HOW DO I COPE? HOW SHOULD I COPE WITH ALL THAT’S THROWN AT ME

Source: Karen Burns Pictures

Ever felt like your head might explode?

A million things all swimming around in your head- in a kind of pickle. You need to de-clutter your mind, but you don’t know how to do it.

How can we de-clutter our minds? What stays, and what goes?

Aghhhhhhh!!!!

Life can seem crazy

This crazy arse world of ours expects us to have the capacity to do an endless amount of things. Not only this- but all in an instant.

Everything is flaming instant! and this drives me nuts (I don’t know about you?). Instant coffee (not as nice as Percolated coffee for sure), instant pictures, instant emails (that seem like chains, don’t they? When they won’t leave us alone).

Oh and don’t get me started on mobile phones!

Whoever invented mobile phones (can they please uninvent them), because it is like they now rule our lives (I fear they are stalking us). Because we have lost the art of proper in-person communication- and they make us lazy to boot.

I remember a time when I messaged my son, who was only on the next floor of my house- because I really couldn’t be arsed to go up the stairs. Crazy right?

Yet how many of us are guilty of using mobiles rather than getting off our asses and going to speak to someone face to face?

Convenience, or more like laziness?! Mobile phones aren’t the only gadgets that make us lazy.

Spell Checker, Calculators, etc

Now I am old enough to remember when we had to use our brains and do mental arithmetic. Whether that be to work out the total of items, or how much a round of drinks was going to cost.

Yet now we have calculators and other electronic devices, that make things easier for us.

Why do children need to be taught arithmetic at school still then? (It really is all a puzzle).

We have Spell checkers, so why are children still being taught how to spell? And most people communicate via PCs or other devices, so isn’t handwriting a lost skill now?

Oh, it really is quite mad, how far technology has taken us.

Do we actually need a brain?

Keeping skills

If you are like me and don’t want to feel like your brain is less useful, then there are things that we can do to keep these skills from being lost. Heck, we might find ourselves feeling more human, and find ourselves coping better in this crazy world.

The following things are what I do to keep my brain active and to keep my skills up to date:

• Sudoku
• Watch Quiz shows (such as Pointless, Tipping Point, or The Chase)
• Do online Quizzes (the BBC website often has good ones)
• Play word games on my phone (Such as Words with Friends)

Yeah OK, many of these involve using tech- I guess it does have its uses after all. But these activities make me think, they distract me from any crazy stuff that might be flying around my brain- and I feel a sense of accomplishment (when I actually get questions right).

Our crazy world isn’t going anywhere (just yet)

I drop a disclaimer here- that we really aren’t going to have a less crazy existence, come along, anytime soon. In fact, I do suspect things might get worse- enormously worse (sorry to depress you).

Therefore, we need to find ways- that work for us, to cope with all this craziness!

As well as the distractions of brain-inducing activities, getting away (finding an escape)can be another way to temporarily escape the madness.

I have found the most amazing holiday location (right here in the UK), that offers peace, tranquility, and the best part…

NO INTERNET or MOBILE SIGNAL!

I know, some of you may be thinking that this sounds like torture right? But honestly, it can be a fab way to detox from a world that is sometimes overbearing.

Final thoughts

Being with nature can remind us of all the good, and the beauty that exists- and can help us to reboot, so that we are more able to deal with all the rubbish that life throws at us. And here is a poem I wrote, that speaks volumes of finding a way to cope, to bring back hope:

Internal strength

Strength is something that’s inside.

Not something we always get to decide.

It’s not something that’s easily found.

And seeing it, can we astound?

Yet when we feel like life’s too much

Our strength of being is really such.

That sees us get through each day.

In some peculiar kind of way.

Sure we may not notice it!

When life feels like an anxious pit.

Yet strength really does keep us going.

Despite the desperate face we’re showing.

Underneath the anxiety and the fear.

Our busy mind notches up a gear.

To find a way to survive the pain.

A hopeful way to cope again.

Because hey, there really is a lot in life to deal with.

And we are ONLY human after all!