Lasting 7 minutes

 I am trying something different.  I am having a down day.  Nothing really wrong, in particular.  Just feeling low.  Normally when this happens, I recognize it and take steps to bring myself up with something from the large arsenal of tools that I have to draw from.  Tools that can remind me of how good my life is.  But, this time, I am going to play into it a bit.  I might not write everything I am thinking in the next few moments, but I am going to dwell in the negative in my head. 

I listened to a comment made by Tom Power, host of Q, on CBC where he indicated that a therapist once induced a full on panic attack in him in a safe place and when he finally came through it, he realized that it was only 7 minutes from start to finish.  7 minutes until the feeling passes and reality sets back in. Hardly worth getting upset over.

I don't know if there is any correlation here, but I find that at my lowest moments I envision the current state as being permanent and never-ending.  Regardless of the old adage, this, too, shall pass, it is difficult to wrap my brain around the concept that, like an ice cream headache, which seems intolerable, the pain will subside.  Conversely, when things are on an ultimate high, this, too, will not last.  

So, in the moments of writing this entry, I have allowed to my mind to process some of my darkest thoughts, and biggest fears knowing that dwelling on them will neither make them a reality, nor will it make them fiction.  They just are.

Simplicity

• Media as I know it has changed so much from the simple formats with a beginning, middle and end, to a a diverse unstructured, unverified, unvalidated format that places the onus on the viewer to determine the value.  In some ways this should be good as we should all be discerning viewers of the content we digest, but on another level, the content just seems to permanently ooze from every digital screen.  We don't so much sit down to watch tv or a movie anymore.  Rather, it is constantly enveloping us and permeates our brains and our culture giving us real time access to too many choices.  
• The key to breaking this pattern is simplicity.  What do we really need in life vs. what has been expertly marketed to us as essential.  I have always been an organizer, but have always downplayed this skill as I was never able to fully envision a world where this skill was not considered odd.
• I spent 30 years trying to keep a family of 5 organized and have developed a lot of useful life hacks and ways to stretch essential dollars farther by focusing on Quality essentials that meet your needs and focusing mental and financial resources on experiences that are relevant, fun, valuable for you.
• Strongly modeled on the "the gentle art of swedish death cleaning", I have been adapting my own principals that keep our "stuff' from getting too chaotic and overwhelming.
• More out of necessity, I am now realizing these skills are even more important to the next generation as they are bombarded more aggressively by companies looking to take their money.
• While the next generation has serious advantges in the coming belt-tightening days as inflation kicks in, they are seriously lacking in simple skills such as fixing things, basic cooking skills, and they are more plugged into the external world than my generation so they are having a difficult time avoiding the distractions of daily life.  A skill I developed as a kid with minimal technology.