Bringing NOW Back

Well, well, well…adult colouring books are all the go. Sporting cards are back after a couple of generations and are being snapped up by our young people to swap and trade with their friends.

Suduko, crossword and word puzzle booklets are all the rage. Decks of cards are selling like hot cakes as people revert back to playing solitaire and other cards games with real people, in real time. I would suspect board games’ sales are following a similar trend. Trivia and karaoke nights are back in full force after a significant sabbatical.

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What is going on?

Is the digital pendulum swinging back to people wanting to interact face to face, side by side and enjoying the joys of our human sharing of emotions? Are we seeking to slow down, think hard and connect with ourselves and the moment, watching our thoughts coming and going? Are we wanting to experience the fulfilling emotions of feeling at one with ourselves in solitude? I suspect the evidence is pointing in this direction.

This trend was further reinforced at a number of recent Positive Education and Wellbeing building conferences I’ve attended.

In fact, recent research has indicated that it is as high as 60% of the population are unhappy with the current situation, while at the same time, struggling to break this mindless addiction.

The reason being, is to avoid suffering from the FOMO syndrome: Fear Of Missing Out. Yes, it’s a real thing, and many young people are in the grips of FOMO.

For me, I believe that most of us fell into the almost unavoidable trap that 24/7 social connectedness was a good thing. Informing the world when we awoke, what we dreamed of, what we eating for breakfast and how it tasted, the new zits we had to squeeze, the clothes which were
too tight, the cologne that was ordinary, the friends that did this and that, endless commentary we felt we had to give to remain socially connected.

Through the ages of time, we humans have always had a wonderful capacity to come back from the seeming brink to readjust and get ourselves back in kilter. It appears we are doing this again.

A wonderfully effective way to slow down, think hard and connect with yourself is to journal in a notebook. Journaling is about broadening your engagement with what is happening to you and around you right now, not what has happened or might happen. Choose something you want to look for in your daily life for a week or so, and then focus your attention on noticing instances of when it happens. That night, write down what you observed.

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