“There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy.” – Henry Miller
What A Crazy World We Live In
Every day we get hammered with news about bank bailouts, health care reform, war, H1N1, global warming, failing currencies, oil spills, and a hundred other issues that beg one to ask, what the hell is going on? Everywhere you look you see faces full of worry and immense anxiety. It really is becoming harder and harder to live a sane healthy life.
The world has always had its problems, but something about this time period just does not feel right. Are we in the midst of a paradigm shift that will fundamentally change everything?
Will Technology Save Us?
While the exponential rate of our technological advancements has dramatically improved the quality of life, it has also accelerated many of our problems. Technology is not the problem, it’s that we have failed to advance the world’s consciousness. The tools keep getting better, but the persons holding the tools are essentially the same if not worse.
The question is not how do we change society, which has obviously not worked, the problem is how do we change ourselves? Is it even possible for us to go through a radical transformation? I feel that many of us on a certain level know that the key to change is in ourselves. But as soon as we try and look at how to change, we realize how amazingly complex we are and say that it’s hopeless.
We Need To Wake Up Before It’s Too Late
Everyone now seems to have become numb, we know things are not right but choose to look away, and we have accepted that that’s just how things are. We rely on psychoanalysts and other supposed authorities to tell us who we are, and what our nature is when they themselves don’t really have a deep understanding. The media understands this and has been very effective in shaping everyone’s global beliefs, which are of course designed to serve a higher agenda. I know I may sound like a conspiracy theorist, but this is not a conspiracy anymore, it is being done out in the open, and that is a terrible sign.
To be able to stand up and say that society is wrong, and to live a life that you feel is healthy and sane takes great courage. This is also not just a reaction to society, that leads you nowhere. To stand up is to live a life of intelligence, a life based on your own experiences.
“When someone doesn’t have anything to lose, they lose it!” Gerald Celente
It’s a brave new world out there, pretty soon a sane healthy individual may start to look like the insane one because he will be in the minority. The problem with mob psychology is that they always feel they are the normal ones because everyone is living in the same way, so how could it be that they are the crazy ones?
Just remember that even if the whole world is going crazy, it doesn’t mean that you need to follow them. You need to decide that you will take full responsibility for your life and do your best not to succumb to external pressures. Below are a few points to keep in mind that will help you stay sane in this crazy world of ours.
Living A Sane Life In an Insane World:
1. What is your main aim In life: This is of the utmost importance, to determine what is going to be your main and lasting interest in life. My main aim is to become a more conscious individual and to contribute something that will inspire and uplift others.
2. Take full responsibility for your life: Realize that government and society will never give you the deep fulfillment that you dearly want. It’s rather obvious that our government ultimately serves a select few and neglects the rest of us. What happened to a government for the people by the people? As comedian George Carlin said, “ It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it”.
3. Current events predict future trends: If you know how to look you can see the future taking shape all around you, the causes of external events are a long time in the making. Sometimes the manifestations may appear to be spontaneous but the seed was planted long ago. All the different crises that are currently going on should not come as a shock, they have been a long time coming. Take a look at all the current events, what type of future are they setting up? How are you preparing mentally, emotionally, financially, physically, and spiritually?
4. Find or form a community that is conducive to your growth and that is based on contribution. Many of the world’s systems are collapsing, it is imperative that you have a small community that will support each other when times get tough.
5. Question everything: Routines and habits lead us to live very mechanical lives, It’s important to step back and examine why are you living the way you are. Is it because this is really the way it is, or are you just trying to keep up with how society wants you to live? The moment I began to carefully question everything, is the moment I really began to learn about myself and the world. I began to unlearn everything because I realized it was all given to me, so I took it upon myself to become self-educated on the topics I felt were important to me.
6. Meditate: Meditating is the art of learning to watch your mind. Learning to watch your mind without trying to control or suppress the content will reveal many things about your inner psychology. You will be able to see how much you really are conditioned by your environment, but more importantly, you will realize not just logically, but with your whole being, that you are not your conditioning. Seeing your conditioning as an unattached witness, if you are disciplined enough, you may come to understand the causes and then be free from them.
7. Read: Read anything and everything that will help you understand yourself and the world. But remember the most important thing is to apply whatever you learn. You need to create the experiences for you to validate what you learn. Knowledge by itself has its definite limits, one can know a great deal and yet not be able to do anything with it.
8. Learn another language: Opens up a world of possibilities.
9. Learn basic survival skills: Modern society has made life quite easy, but we have become too dependent on it. I may be more educated than my father, but he sure has many more skills than I do. He knows how to farm, be a mechanic, and fix just about anything in the house. He is my family’s “Macgyver”, a Swiss army knife is like magic in his hands.
11. Travel: If you are able to do so, moving to a new country for an extended amount of time can really be an invaluable learning experience.
Parting Words
I love life, we really do live in a beautiful world of amazing diversity, but we have gone astray for quite a long time and it’s time for us to wake up. The world is a constantly changing dream, so we really can’t worry about trying to change the whole thing. Just try and be the change you want to see in the world and contribute to your local community in the best way you can, be a shining example of what can be possible.
I feel that the future may be all about small local communities that will find ways to become self-sustaining, by leveraging technology to its maximum and implementing an honest money system that benefits the community and not huge corporations who solely care about the bottom line.
I would just like to thank you for reading my article, I really feel that if enough of us take responsibility for our way of life, we can really make positive changes on a big scale. But hey don’t take my word for it, I may be a little crazy 🙂
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Thank you Ivan, really enjoyed reading this post. It really is time to wake up.
its my pleasure 🙂 thanks for stopping by david 🙂
We become sane when we develop a purpose and move in it’s direction. A purpose is an aiming point. Jack Can field purpose is to provide millions of people with inspiring life changing material. And he has done a damn good job of it. What is yours? What can you develop you life around? What can you do for the rest of your life and get paid for? If you can answer these questions throughly. Just do it and stop reading my comment. Life starts when you do. Run the race.
If you develop a purpose, you will achieve more, breathe easier, and have a meaning to live. The reason so many people are lonely and are dying on the inside is because they don’t know what to do with there lives. But when you do, Life makes more sense And living becomes easier. Start now!
thanks for contributing and adding to the post jonathan 🙂 hope all is well…wishing you luck in all your endeavors 🙂
Great post, Ivan – I like the mix of the discourse at the beginning with the list of recommendations for a more sane life at the end. I’ve been going through a stressful time, and can see myself touching on a few of those points (getting back to nature, reading, meditating, bonding with communities) but perhaps it’s fitting that ‘finding your main aim’ is item number one. It’s something I, and I think many of us, overlook because it’s so big, it’s easy to miss. Sort of a forest through the trees type of thing.
Thanks much, Im off to RT your post.
cheers, jax
Thanks so much for stopping by Jax, I am glad that you found it useful :)…be well and good luck on your journey 🙂
Ivan, great post. I have been on a path to stay sane in a crazy world for the past year. Only when I realized who I really was and what I wanted from my life was I able to do so. It is because I know what I want and where I am going that I can remain mentally clear and keep from going crazy, or falling for media ads that try to tell me what to do. If I wanted to tell people one thing, it would be to Question Everything. Have a great week!
Thanks so much for contributing my friend :)..glad to hear your going strong on your journey..don’t give up…be well….let’s keep fighting the good fight 🙂
Hello my friend…this is a great post. I’ve read it several times now and it really motivates me to continue with my plans for later this year to travel overseas. It is true that we live in a crazy world but I imagine it’s always been crazy. However, it’s only recently when it seems that the needs of the individual have become more important than the needs of the whole. It’s a “me” society rather than a “we” society. We’ve lost that compassion for our fellow humans. I love your point about technology and it is so true. Technology is advancing and changing faster than our capability to adapt with it. We’ve adopted this distorted view that technology is our savior, that it will always solve all of our problems. And so we continue to live without fear of consequence. There are many things in our world that we don’t have control over but there is one thing that we do have control over and that is how we choose to live. Your parting words in this post offer encouragment and hope for a future where everyone can participate on equal footing. Thanks for this post Ivan.
Once again thanks for all your great thoughts my friend :)…I wish you the best on all your current projects and plans…keep making those baby steps and before you know it…we might be having a cup of coffee and a nice discussion somewhere in this beautiful planet of ours….
I’m looking forward to that coffee and discussion Ivan. I’ll be heading for Indonesia later this year and then possibly India sometimes early 2011.
thats whats up 🙂 happy for your my friend 🙂
Hi Ivan,
Many thanks for the inspiring post. I especially like how you describe meditation as the process of watching your mind. To me, the fact that I can watch my mind gives me comfort. It means that I am not my thoughts. How can I be my mind if I can watch it? On the other hand, you can’t watch your soul. So, I think our existence resides in the seat of our soul, located in a bottomless well in our hearts. From that perch, we can watch the impermanence of the mind and take comfort in knowing that we are not untamed, we are being entertained by the drama.
Amy
it’s my pleasure 🙂 and thanks for contributing :)…how can i be my mind if i can watch it…you said it perfectly :)…thanks again and come back soon 🙂
thanks ivan, i enjoyed reading your post, this line hit me the most, “take full responsibility of your life” coz we usually just go with the flow…
Finding a small community that will support my growth is definitely something I am struggling with… I have a small group of friends and while they’re good people, I don’t think they’re conducive to my growth… how do you recommend getting a mentor or finding ppl that do?
the article is really nice and pens different psychological truths. it also advises some of the sweet ways to lead a peaceful life..:)
Thanks again for all your great thoughts, Ivan. Your posts are real source of inspiration and I needed exactly this at this exact moment…
My pleasure my friend 🙂 best of luck :)…be well
I just turned 16 today and I’ve had the hardest time coping with…life. But this article brought me back to my senses! Thank you so much. I bookmarked this page and I’m going to post it on my blog as soon as I can 🙂 This article really is a work of inspiration.
I am delighted to hear that :)..don’t give up, life is amazing…I wish you the best on your journey, keep learning, keep growing….
Nice post!!its great to see that there are still some sane people in this world 🙂 “To stand up is to live a life of intelligence, a life based on your own experiences”
thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it…be well 🙂
Your article was there when I needed to read it. It was good. Thank you.
my pleasure :)…glad you found some value in it :)…peace…be well…
Thank you. I think the problem is that the world is insane and people think they are sane because they are a part of a larger insane group. I have felt like I would fall a part because of the insanity led by a few a part of a larger whole. Groupthink produces robots and mindless followers who have nothing better to do than to say why their way is the right way. Humanity needs to wake up and see this world is Insane and who knows when anything will really change.
Thank you for your thoughtful website and postings. I particularly like your thoughts on finding a small community that is conducive to one’s growth. I’ve tried connecting with several monastic and emerging Christian communities and found that there are many “well meaning” people who simply mirror the insanity of the world. Are there any particular gatherings of souls that you’ve found conducive to your growth? How do you find them or form them. As I continue my meditation practice and stay awake each day, I’m confident this gathering will be found or gathered in my going forth. I’d love to hear more on your thoughts on this. I too am a lover of travel and spiritual explorer. Peace to you in your journey. tony m.
This was a beautiful post. Thank you so much for making me feel like I’m not alone. I almost cry everyday because I know thus and I am so lonely. I shared it on my page. You’re amazing. -Valeria facebook.com/fayeheart1
Thanks for the kind words, glad it resonated with you 🙂
10 years after your post and would you have known then that it was going to get so much worse from there? I feel like I’d gladly be back in 2011 right now, given the current insanity enveloping the whole world. And no end in sight. Your post remains ever so relevant.