DEALING WITH THE CULTURE SHOCK

2020 has come and gone and it has left a trail of destruction everyone is trying to understand and come to terms with. This is probably the biggest culture shock humanity has had to deal with in modern times as it is truly global - it transcends all nations, all races, all religions and all cultures. The cost in terms of human life and suffering is devastating and it is probably the only cost that no one can attach a price to, although some will undoubtedly try. In the workplace everything has changed and yet, if we take a step back, nothing has really changed, at least not in the long term. Work still needs to be done, businesses will pivot, balance sheets will shift, economies will recover, buildings will still stand and markets will bounce back. These perceived losses are temporary and in the grand scheme of time, a tiny fraction of the individual loss of life and our individual and collective ability to keep it, cherish it and fulfil it.

Wellbeing is probably up there with Covid as one of the most used words since the pandemic began. It is well documented that a huge amount of work is going on to combat the immense challenges this brings and many are benefiting from the time, resources and support our governments, firms and even celebrities are investing to look after the physical and mental wellbeing of others. The good in humanity is showing through, as it usually does, but the events of 2020 have exposed the incredible fragility of the infrastructure we have built as a society and the dependency we have placed upon it. This has further exposed significant vulnerabilities and fears in individuals when this infrastructure is damaged or removed and this needs a fundamental rethink of how we cope in a modern world where nothing can be (or should be) taken for granted. This goes beyond what our governments, firms and celebrities can do. What is actually taking place is possibly the biggest opportunity in modern history for each and every individual to rediscover what it means to be alive. The pandemic is a wake-up call that has been long overdue. From being a seemingly fit and healthy runner, we need to learn to walk again.

So where do we begin? We need to understand how we got here and for that we need to retrace our journey. There are many well documented views that we live in a world now where egos (our outer self) rule but few take action to do anything tangible about it. Broadly, why should we. Our ego manages our wants and desires -  the things we see as making us feel good. If we think for a moment, how much time do we spend searching for gratification? The answer is most of it and we expect our desires to be met as instantly as possible. And let's face it, more often than not, we get what we want and we will complain repeatedly until we do. We took the journey that has effectively traded our soul for our ego (our inner self for our outer self) and if we look around carefully, we can see most aspects of our world are now led by, managed by and conditioned by egos. At times this feels good, at times ecstatically good, and it is all very well while we are getting our own way and our ego is well fed. In reality, our instant gratification is habit forming and we need our daily fix to offset the truth which is there is little deep and meaningful fulfilment in our lives. This reality surfaces now and again but becomes starkly apparent when something like this pandemic happens or ironically, when we grow older and our mortality forces us to ask ourselves what it is all for. When our supply chain of external wants and desires is dramatically limited, or worse, cut off, our senses scurry around unsure of how to react or what to do. Our external dependencies and sense of belonging to them are no longer a given - transporting ourselves around or to and from work, sitting in warm and (sometimes) luxurious offices, having access to reliable technology, having the freedom to interact at will - the list goes on, our comfort blankets in our daily WorkLife have been pulled from under and around us. The infrastructure we have been so used to and depended upon that took years to create and develop has gone in a heartbeat.

Our habits have been broken and we must react quickly and so collectively, as intelligent species do, we try and help each other and we see this in the wonderful initiatives and actions taking place around the world. Individually, some of our senses become on high alert to try and protect us - broadly we again rely on others and the external world and look and listen to what is going on around us for comfort. This then results more often than not in us having a larger set of mixed feelings - hope, optimism, worry, fear, anxiety, depression, emptiness - are just some of them and it becomes a potent cocktail. The cocktail intoxicates our mind, we start to feel under threat and our mental armoury starts to fracture. Mental and physical fatigue emerges, feelings of real loneliness arise (perhaps for the very first time), and fear of what this uncertain present and unpredictable future holds grips us tighter. Never mind the challenges of looking after others effectively, we realise we are not sure how to cope with ourselves or the world anymore and so we look around our conditioned state in expectation for answers. Our mindset tells us we are entitled to certainty and clarity and the external world will give us it (it is what we are accustomed to). So we demand it of our politicians, we expect it from our employers and we hold out hope that we will get it from our scientists and key workers. The answers cannot bring the certainty we desire so the same questions are repeated 24/7 with no one any the wiser. We become frustrated and angry when it doesn't happen (or quickly enough to feed our ego) so we add these emotional ingredients into the cocktail. By now we are not really sure how we feel but we know we don't feel good and neither does anyone else.

What we don't realise is we don't realise much. Most importantly we don't realise we have what we need to undo it. We don't realise that we have neglected our soul, our inner self, so much in favour of our outer ego that we don't know how to manage it. We don't realise we have created habits and rituals that have now become our masters. We don't realise we have effectively sleepwalked into our own prison cell and locked the door. We don't realise we have created our own isolated state or that we actually hold the key to get out. We don't realise we already have what we need to survive and then ultimately thrive, whatever uncertainties are out there. The key we hold is to look inwardly, not outwardly for our answers, to re-energise our senses and practically come to terms with the culture shock we are experiencing. It is about becoming the master of our habits and rituals and having an authentic perception of reality.

So how do we do that? The first challenge is accepting we have become so conditioned to our wants and desires of the external world that we have forgotten the basic needs of our soul. Our soul does not come and go, it is always there within us, and all it needs to be strengthened enough to help us cope is time, attention and nurture.  To do this requires us detaching ourselves from those external things that regularly feed our ego to free up time to spend on repairing ourselves.   There doesn't appear to be enough time to do this but there is, it is just we have filled all of our time with meaningless things that serve our ego. Once the time is made available, we then need to give ourselves proper attention to understand our fragilities and vulnerabilities and why they exist. This requires the ability to relax both our body and our mind. This is hard as relaxation is a skill and we are generally poor at it. This is often  not only due to our attachment to external things but it is also due to the detachment we have established from the real world - the natural world. This detachment has led to an imbalance deep within us as we have become out of sync with the rhythm of life. We have forgotten that we are, in fact first and foremost, a part of the natural world and we need it as much as it needs us. The rhythm of life generated by the natural world is cyclical, reliable, perennial and soothing. It is the stability we really need to relax and feed our inner self amid the chaos we experience with our ego and the external world. This is where we can nurture a stronger soul to cope better with the inevitable and uncertain change happening around us.

Nurture is also not simple or instant so we need to learn from nature once again. The seasons change and take the time they need to regenerate life and stave off disease. It knows when to stop and when to start, it knows when it is threatened and has the mechanisms within itself to fight back, survive and thrive. In fact, at the time of writing, when there still people ignoring government advice to stay home, nature has done its bit by sending snow to large parts of the country to stop people in their tracks. It is as if nature is seeing our plight and telling us we need to take better care of ourselves, it has great power in simplicity and so do we. Why? Because we part of nature, or to put it more bluntly, we are nature. We are real and we are capable of taking simple steps that we have made difficult to see to come through this culture shock stronger and better equipped for whatever the future holds.

It is time to grasp the opportunity which lies before us and trade back our soul from our ego. The results will be truly transformational and, if enough people do it, it could help remove a whole lot of suffering from our uncertain world.

If you want to explore more about how you can rediscover your inner self, book your complimentary consultation today

From the Fount at Zengility