There's So Much More To Life Than This Election - Part 2

Let's move on to our emotional lives. Where to begin?

So many of us live our lives as actors in a self-induced or self-produced drama these days. An example: those "snowflakes" who hit the headlines not long ago. These creatures seemed to have been created after the election of Trump in 2016. At least I hadn't heard of them before this. Imagine needing "safe space" to which you can flee when someone says something you don't like? How did people get to this point?

But snowflakes really are a kind of subset to the "reality show" lives that so many of us lead. Speaking of reality shows, who watches those things? If you have your own life, doesn't it take up the bulk of your time and effort to get on with living it? Why watch the supposed "real" lives of others - perfect strangers no less? Do you really want to waste time with, never mind emulate, the soap opera characters that supposedly allow you to come into their private space?

Then there's the role played by drugs. I don't have the numbers at my fingertips, but we all know that many people take some form of anti-depressant/mood elevator drugs. I know more than I can count right now - family, friends, acquaintances. They're not all "drama queens (or kings)," thank goodness; but they're not all that pleasant if they either forget to pop their pills or they need dosage adjustments. 

Look, I'm not a doctor. And I'm not criticizing people who may need medication to even out their out-of-control temperaments. But does everyone taking these drugs need them to get through the day? Maybe some could try some self-control or self-discipline, rather than let their emotions run wild. Not everyone who flies off the handle has a diagnosed medical condition. Some simply can't - or won't - control themselves. (Yeah, you can do that - control yourself, that is.)

So how's your emotional life? Do you find your constantly anxious or irritated? If so, have you tried to figure out why? It might be a good idea to explore this before you run to your doctor for pills. 

Anxiety's pretty commons these days. It wasn't always so. In the past, before the Industrial Revolution, then the Technology Revolution, people spent a lot of time just getting through the day to make sure they had clothes to wear, shelter that kept them warm, and enough food to eat. Most of their time was taken up with chores that we consign to machines and the services of others these days. For example, prepared food didn't exist, so people had to prep and cook stuff, after they went to a store or market to purchase the ingredients. (Imagine having to do this without the benefit of a refrigerator to keep things fresh?) Most people lived in rural areas and farmed in some fashion. Farming's a tough life. Long hours, getting your hands dirty, dealing with sick animals and crop failures from time to time. And no tractors or chemical sprays or dirt-cheap migrant workers to help out.

Just think about all the gadgets and conveniences we have today, take them away, and imagine what life might have been life back in those "old days." 

People didn't have time to feel sorry for themselves. They didn't have a hissy fit if someone said something that rubbed them the wrong way, like, for instance, that they're going to vote for Donald Trump - or Joe Biden for that matter. While the average life span was about what it is today, more people died in childbirth, childhood, young adulthood, etc. And their deaths weren't "hidden." There were not hospitals that hooked them up to machines or provided no hospice services to palliative care. Most people saw other people die, particularly family members. 

Just thinking about death for most of us would likely pump up our heart rate, even cause an anxiety attack.

Anyway, there's a lot that has been and can be written about the difference between the way most folks lived before the Industrial Revolution flipped most of the population from farms to cities and suburbs, and then the Technology Revolution made that urban/suburban existence relatively easy and comfortable - at least physically. But we don't have time to get into all that now.

The important point: Assess your emotional life. It's not that hard to do, if you have the will to do it. And when you identify something that consistently causes you to become anxious, find ways (besides popping pills) to deal with that.

A simple personal example - and it's an odd one, I think. One day I realized that, right off the bat, first thing in the morning, my alarm caused a rather elevated level of anxiety. And it was odd because it's not like I hate my job or my life. I'm happy to get on with the business of the day once I'm up and at 'em. But, for whatever the reason, I'd spend a stretch of the morning in a state of anxiety caused - I surmised - by the alarm on my phone.

At first, I tried different sounds. So one sound caused a little less anxiousness than another. But still, the anxiety persisted. So one day - and I'm not sure why - it popped into my head to just eliminate the alarm altogether. So I did.

Now, don't do this unless, like me, you wake up on your own at a reasonable hour. In my case, in fact, the vast majority of the time, I was already awake when my alarm would go off. That's why it dawned on my that maybe I didn't need the darn thing. So guess what? Without the alarm, I still got up on time - except I didn't have to shake off that jolt of anxiety anymore. 

While that's just a small slice of my emotional life, every little bit helps. And so I've tried now to pause whenever I feel anxious in order to identify the cause. Lo and behold, I've successfully identified a slug of causes and more or less eliminated them. Last example, and this one took some doing. It has to do with my work life.

As a sole proprietor with no employees (at least not at the moment), I'm the man when it comes to, well, everything. And even though I've managed to get super-organized and my work habits are spot on, I still face times when the volume of work far exceeds the time at hand. Result: I get all worked up and tend to rush through the tasks at hand to get them all done.

We'll pick this one up next time because it's going to segue into our next and final topic: our spiritual life.

For now, and I can't emphasize this enough, work on achieving some level of emotional stability in your life. Too many of us are on edge or depressed too much of the time. Unless you've got some diagnosed condition where chemical imbalance must be addressed by drugs or other forms of therapy, you need to take the emotional bull by the horns and get it under control. It'll take time; it'll take effort. You don't just flip a switch and find peace and stability where once there was anxiety, worry, anger, irritability, etc. But your efforts will pay off. 

If you're not sure what to do, I can make one recommendation that, I believe, will appropriately address an unruly emotional life for just about everyone: build up your spiritual life. If, like me, you have a specific religion you believe in, study it. For me, that means my Catholic Faith. I study it daily. I read good spiritual works, from - and this is critical - reliably authentic sources. (There's a lot of quack Catholics out there, sad to say.) I pray, sometimes meditate (in the Catholic tradition), and - well, there's more, but it's time to sign off for now.

So if you're Catholic, start with your Faith if you're looking to quell that emotional beast. If you're not Catholic, much as I'd love to have you join our Holy Religion, I realize that's not going to happen just because I wish it to be so. But some sort of spiritual depth is better than leading a shallow, materialistic life. Your emotional life will thank you.

And, with reference to the upcoming election, you'll find that emotional stability will be your greatest ally if, like me, you refuse to get sucked into the drama ginned up by both sides. Seriously.