Numbing is defined as depriving one of feeling or responsiveness - or making you unable to feel anything - Oxford dictionary
A friend of mine and I were talking a few days ago about the numbing effects of overwork, screen time, TV and booze.
We shared about how the corporate machine is demanding more and more from people. We are working much harder and such long hours that there is no space left to feel anything as we do this. My friend, who like myself is a bit of a workaholic calls this ‘numbing’.
We numb ourselves at work were we spend 90% of our lives. From 0800am to 7pm we are numb. When we get home, we reach for that glass of wine, watch series TV to unwind, scroll through our phones , further numbing our feelings. I mean who wants to feel stress or listen to the noise in our minds right?
We eat our dinner and 2 episodes into our favourite TV show, it’s bed time! While in bed, we must scrolling through Facebook or Instagram to see what the world is doing or just read some article on the internet.
Where is the space to feel anything. This is the part where I think why the funk do we not even have a 4 day week yet?
Feelings are messengers, our internal guide that is useful to help direct our lives. Good or bad, feelings let us know what’s working, what’s not working , where we want to go, what we need, what our fellow man/woman needs etc. We need the space to feel our feelings and get direction to fulfil our purpose on the planet!
As an artist, I need my feelings to write songs. Someone said ’music is what feelings sound like ‘ I love that.
6 Ways I get In Touch with My Feelings:
1. Turning off my phone
2. Meditation/Silence
3. Spending time in nature - Woods, parks, ocean etc
4. Physical exercise
5. Drinking alcohol only at weekends if I can help it
6. Being around animals - I love dogs. (Although it’s debatable whether my 2 Jack Russell Terrors keep me calm)
What are you doing to feel good?