We’ve lost countless things in the our grand transition to becoming “modern”, saying that some babies were thrown out with the bathwater doesn’t even began to cut it. More like we threw out some bathwater with the babies at this point. Something that a lot of people have lost is a sense of peace and wellness. Now there are many reasons for this, a lot of them things that you can do nothing about.
The economy becoming more and more exploitative, the disappearance of the middle class, your neighbors being people who are different than you in every way and every human knowing deep down the more differences there are the more causes for conflict that there are, the news beaming out negativity and that the sky is falling every other second. Pills to make people crazy and so on and so forth. There’s a lot that goes into destroying one’s sense of peace.
I was thinking about this with talking for a few older people and talking about how things have changed over the years. Something I recommend you do, don’t rely on the news or the talking heads to tell you what’s been lost or changed. Ask those that have been around the longest. It was interesting that a lot of them talked about a sense of peace that they would feel, especially around Christmas time but don’t anymore.
A small thing but something that stood out to many people and I thought I’d talk a little about here.
A Big Factor Regarding Peace That Most Don’t Think About
The modern world has turned just about everything into a warzone. There is no such thing as community anymore just us and them. Granted tribalism is natural and in many cases healthy but tribalism defined by unnatural things like whatever the news says we should be angry about is not healthy at all. Whereas before people could have disagreements but still be friends not a disagreement is essentially a declaration of war.
Of course this hasn’t been happening in a vacuum either. With more and more differences between people there are lost commonalities. Which is obvious but the effect of this aren’t obvious. With less commonalities the differences stand out all the more. While before someone might disagree on who was president they were part of the same race, same nationality, same religion, same beliefs about family and living, same moral code, and so on and so forth. For every thing that they disagreed about there was so much binding them together that it didn’t make all that much of a difference so harmony could be maintained.
Compare that to now when people disagree about who should be president and really you have two entirely different ways of living going against each other. The common ground is rapidly shrinking and that causes more conflict. Community isn’t a random collection of various consumers. Its people who share as many commonalities as possible so they forge together for the same goals. As different people have different goals that are important to them. This lack of homogeneity destroys community which destroys peace, even if it gives other benefits.
Peace Destroyed By Other Methods
But then peace has been destroyed by other methods as well. Poor diet, sleep, a work schedule that’s backbreaking an barely keeps you above the poverty line. Most of these things were done by design but that doesn’t help you heal from them or reclaim the peace that has been taken. First off look to your diet and sleep hygiene. If you have a poor diet with little nutrient rich foods like eggs, steaks, and liver then you’re missing key nutrients for proper functioning and that includes brain functioning. Keeping your room cool at night, blocking out light, getting off electronics an hour before bed. Those all make a difference too.
Meditate. Mediation should be required in the modern world, mindfulness meditation. Check out Headspace on YouTube if you want to know more about this. 10-15 minutes a day, doesn’t take much but consider it taking medicine. Except in this case the medicine actually heals and improves your brain. But it can work wonders if you let it. But we need more than just that.
Time in nature. The natural rhythms of nature soothe and calm the soul while the hectic schedule of the modern world destroys it. Take time to go for a walk through a park, nature preserve, or wherever else you can. Get fresh air, see the flowers, trees, open sky, lakes, rivers, streams, green grass, white snow, red changing leaves, and so on and so forth. Feel the breeze coming in off the ocean, the cold of early morning dew, the heat of sun baked clay, and so on and so forth. Get out in nature and find peace there. Get a cheap tent and spend a night somewhere.
Peace Through People
Most families are dysfunctional today, most families are at each other’s throats and riddles with personality and mental disorders that make it hard to have a functional cohesive whole. Much of this is because of things listed above but there are also factors that can’t be controlled. And this is unfortunate. Family and strong social ties are one of the best things that can be done for peace and your wellbeing. The modern world wants us soulless atomized consumers. To have no ties other than brand loyalty.
But that’s not how humans are supposed to function, that’s now how humans function. We need deep ties, blood ties, civic ties, communal ties. We need a group, a tribe (which has never just been men) around us. Sorry but big Southern families are more tribal than a bunch of dudes gathering in the woods. We need the real tribes around us. Grand parents, great aunts and uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, long time family friends, and so on and so forth.
Having extended connections through a community. So often is this forgotten when we talk about peace yet without humans often fell a bit vulnerable. Most will numb themselves to these feelings through numbing agents like alcohol, tobacco, social media, porn, prescription drugs, and weed but that does nothing to solve the actual problem. The problem of forging connections and building a true community and through doing giving yourself the best shot at peace possible.
