The Now and the Then

The imperfection of leaves.

Nowadays every fourth person in our Western civilization experiences mental illness. But maybe there is not more mental illness than years ago. Nowadays people are more likely to see a psychiatrist, in the old times they were more likely to self medicate with coffee, cigarettes and alcohol. Thus they never got into any statistics.

Yet, on the other hand, something is different today due to progress and better standard. Families compete with each other because we have more. There is competition instead of collaboration in the struggle for mere survival like in the old times. Thus people with no family can be very lonely. I have also noticed that sometimes husband and wife compete with each other – who is going to have a bigger career. In my opinion, if you really love someone, you should always be on the same team. Success is not only dependent on ability and effort, but also on luck. So let’s share the luck and sometimes bask in the sun of somebody else.

I am not against effort and progress, I just find it practical to stop at the end of the day and be grateful for what we have accomplished. That way, maybe, we can be happier and not so competitive. I have heard many times from persons who have traveled to poor countries that people there are happier than we are. Why so? It might be precisely because they do not compete. It is only about survival from day to day for them. And every day they are happy to have survived a day more.

Therefore, to put it in practice, every evening before falling asleep, I say to myself: “I am happy to have done this and that today.” I name every little and bigger thing, from writing a blog post to making dinner. I have been doing it for a couple of months now and I think it is working.

Take care,

Helena Smole, author of:

– a fantasy novel with romance Vivvy and Izzy the Dwarf: A series about relationships

– Balancing the Beast, a book offering a bright view of schizoaffective disorder ˗ bipolar or manic-depressive type