Instant Gratification - the plague of today's society
I sat around, moping about the fact that someone's letter, supposedly posted ten days ago, had not reached me. Granted, the mere allegation that someone posted something does not mean it was posted at the agreed time or place. Nor does it mean that the letter will be delivered swiftly, given the rushed period that precedes Christmas.
However, this caused me to turn my thoughts to how our expectations have changed over the years. As a young girl, it was nice to have something to look forward to, and if a friend sent me something by post (perhaps we were unable to meet, or something of the sort), I knew that it would arrive, at some point, and it was a nice delicious feeling to know that the future held a nice little surprise for me. It mattered not when it did in fact arrive, even if I looked at that letterbox with anticipation.
Somehow, I could not bring myself to recreate that positive expectation this time round. My mind was immediately filled with ideas of letters getting lost, people dishing out white lies about when they posted stuff (of course, I do too) and all that jazz.
Until I stopped myself in my tracks.
With today's instant technology, we receive a communication at almost the same instant it was sent (barring server or internet issues) and we are usually not required to wait any large span of time in order to get a response.
Furthermore, with our mind-numbing ways, lifestyle has taught us to use artificial highs in order to numb feelings of anxiety deriving from not getting what we want. Examples are, alcohol, drugs, tranquilisers... so that we can stave off the anxiety which derives from not getting what we want, when we want. Just because I badly need something to happen now does not, I suppose, entitle me to expect it to happen now. Unless of course it is something which I can do, and will achieve if I stop procrastinating. When things depend on others, part of recovering from all this anxiety that we are burdened with is learning to bide our time, allow our heads to cool, our emotions to subside ... and to allow that the Universe has its own way of letting things happen in their own time.
To fail to recognise this spells a life of anxiety and hypertension, that which fuels our resorting to artificial balancing of our psyche. This is a difficult realisation to make, and even harder to accept and internalise.
However, this caused me to turn my thoughts to how our expectations have changed over the years. As a young girl, it was nice to have something to look forward to, and if a friend sent me something by post (perhaps we were unable to meet, or something of the sort), I knew that it would arrive, at some point, and it was a nice delicious feeling to know that the future held a nice little surprise for me. It mattered not when it did in fact arrive, even if I looked at that letterbox with anticipation.
Somehow, I could not bring myself to recreate that positive expectation this time round. My mind was immediately filled with ideas of letters getting lost, people dishing out white lies about when they posted stuff (of course, I do too) and all that jazz.
Until I stopped myself in my tracks.
With today's instant technology, we receive a communication at almost the same instant it was sent (barring server or internet issues) and we are usually not required to wait any large span of time in order to get a response.
Furthermore, with our mind-numbing ways, lifestyle has taught us to use artificial highs in order to numb feelings of anxiety deriving from not getting what we want. Examples are, alcohol, drugs, tranquilisers... so that we can stave off the anxiety which derives from not getting what we want, when we want. Just because I badly need something to happen now does not, I suppose, entitle me to expect it to happen now. Unless of course it is something which I can do, and will achieve if I stop procrastinating. When things depend on others, part of recovering from all this anxiety that we are burdened with is learning to bide our time, allow our heads to cool, our emotions to subside ... and to allow that the Universe has its own way of letting things happen in their own time.
To fail to recognise this spells a life of anxiety and hypertension, that which fuels our resorting to artificial balancing of our psyche. This is a difficult realisation to make, and even harder to accept and internalise.
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