Why Are We Addicted To Stimulation?

Sit for a minute, and breathe

Photo by Julia Cheperis

We live in an interesting world to say the least. Life on Earth is not easy, but it’s not hard either. For the most part, things go smoothly for most people— as long as the Sun rises, and that we’re healthy, all is good — but sometimes, different tests present themselves, and we have to exercise more efforts than we’re used to.

Such “tests,” which promote evolution, are often associated with difficulties, adversity, challenges, obstacles, and so on. They may appear as people being against us, or simply a reversal of fortune. And because we’re not taught at school nor at home how to handle our emotions and thoughts, most people break apart in the face of those tests.

This “breaking apart” creates intense emotions in us, most of the time in the form of pain and hurts, which solidifies into anger and resentment eventually. If left to themselves, as is the case for the most part, those emotions get pushed into the subconscious mind. Why? Because we have to keep living, and we can’t function in the world if we’re always depressed or angry.

To cope with our feelings, we often find relief in some religious beliefs, or through friends and family’s companionship, or through alcohol, sex or any other distraction. The list goes on and on. Our economical system actually thrives on this basic escape mechanism.

But there’s just so much our subconscious mind can contain. As we live, things happen, people do their things. Sometimes everything happens according to our expectations, but most of the time, they don’t. And that means accumulating more and more hurts.

Eventually, we lose in presence and aliveness. We live but we’re not really there. We’re surrounded with people but everyone is lost in their phones, scrolling through useless content while keeping the conversation going either by discussing what some useless brand has put out, or what some other “celebrity” has done.

This lack of aliveness makes our lives painfully dull.

On the surface level, we lack substance, which we seek through experiences. We make travel plans but we never fully enjoy the journey. We look up to parties, but it’s disappointing. We date different people, but it feels the same. We eat and drink exotic things, and it affects our health the next day. Et cetera.

On an internal level, we take everything personally. We’re easily hurt or triggered. We’re often moody, angry, and resentful. We’re not pleasant with people, every situation is an opportunity to blow some steam off — we hurt others, then we feel guilty about it, but we’re too proud to ask for forgiveness, so we keep it all inside, getting even more stuffed up.

It’s unfortunate but this has come to be people’s “normal” way of living. And this whole situation is the main reason behind our misery. Most people can’t sit still for a minute. And even if they’re “motionless,” their aura is restless, and that is manifested in how everything around them is disturbed.

The inner pressure is too turbulent to contain. A lot of energy is generated, and dissipated through over-stimulation in order to keep this insane routine. It shouldn’t be a surprise that most people are all so prematurely worn out.

As we live this way, we become more and more depleted from our vitality. We rely on more and more pills, sugar and caffeine. Our energy centers malfunction. We feel disconnected from everything because we’re too busy dealing with our lives. And the lack of energy that results gets us sucked into the momentum of lethargy and complacency that is already all around us.

This is no way to live.

We’re meant to be passionate, alive, powerful. We’re meant to vibrate, to stand tall, and radiate life.

Of course, bringing our energy back into balance is the work of a lifetime. But in the meantime, we can opt for healthier habits. We can take more ownership regarding our emotions and thoughts because ultimately external situations and people “evoke” things in us — but we experience them. We can also examine our beliefs, put them to test and seek answers for ourselves. Don’t worry, the moment your intent is focused, Life will give you what you need to advance on your path. The key is to really be serious about what you want in life.