When I was in the country of Nepal in 2000,..I became fascinated with the culture and their mindset about many things in life. While talking to a doctor one day discussing cancers and such, he made the comment that in his opinion, one of the leading causes of cancer among Americans was their “Stress Level”. The inability of the American culture to embrace “quiet time”. To set aside an hour or more a day to process life.
Our culture has turned into such a continual frenzy of one activity to the next,…we don’t like waiting for anything. The problem is – there are somethings in life that “take time”…and our instant gratification philosophy constantly clashes with them.
When I sit and think upon the Nepalese culture and compare it to ours, I see clearly that we have deprived ourselves of a couple things in societal our race for new and improved, that cannot be improved upon.
1) Extended family interaction – for both support in raising children and our own mental health
2) Downtime – Setting aside time when we turn off the cell phone, step away from the business of life and just process the information, the situations, and the “life” we are living. Taking time to ponder relationships, re-evaluating decisions and choices made, allowing things to sink-in,..and letting go of other things.
We have deprived ourselves of the two things that produce BALANCE in life, the thing we need most to sustain our physical, mental, and soulful well-being.
Due to the social breakdown of the home, of relationships, of many of the things that used to define the ‘norm’, it is a difficult task at best to accomplish the first thing. But it is totally within our ability to accomplish the second.
It seems that we have no time for anything, but yet, when we need to make time,..we always find it.
I highly encourage you, especially those of us that are Grand-PARENTS, to make sure that we take the time to maintain OURSELVES by setting aside ALONE time. It may not be easy,…but it is necessary,..to keep your sanity.
Hang in there,..and take advantages of places like this, where you can write your thoughts out, it is liberating!
Kath
