Dear Island-friends, Recent wet-weather events have been, in-part, inspiring to the personal development of interesting new thoughts and habits. Oh, and everything is looking so lush, green and healthy! Are we not blessed with the belongings of subtropical climate? As well, recent endeavours along Welsby Parade have caught me up in visions of whitecapped passage and white, rocking sail-ships (and the odd ‘Marooned’ one too) upon the rough greywaters.
Sometimes the little scenes I pass by make me feel rather surreal. How delightful it is to live on our sandy shores. Anyway, back to the development of interesting new thoughts and habits. So, one day a few weeks back I noticed our little Wi-Fi modem had, well, blown up. Upon ringing our provider, I found that the only thing we could do was purchase a new one and upon ringing JB HIFI I found it had been a common thing of late, what with all the storms, that modems have been blowing up.
Very long story short, I’m in the process of waiting for a completely new set up, which means no phone nor internet for a while. Besides that, I have also chosen to put away my mobile for a time so all in all I’ve entered into a sort of unplanned tech-detox. To tell you all the truth, I don’t miss it. Not yet anyway. In fact, it’s been rather pleasant and I feel purified. Moreover, I’ve found there’s something that kick starts in you when one daily habit changes for the better.
I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced this Islanders, but often, if I eat something really healthy and clean in one meal sitting, I feel repulsed at eating something the opposite in the next. It’s like if I do, I have spoiled the clean eating experience altogether. Well, it is not any different if you improve a daily habit. One improvement kick-starts another and before you know it you’re a changed person! Basically, it went something like this for didn’t need much but the fundamental needs in life.
And, instead of indulging in the lap of luxury, you were sitting beside it. Being restricted in one area of my life, heightened my appreciation in other areas. Because I not only found productivity out of the restriction but also enjoyment, I realised something. Just because we have access to luxury (as I feel a lot of what we take for granted in the West, a lot that we just expect as part of normal daily lives, would seem so luxurious in poorer countries) doesn’t mean we have to or should partake in them.
At least, partake so often as we do. I feel that a lot of social stress comes from keeping up a lifestyle that demands luxury. Luxury meaning: being in a state of great comfort, gratification and excess.
1. I mean, right now as I write I have both a lamp and overhead light on, *gets up and turns one light off*. What’s more, is we are so used to our comforts; so, used to them are we that at the slightest inkling of change we ruffle our feathers and seem very displeased. What stink behaviour! However good it is to nurture one’s self and be nestled and safe when the eye shuts, nothing excuses our consumer behaviour.
21st-century living has two foes: more, more more and feel good, feel good, feel good. More will forever shout at you and feel good likes you only when it wants then abandons you when it’s done. Both push you around, both are abusive, both are controlling. Speaking of control…
Dearest Islanders, I believe we can do without many things. Already you have great minds, abilities and hearts within you to live driven and fulfilling lives on this planet. Many of us already have the ingredients for success within reach, but there’s someone out there deceiving us to believe otherwise. They tell us we do not have it, (whatever it is) and that whatever it is, lies beyond our reach (and in the pockets of others).
In 1928, Edward Bersnay, well known for his work in public relations, said: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of organized habits and the opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society…We are governed, our minds are moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of,”
2. An unpleasant thought and a terrible fact if those in leadership are not good men. The empowering thing is, we do have a will and we do have a choice. Our freedom lies within choices that are healthy and regenerative and if they are good for us, they are also good for the planet.
However hard the escape from more, more, more’s and feel good, feel good, feel good’s sticky, controlling, a matrix of a web, you can become free. Take one good decision, reinvent one habit at a time and see yourself change into the strong man or woman you are to become. Blessings to you my dear island friends, Nikita.
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