Receiving a daily jolt

It is often said that a small shock, a surprise or an adrenaline boost rejuvenates your system because it causes you to…well…wake up!

Sometimes you need such a jolt. Something to stir you out of your mundane, almost automatic daily routine.

It’s not really something you look for. It’s rather something that arrives on its own. When you least expect it. The best things usually come like that – unexpectedly.

So, free your mind from automation and allow yourself to add a spring to your step and a daily change in the things you usually do. You’ll see a great difference. Because even the smallest alterations may lead to great results.

You just need to try it and be optimistic it will work out.

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Jolt

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Stirring an awe

“Is there anything in this world today that could cause your awe?”

Audrey was shocked at the essay question laying before her. It certainly managed to prompt her into thinking hard and in that alone it was successful.

But was there truly anything in this 21^st century that she could say still surprised or even shocked her?

In a period that has seen almost everything – from peaceful and violent revolutions, to deadly wars, to climate change, to drugs, sex and alcohol, to liberalism in every sense, to more rights for all, to the rise of various communities, to technological advancements beyond belief, and to space explorations, what would you say continues to amaze you?

Audrey wrote down one word.

“Humanity”.

And explained: Precisely in this period that has seen it all, discovering that people still retain some form of humanity and emotion inside of them is what would cause my awe. Seeing that they care for those who can do nothing for them in return – animals, paupers, homeless people. Witnessing random acts of kindness that occur out of the goodness of people’s heart, without anticipating any favours in exchange. Small gestures that may brighten up someone’s day: allowing someone to pass in front of you in the supermarket queue if they only  have a couple of items to pay; smiling and saying ‘goodmorning’ and ‘have a nice day’ while serving; offering a glass of cold water on a hot day.

This is what would cause an awe, because at a time when we have become so used to having it all, we have become so accustomed to losing ourselves in the process, together with the little things that truly matter.

 

Also part of Daily Prompt: Awe

A World of Shock

You know that old woman who shoved you while hurrying to get off the bus this morning? She was running to get to the hospital, as her husband suffered a heart attack while she was at the market. And remember that young man getting sunburnt on the side of the pavement where he was rooted, who even offered his blessing when you stopped to hand him some change? Two hours later, his cousin dropped by in a fancy car, picked him up and went to the beach.

Things are not always what they seem. Nor can we even imagine what the reality is truly like. In a world marred by constant talk of crisis, sensationalist media reports, and the looming pessimism of disasters – be they natural, financial, political or even moral – we live in a constant state of instability and shock. We are fighting nervous breakdowns by pretending we’re OK, by keeping on moving, by refusing to even consider what would happen if we stopped and breathed it all in.

People all around us seem so different, even though we share common ground. Nonetheless, all we mostly see – or chose to acknowledge – is the extent to which we vary from each other. And this usually always means that “the others” are most often luckier, more privileged, and “have it easy”. Or even that those who have managed to travel beyond the continent, somehow have returned deeming themselves over and above their compatriots, as if now they are somehow better than everyone else, as if they no longer belong to this world. There are people like that. Who managed to rise up from the slums into a life of riches, and all of a sudden, they have become too important to deal with “petty commoners”, or even “locals”. Those who rise from their ashes remembering their past and helping others survive it too are, unfortunately, a rarity in this world.

In one of the most enthralling, shocking, riveting, and illuminating books of modern times, Naomi Klein describes exactly this. How we live in a world of shock. How certain capitalists pursue a “Shock Doctrine” in order to impose Milton Friedman’s Chicago School model of deregulation, privatization, and cut of public spending. It reveals our world as it truly is, one run by capitalism that has no interest for its human impact. She dubs this “Disaster Capitalism”, because it concerns big private companies profiting at the expense of the poorer and lower down on the social scale, whenever disaster (in any form) strikes. It is the implementation of a shock and awe policy. Simply considering the world we live in today – this constant state of “crisis” – it is not hard to see that certain international institutions (the International Monetary Fund, for example) are doing exactly this – demanding that their terms be implemented if money is to be disbursed; terms that include drastic spending cuts, VAT increases, privatisations, cuts in the public sector, no matter what that may mean to the levels of unemployment, poverty and a break in the social chasm. According to this powerful book, the only thing that shines some optimism among us, is the fact that memory is the strongest shock absorber of all, and the only one capable of providing resistance to the repeating of such events.

No matter what you read, or if you don’t read at all, Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine” is an eye-opening book that everyone – every politician who is not an idiot, every citizen who wants to make a difference, every person who refuses to be a lemming – should read. You will never view the world in the same way ever again.