Oh, sweet September: time for a reset?
Hi, how are things where you are? We’re due to have another heatwave, says the Met Office. Having just about recovered from the last one and its erratic temperature changes (blankets on and off, summer clothes put away and thick hoodies dug out), it looks like we’re going to be baked again. And then probably blown about by hurricane-type winds and drenched before settling into winter. But for now, we can enjoy picking blackberries, apples and pears (when it cools down).
How adaptive are we, really?
As an Englishwoman, I should be used to fluctuations in the weather. Historically, we have bad weather most of the year, and it seems our birth-right to complain so. However, so unstable it is, that most folks I meet have become more explicit in their views about our unpredictable climate. More heat, stronger winds, and torrents of rain – when it comes. It seems many are not adapting well, while the bare tattooed torsos love the opportunity to display.
Who wouldn’t benefit from a mental reset?
I feel it to be more like the mid seasons in the Med where the hot and cold air battles and creates amazing storm systems with thunder so explosive your heart stops. I can embrace it all, wrap up or de-robe. But sometimes I need a mental reset to adapt and embrace what may come.
After publishing A Dangling Fish in Girl Town, like completing a marathon, I felt overcome with fatigue and my head felt as if it might break open and its contents come tumbling out. Yet, I’m nowhere near done, there’s lots to do to reach readers and get my work out there. Plus write more books. And finish working on my boat.
My September reset (and why)
I’ve hit the reset button before. I unplugged for a few years and basically deprogrammed myself. It wasn’t intentional to the extent it became. I’d already lived off grid and done things like pulled in water from a well in an outside shed, roamed the forests for firewood and collected fruits, nuts, herbs, and all sorts of foods. I wrote and published my first book and experienced a freedom I suspect most might never truly get to enjoy, or dare to.
But the unplugging part came about a different way, and I chose to embrace the situation rather than succumb to its disadvantages – never before have we become so reliant on technology and our devices – and I had just lost the ability to power and use mine effectively, and do my job.
Overload: clear the brain cache, hit reset. Start again.
In the end, I did adapt, and to this day I’m unsure if my reintegration back into it all is a good thing or not. Or if I have reintegrated at all. In many ways I chose not to. I’m a Taurus and a rebel. But even a Taurus can overcome stubbornness, and sometimes we must adapt. Or hit the reset button and try again – a stubborn will is advantageous.
The inner workings of a mental reset
I’m aware that much of the crap in my head is nothing more than discarded thoughts and their attached feelings, and uninvited information or rhetoric. Like annoying songs locked in your head on a loop. If you’ve written anything and read it back several times, or needed to memorise anything like lyrics or words for a play or a poem, then the loop is magnified. And it needs to go. This is when a reset is needed. Once we clear the cache, like reinstalling fresh software or updating apps, we’re good to go – faster, better, more productive. Oh, If only I were a robot and it was that simple.
I am not a robot
But resetting resonates with me and I’ve practised various mind hacks over the years, plus the unplugging and subsequent liberation. So when I heard someone say that they hit the reset button whenever they need to, I was like: you can do that? As if needing permission, my entire being trapped inside a conditioned mindset, sticking to the script – the one where we’ve got it all figured out and roll with the punches. Keep that stiff British upper lip pursed! Balls to all that.
I sighed relief and hit the reset button (again). I told self: “Today, you can start again. Delete all the unwanted junk inside your busy head and free up bandwidth for the tasks ahead. Like a tree shedding its leaves, be rid of them all.”
After focusing on where I’m at, and where I want to be – I’m already happy with my life in general, and grateful, so this part of the exercise wasn’t difficult – I breathed in a gulp of air, and exhaled out whatever cluster of nothing was cluttering my brain. It felt great.
Is it really so easy to reset your brain?
I hear coughs of contempt. No, of course not. I wish it was. It’s not always so straightforward, sometimes it requires hours of hiking through the forest or up the nearest hills. And sometimes the stuff inside my head is harder to expel. We’re complex creatures. But the basics behind our wiring is ancient and most of our struggles are generally caused by the modern world we’re trying to navigate with our ancient compass. It’s a juggle. And oftentimes, a real head-fuc*. Knowing there is a difference, and it’s not a natural state of mind we’re often projected into, makes navigating it a lot easier. And for many, it requires a whole lot more and professional help.
It’s in our DNA, but we need the right environment to grow and flourish
My unplugging gave birth to a more balanced me. I began waking at sunrise naturally, and sleeping solid until the very first light. That is one example of the benefits I still experience to this day. I awoke feeling happy and untethered and was truly at one with nature (many interesting reptiles and cute furry things all around me, unafraid). I walked by moonlight through the mountains and across beaches, the glow of pale rocks glistening with minerals and fossils illuminating the way. I was alone. And oddly I felt very safe.
There’s so much more I could write about that experience, but I’ll save it for another day. This post is about dealing with the growing pressures of modern life, here in the UK specifically, and many countries like it. But the truth is: it’s not us, and it’s often not our faults we end up feeling like a pressure cooker about to blow its lid. We’re often lured by the chase and the prize and are hardwired to be competitive; the media pushes our competitiveness towards greed and jealousy, and the pissing contest will never end, only a life enslaved by debt to fund it all. Self awareness seems to be out of fashion and vanity has stolen its seat for now, thanks to social media. What a circus.
An AI-world is not natural, and people are becoming dehumanised
Have you seen people in supermarkets these days? Barely civilised. Self checkouts are fascinating to watch. People staring hard at anyone not scanning and bagging and buggering off quick enough – we’ll be unloading goods and stacking the shelves ourselves next. It’s getting as bad as the airport check-in experience. And don’t ask anyone for help. Staff now tell us which line to get in and the general direction of goods we can’t find. Otherwise, most have zero personality to the point of me almost asking for their mobile number so we might communicate better. And supermarkets don’t smell like food, not even the fruit aisle.
Not natural, not nourishing. Hardly fertile ground for anything healthy to prosper, be it bodies or minds, in my humble opinion. I digress.
Sorry, slight rant. I think I need another breathing exercise, and to unplug for the rest of the day. Yes, indeed, it’s the times we’re in, and it’s why some live in solitude and why others escape, and why I need to hit the reset button more frequently. I dare you to try – go on, draw a line in the sand. Or read a good book and escape that way.