A Mother of a Problem For Reality Repair

A Mother of a Problem For Reality Repair
By
Bill Cottringer

A central challenge in life is for us to learn how to become experts at reality repair. We frequently find ourselves as part of undesirable realities we need to fix or create new and better replacement ones we think we want. Learning the clever art of successful, stress-less reality repair can be a road under perpetual construction and that is a very good insight to keep in mind.

Sure, the nanosecond Information Age, flat world and Internet which we were all thrown into without a whole lot of preparation, have all brought some advantages in the way of increased productivity . But, the unexpected, excessive baggage I am seeing is what bothers me most. The information overload, speed of things and shallow, unsubstantial connectivity between people are all getting my attention in a very uncomfortable way. In my opinion, if we each don’t stand up and be counted, we will all be missing an opportunity to make a very important reality a little better before it gets worse.

The problem is this: No one can keep up with the current volume and velocity of information that is downing us—there is simply not enough time to know and do all that needs to happen to stay at a break-even point, let alone make progress at moving forward. And, the one thing that could help sooth our overtaxed, chaotic minds—substantial and meaningful connection with other people—is being greatly watered down with the superficiality and speed of the Internet and E-mail. So, what to do in this conundrum?

Many people much smarter than me have reduced the human drives down to two simple ‘back and forth’ ones and they are worth knowing about: (a) separating our unique and autonomous self from the rest of life so that we can repair the realities we don’t like and create new and better ones we think we want (b) letting go of our self and joining something bigger and getting better connected with it. In theological terms, creation separated us from the oneness (God) we were born out of and life is a human walk on a spiritual journey to get back to that unity. We need both processes, but the second is much more satisfying and probably the only way to fill the nagging void of something missing inside that we all know about.

Now onto a few sensible solutions to this current predicament.

1. Seeing the problem for what it is, can be half the solution. You can’t have the sunshine without some rain coming later, and not being prepared with an umbrella even on a sunny day isn’t very smart. If we want to increase our productivity and keep up with the overload and speed of change, then we need to take vitamins. The umbrella-vitamin cure we need involves increasing the quality of our connectedness and relationships with each other. This is the only way to replace negative thoughts with positive feelings.

2. And if we find out we can’t slow the train down, at least we can make the ride a little more comfortable. If our best efforts fail in trying to reduce the overload and slow down the speed of change for better management, then we should probably re-focus our energy on getting past superficial connections with people and start doing what is necessary to develop substantial connectedness.

3. Sooner or later, and better sooner than later, we have to realize that fast and more isn’t always good. I have always trusted my intuitive knowing that balance is a good thing—listen and talk, think and feel, eat and exercise, and work and rest. Anyone who lives a balanced life like this lives longer, feels better and does more. So, whatever side of the equation you are currently on, consider not taking that position too seriously at the risk of getting more out of balance and experiencing the downside of that. In other words if you are trying to take things apart and are stuck in the no-where zone, start thinking about putting them back together again to get to the prosperity zone .

4. Developing deeper connections with people requires you to take the time to share life stories with one another; but no one seems to have the time to be able to do this, but maybe it is time to make time? If you want to share your life story with someone important to you, then begin by letting them tell you theirs first. That is the best sequence for a more substantial connection to occur.