In today’s world of hyper-connectivity, you may have 562+ friends on your various social media sites but you cannot have a heart to heart with anyone of them. You wonder whether you are lonely and isolated. The world is increasingly shrinking, the human mobility is at its all-time high. You move cities, countries, continents and with that your friendships and relationships take a back seat. You say goodbye to everything that is familiar to you. Your school buddies and your childhood friends are scattered all over the globe. You live a high paced life in search for a better life, a bigger salary package with no spare time left to invest in your relationships. By the time you realise these ‘things’ actually do NOT provide you quality of life, it is too late. You look around, you have lost everyone around you. Yes, you are the very embodiment of this ‘me’ culture. You have fleeting relationships, if it does not suit your high paced life, you let it go. You have ‘everything’, you have ever wanted to achieve – hefty bank balance, luxury cars, investment properties, five star holidays to exotic locations, all the expensive toys you can buy to amuse yourself and to boost your ego but somehow, you are still NOT happy.
One thing that really strikes me these days, is the fact that as soon as you enter a bookshop, all the best sellers are usually about ‘HAPPINESS’! There are self-help books from ‘How to be happy in 20 days’ to the ‘Real definition of happiness’……the list is long. ‘HAPPINESS’ is a big business now. There are all these ‘Happiness Gurus’, charging heaps of money for providing you with a magical ‘happiness’ mantra. Everyone is in the pursuit of this elusive happiness but unfortunately, the happiness index of the world is getting lower and lower with each passing year, as the recent studies show. Mental illness is becoming an epidemic worldwide, irrespective of where you reside on this planet of ours. So what is happening? We have so much affluence but still in terms of inner peace, content and happiness, we are not doing well at all. Our mental health is at its worse. What has gone so horribly wrong then?
The other day I saw this young international student waiting for a bus on a bus stop with headphones stuck to her ears, looking into the oblivion. She had this lost look about her, she looked forlorn and lonely……like someone trying hard to make sense of this crazy world. I wanted to reach out to her, just to ask, ‘Are you okay?”……however, I did not, the headphones somehow prevented me from approaching her.
In everyday life, you see these zombies moving around, pumped up on ‘happy pills’ with strange side effects – some looking totally lost, some grumpy, some sad, some don’t smile back even when you try smiling at them, some ignore you, some see past you and you wonder whether you are an invisible entity. You see old people trying to make sense out of this world, they are living by themselves, their kids sitting in some other corner of the world, trying to make sense out of this world themselves. You come across an overworked childcare worker, a stressed teacher and an overly stressed public servant trying to strike that elusive work life balance and wondering about climbing that career ladder or just to make a sea change, run away from it all, leave this rate race and just RUN!!! Your doctor friend complains about long hours and lack of sleep; the academics talk about declining academic standards and increasing university costs; lawyers talk about long hours and dry drudgery of legislations; the IT contractors talk about advanced technological pressure and keeping up with it all; the diplomats start blogs on loneliness and depression, sitting in some third world country, cut off from their families and friends, security threats etc; and mental health professionals are drowning in their ever increasing caseloads and trying to have a break from it all. The world seems stressed to the max!
You switch on your car radio whilst driving towards work, the news anchor delivers the news about further job cuts and a list of professions which are going to be obsolete by 2020. You sigh and you switch it off…..you wonder about your kids’ future and then you change the radio station to easy listening station playing – ‘Don’t worry, be happy’! You smile and you carry on…..
The next song is ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams…..I hum along…”Clap along if you know what happiness is to you….Because I’m happy….”
vibhadassingh 