How To Be Human Again?
Harnessing our consciousness in the hustle world
I have been pondering a lot about work lately.
Every one of us is running behind goals, one after another.
Most of us are busy finding another job that pays more, getting another degree, and another course—getting a new project before finishing the current one.
We’re all running in the same maze without ever thinking about
Why do we work?
How much work is enough?
How much work is too much?
Is our work the only thing that defines us?
I don’t know if it is capitalism or the hustle world that has made us workaholics. But work has become the only thing people talk about, and I am guilty of doing that myself.
Reading self-help books obsessively throughout my early and mid-20s made me believe that I am useless if I don’t work every waking minute. It made a hustle preacher and took the essence away from life. I had become like a machine churning one article after another, after my day job and other gigs.
The hedonic treadmill kept me going one after another, and I gave off my Happiness Button to the material world. But unfortunately, I had no control over my emotions or even my life.
Momentary dopamine wasn’t helping either. I needed to learn to be human again from being a workaholic machine.
Life Is Not A Race
There are different types of races.
A race you have with your friends, colleagues, and relatives.
But the one race that overshadows everyone is the one we have with ourselves. The most taxing one is the race you run with yourself. There are no external denominators, no one to blame & only you have control over.
If we listen to eastern philosophies closely — life is none of it. Yeah, growth and change are a part of life, but that happens gradually and most naturally.
When we control if we want to be better than yesterday, it’s up to us to work 18 hours a day or watch Squid Games. When we hold our lives, we decide whether to stroll around or try to run like Usain Bolt towards a dead end. But we’d never stop running if we lived life as a race.
You’d never stop running if you live life as a race.
When we remove the pressure from reaching an ever-evolving goal, we become mindful of the present. We begin to observe the beauty that already surrounds us and requires no effort whatsoever.
Wasting our energy on things we can’t control costs us not spending time on what we CAN control.
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
― Epicurus
Stillness Is When You Meet The Real Demon
Not forcing anything is a skill.
Not doing anything is a sign of a yogi.
Some will call you lazy, some will call you visionless, but when you’re not doing anything, you’re allowing yourself to observe the current scenario. You’re entering a space that only you can witness.
You start to watch your thoughts closely, and you begin to pay attention to your spouse’s smile. You start appreciating the little things.
The most notable thing that happens when you're not doing anything is your insecurities lining up, your fears collaborating to push you into work mode. Most of this comes from your past traumas and your wounded relationships with your parents or partners.
That’s when you realize what work you need to do to restart your journey as a human again. You meet the real demon that wants you to be on the Forbes cover and work 20 hours a day.
This is when you have got to take action of not taking any action. Confused? Let me explain. When we get these thoughts, we rush to our studies to start working and never really give enough time to resolve these issues that are pilling up in our system.
When you choose stillness, we give ourselves enough time to heal from these traumas and insecurities. Ancient Chinese philosophy, Taoism, reminds us to live like a human again by practicing the Wu Wei — “no action.”
No action is also an action.
This concept is a crucial principle of Taoism or Daoism — and is at the heart of what it means to follow Dao or The Way.
The external force or efforts you make to be more successful or more affluent will not be fertile if you’re not aligned with nature. The idea is to grow like nature, effortlessly and with zero external influence.
Giving yourself free space can sometimes take you in the right direction.
The way in Taoism is in oneness with the universe and it’s believed that you’re exactly where you need to be.
Practice Solitude
Before owning a smartphone, I would look around and observe my surroundings curiously while waiting for my turn or when I was bored.
Then I got a smartphone and every waiting minute has become a pseudo productivity game where I try to use multiple apps in the hope of keeping myself busy and do some work.
Even when I am alone, I am not alone now.
My Twitter is accompanying me to my sleep. Facebook is forcing itself on me 24x7. Instagram acting like my toxic ex who keeps coming back.
Solitude has become a luxury.
The moment I learned how I had no control over my tech indulgences, I decided not to upgrade my phone and tried going back to my ancient flip phone.
Witnessing my daily routine made me aware of how much time I was spending on my phone and with friends and family. I decided to cut down a huge portion from unnecessary activities and scheduled two dedicated hours to practice solitude every night.
This exercise made me realize how peaceful life becomes when you understand what’s going on in your mind.
Many can’t stand to stay alone for mere hours which proves how many dependencies we have on the outer world. French philosopher, Blaise Pascal put it perfectly
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone,”
Consciousness is What Makes Us Human
When you say bye-bye to tech and practice solitude, you reach a stage where you become hyper-observant to yourself and every thought that comes to your mind. This is what Yogis and Sadhus spend most of their lives in the Himalayas to get to that consciousness to learn more about themselves and the world.
Humans are the only living species to be known to have consciousness, and we’re the only species who can choose to live a spiritual life. The ability to be present and being conscious of who we are is the essence of life. This is what makes us human.
As a self-love practitioner, I have spent a lot of time solitude in self-awareness and understanding what makes me me. The awareness that’s you and I are here for a reason.
We don't have to leave our jobs and family and move to the mountains to practice absolute awareness. We can practice it right now from where we are. It requires constant effort and mindfulness to get to that level just like any other goal we set.
“Remember that your perception of the world is a reflection of your state of consciousness.” — Eckhart Tolle.
Parting Thoughts
Harnessing our consciousness and living in the present moment has been the primary lessons from most religions.
We lose the essence of our being when we get succumbed to the material world. The concept of Maya from ancient Hindu texts can explain this in a deeper form.
In a nutshell
- Humans are not machines, we’re spiritual beings
- Life is not a race
- Less technology, more OM
- Solitude and an empty mind will help you find what you’re looking for
- When we’re conscious, that’s when we’re truly being ourselves and living life to the fullest at that very moment.
To be human and reach our highest and truest potential, we’ve got to rise above.
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