Balancing Act, 25

I think a lot of us are just plain exhausted. The blowback I got on a recent post to me indicates that people would rather just react than think, and this to me suggests being overwhelmed and burned out. I think this is what it is that gets some people to either block out information that they find unattractive or to just simply react from the reptilian brain. We are overwhelmed. I get it. We are all fragile, damaged and needy. Even the oppressors. But I am going to keep on writing this blog, and addressing things because I for one am concerned about the total lack of real critical thinking that is being shown these days in just about everything. Instead of really giving time to ponder and consider what is being said or written we get all kneejerk about things that we don't want to hear, our buttons get pressed and we get triggered. So we at out and go on to the next diversion. I don't think there has ever been a time when we have been so focussed on escapism. Instead of facing our pain we try to get rid of it, when our only route to recovery and healing is going to be by going through the frightening and often harsh light of self-revelation. This is how we grow. But instead we go on numbing ourselves with alcohol, drugs, sex, food, extreme fitness regimes, anything to numb ourselves and feel, if not good, then at least to not feel anything at all. We call this harm-reduction, I suppose. On the other hand, it could be argued that we are too fragile to face hard truths. I'm not so sure about this. I know that in mental health treatment and recovery, for depression and anxiety for instant, the use of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs are often an essential, and usually permanent fixture in treatment. Don't feel the pain. Just protect ourselves from having to feel it. But how does this enhance our spiritual and psychological growth into whole people? If we are simply left in our nice medicated warm and stagnant little puddle, how are we going to move beyond those things that threaten and frighten us? How did I do it? By facing the pain and by walking through the fire. It was hell at times, and I think for a while it was actually really harming me in some ways. Especially when I went through a series of breakdowns over the prolonged grief that swept over me over the loss of my family. I held on. I also knew that Jesus was there with me, suffering with me and walking with me through that labyrinth. Perhaps it's because I have a strong faith. Maybe it's because I will trust God to see me through these things. Maybe the problem for many is that they have no faith, no sense of a God who loves and cares for them, and this, Gentle Reader, is what can bring us to a very close approximation of what it can be like to exist in a living and unrelenting hell. That's all for today. And no comments, please