I know, I know… it’s been a minute in here:)

As at the time of publishing this post on the last Sunday in February (where I drew parallels between my life and the movies), I knew I would not be putting up any new post on here for some time. What I didn’t know was how long I was going to be away.

My decision to put the blog on hold wasn’t quite spontaneous. I started contemplating a hiatus somewhere in the middle of February, partly because I needed the away time to focus on some other things. Also, having kept at this consistently for about 15 months, I felt my writing was gradually staling, and I was beginning to slide into “routine mode”, where I wrote only because I had to deliver content every Sunday.

On the one hand, stepping away seemed like a good way to get the juices flowing again, but on the other hand, I was a skeptical about breaking the longstanding streak of posting weekly. I feared that if I stayed out too long, I would struggle to get back to writing, which would be counterproductive to overcoming the seeming staleness.

To pacify my skepticism, I resolved I’d be away for just the month of March, very much aware that I was only decieving myself. Fast forward ten weeks later, my skepticism is metamorphosing into reality as I was slowly getting used to being away. Well, we’re back and hopefully better.

The Chaos Without, The Peace Within

It so happened that I went off the radar around the same time tension was at its peak over the brewing crisis between Russia and Ukraine. This was only a mere coincidence as I had conceived my recess a couple weeks prior to the first sign of war, and I stated this clearly in my update message to the blog’s broadcast list.

In retrospect, that turned out to be a favorable coincidence. Disengaging from all forms of public interactions, I metaphorically took a back seat and simply observed how events unfolded. I intentionally refrained from consuming media content related to the issue, and only bothered to know as much as was necessary to guarantee my safety.

Having been around the social media space long enough to know that the industry thrives off peddling panic-inciting information, I figured the best way to protect my inner peace was to abstain from patronizing then. Thankfully, the situation has since experienced some level of relative stability. But even when it seemed as though we were about to witness World War 3, my inner peace was priority and I made sure not to entertain anything that could tamper with it.

The Global (Dis)order

You might be wondering why the title of this post is framed in quotation marks. Well, it’s because they aren’t my words. I borrowed them from Joey from Better Ideas on YouTube. I stumbled on a video of his over the week, and it pretty much summed my disposition to happenings around the world in the past couple of months.

It is no secret that our world is increasingly experiencing unprecedented degrees of mayhem on different levels. From the perspective of an onlooker, I have observed that there is never a shortage of negative occurrences around us.

You don’t have to look far to identify several issues with the potential to cause worry. Signals of wars, multiple sanctions on the Russian market leading to a spike in prices, a crumbling crypto market (even though I don’t have a portfolio yet), political issues, religious clashes, celebrity scandals, extended winter, not to mention a wide range of individual personal crisis.

Over time, I have learned that trying to keep up with every little thing in the world is an easy route to losing your mind. The news feed these days is rather designed to trigger anxiety than pass information, and even though we know the dangers of sticking around, the fear of missing out keeps us glued to our screens.

Unplugged

So if I was staying off the feed, what was I up to while away?

Well, I spent most of my off-time minding my business and relishing every iota of tranquility I could find. Every moment I spent taking a walk around my neighborhood, reading a book (I read a record 8 books in 2 months!), or engaging in other offline activities off the feed made me understand that we don’t need too much to live a peaceful life.

In Joey’s words, “Life in often exactly as simple as we need it to be”. In other words, we determine how comlicated our lives become. Dwelling too much on things that mess with our psyche and spending too much time in our heads only leaves us anxious and disoriented. On the other hand, paying more attention on the beauty of every moment and the simplicity of life leaves us in a state of tranquil.

This… is the secret to a peaceful life.