a global cyber bug that had planes falling from skies and banks systems failing with our money stuck in them.
Current thinking had met current use. And current crazed minds.
A basic extra update was added to safeguard, but guess what? Nothing at all went wrong.
You see, that’s us. Current beliefs and minds can scaremonger. From witches burned at the stake to the Luddites who destroyed new textile machines. From microwave meals frying us inside to MTV killing off radio, we press the worry button and pass it on.
So let this be a proper warning to you. Current thinking today will be the same as it was hundreds of years ago, It will find fault, find flaws. find death and destruction, find how it will fail, and find it’s way into the mass psyche to plant negative seeds of thought.
Don’t let it find you!
Whatever you want to do, use, create, or enjoy….don’t let modern mentality kill your fun or dream.
Photo attribution – free to use under Pixabay Content License by TyliJura and geralt.
References – ashley.collie.medium.com – sixty years on television sets.
Whatculture.com – everyday inventions that caused widespread panic.
Five thoughts, ideas, insights, or quotes to power up your mind to think differently and creatively about life and who we are. Put all previous thinking away and open up a brand new world of the Supermind. YOUR SuperMind.
This week – Common Sense.
In previous SuperMind Saturdays I have looked at some of the burning issues in the world. Everything from obesity to violence, immigration to gambling. But this week is different. While Common Sense is not a society problem per se, it is an element of human life that has gone missing far too much. Gone missing so often it appears it’s no longer in use at all. And THAT’s why SMS needs to get involved as ask some pertinent questions about it. In keeping with the subject, let’s start with the obvious.
1. And Common Sense is?
At first this may seem a strange question. After all, Common Sense is obvious, isn’t it? You know, if you do anything very risky the chances of an accident ramp up. If you spend more money than you have got, you will soon end up in debt. And if you treat your partner and friends badly, you are most likely to end up on your own. But, that’s just it. Common sense is, well was, fairly easy to understand. Yet into today’s modern world the concept of the examples above have been missed by a huge amount of people on the planet. So, to help get them back on track…..
How is Common Sense best defined?
2. Responsibility fail.
With a sensible head we are aware of the consequences. Again, perhaps less so in this contemporary society. Have bad debts from sheer overspending, seek an IVA to remove the most possible. Be badly overweight from overeating and seek surgery or a wonder drug to get the weight off quick. Relationship issues, just bail out and get on an app and find a new partner. Common sense has gone simply because people don’t want, and won’t take, responsibility for their behaviour and actions anymore.
Has a lack of responsibility killed Common Sense?
3. It is not a top table trait.
We expect our leaders to act with sensible actions. To make decisions that are based on solid and sound thinking. To not wage war or make fiscal choices that put our safety and security at risk. After all, they are the highest member of society because the buck stops with them, they run the show, and they have the power to rule. And there’s where Common Sense has disappeared in modern times. Leaders now seek to control other countries, or push personal ideologies, drive agendas, and are caught up in battles for power with rival political parties and leaders. Common Sense doesn’t exist in their shenanigans.
Are leaders now driven by power rather than sense?
4. The Social Media Effect.
In 21st Century life most things always come back to social media, As it is the daily ‘go to’ place for billions of humans, it has to be the same place to go for anything causing issues or influencing humanity. Whether people actually know or not, watching and reading on social media permeates into the consciousness. If we regularly see others speaking, suggesting, showing, and plain advising to act in ways that are not Common Sense, we will align more with their way of thinking. They become our mental mentors and if they live without truly considering being sensible, chances are we will be infected in exactly the same manner.
Has social media destroyed Common Sense?
5. Time for a new set of Common Sense thinking?
I’m going to play fair, and play devils advocate. Common Sense has changed, and maybe it’s simply had its day in its old form. Life has evolved very quickly in the last few decades and how we live and interact has always kept pace with this. Common Sense may have gotten left behind and become too rooted in past thinking. It could be that we have moved on mentally on what is sensible (such as not staying in the same job for life or using money to create passive income) but we aren’t truly aware of what represents Common Sense as life has been in rapid change.
Therefore, should we rethink what Common Sense is today and record that in some way?
Ok, that’s another SuperMind Saturday done. Thank you for being here for the SuperMind time. Keep thinking about these. We need more minds thinking about this issue and the others issue on SuperMind Saturdays. Why? Because it’s needed. Because the world requires new thoughts and ideas. Perhaps YOURS!!
See you next time for more super thinking.
Photo attribution – Free to use under Pixabay Content License byStanislavKondrashov.
We are an advanced world on this 21st Century Earth.
Less than 60 years ago we had only just calculated how to land on the Moon. But, since then we have created the internet, Artificial Intelligence, and mega mini computers we hold in our hand.
Stellar progression in a blink of an eye in human history terms.
However, while this is impressive and highly enterprising, it’s also become incredibly complicated.
When the technology doesn’t work, mayhem ensues. Not to mention panic, frustration, and confusion.
We have learnt to think in cyber terms and lost using the mind in simple ways that actually make life good. And not just good but great, groundbreaking, and fabulous.
In this post I’m going to give you 5 reasons why simple thinking still makes life a fantastic thing.
1. Simple is Steady.
Contemporary mindsets are set for quick benefits and fast improvements.
We are in the era of the viral video ethic. In other words make my video an overnight sensation that brings me the money and elevates who I am. This mentality has spread to the mass mind of humans. I want it all and I want it now, has become the mantra.
I call this the Internet Attitude.
Just like ordering a product off Amazon that is delivered the next day, the mental belief is one of quick wins and rapid advancement.
Simple thinking is the polar opposite. It is steady. It operates along established lines of thinking. Solid, practicable, step by step headway or recovery. It won’t be a firework that explodes to be seen and then disappears long to be forgotten. And it won’t create some large lucrative benefit that fades away so you are back to square one soon after never to be there again.
Simple is steady and steady stays the course.
2. Simple is Solid.
Contemporary is clever but also hugely changeable.
What arrives today, can be a fad tomorrow. What once seemed a futuristic concept can be discarded to the bin a short time later. We can be immensely creative but also over optimistic and carried away.
What looks and feels amazing in the mind can turn out unworkable and unusable in practice. Blueprints and drawings, interfaces and system relays, power units and usability functions. All needing tying together, turning what the head imagined into a machine or project than can happen. But often, they don’t.
Not so with simple thinking approaches that are more solid and can be built on.
Simple has less manufactured components. It requires far less people to put together. It has a much lower number of working parts. And it brings less costs to bear to go from idea to reality.
And the unnoticed part is that the whole invention or service is based on a solid requirement met in a straightforward end result.
Barely any customer helplines are ever required. It’s solid, fit for purpose, and works well.
Simple is steady and steady is a foundation stone of life.
3. Simple is Successful.
Now of course getting to the moon isn’t simple.
And neither are many other things when they were set up like creating small household computers, building the Channel Tunnel, and The Hadron Collider to mention but a few.
That said, there are more stand outs that have been hugely successful because they were simple and met everyday needs.
Everybody has used a Post-it note or played with a Frisbee at some time or other. Just as basic but also that made it big were The Hula Hoop and Band-Aids and the world’s comfort wear, Crocs. I’m sure you can think of some of your own truly simple products that made global sales from foods to games and more.
Simple meets everyday requirements without the pfaff and fuss and hassle of more complex creations.
In most cases you simply turn up, buy, and they are yours. No advanced orders or multi programming. It’s on the shelf and then in your hand…or on your feet.
We love simple and we will keep paying for it again and again. All ages, all races, all income types, all backgrounds.
Simple stays successful because of this.
4. Simple is Popular.
Techno nerds may jump on this.
They will shout up at the vast worldwide sales of mobile phones and computers and rightly so. However, they have almost been forced on us all with the advent of businesses, organisations, financial institutions, and even governments driving access to their activities online.
So popular but made so rather than became so.
There are hundreds of super successful products that hit the popularity stakes with us members of the public. Popular because they cover any consumer of any age.
From push down shampoo dispensers to fly swatters, the 80’s Filofax to wet wipes, what helps us across the generations is a popular hit. Simple products the save us time or money, problem solve or provide easier convenience, we have bought them en masse.
Above all else simple is popular and always will be.
So if you were thinking of an idea, ensure it’s a simple benefit that society can gain from and you will have lots of people beating down your door.
Simplicity is a popular presence in human existence.
5. Simple is Sensible.
Humans love things that make sense.
When they are confused or unsure, or find something difficult to get their heads around, they tend to leave it alone. We don’t want to have to think too hard to use or enjoy a product or service. It’s against our nature.
Common sense is inbuilt in us and will never die (though it appears to be having a short break in this 21st Century world).
This means we appreciate what is sensible.
Simple ideas and creations fit that bill perfectly. They switch on a kind of light in us that advises us that they will work wonderfully in our lives. Our sensible side recognises the sensible in the product almost immediately. We don’t have to ponder at all. Our common sense radar tells us to get right in and get involved.
The truth is we see, feel, and can almost naturally smell something simple is sensible and will aid our daily life.
Simple speaks sensible to our sensible self.
There you go my (sensible) friend. If you are involved in thinking about a better life or better service or better idea that will work magic for your future and the rest of us too…remember these simple five.
They’re not hard to forget. There’s only 5. Which makes them simple too.
Simple can be the key to a stunning, successful life. Can you simply believe it?
Photo attributions – free to use under Pixabay Content License by geralt and OctavY and marvelmozhko.
