Breathing through the chaos of being human in today's world...

in #breathing7 years ago

Thanks to the proliferation gadgets and devices, thanks to the fast pace of 21st century and thanks to just being alive. I feel overwhelmed by the overflow of information in in my daily life. In addition, I am a parent living in New York City who has to get on the smelly and crowded subway to work everyday. All of my waking moment, I am juggling through millions of thoughts and activities. On the exterior, I may look like a functioning human being. However, deep down, I am probably a clinical case of some one with ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.

Am I unique in my experience? I doubt it. Half of the people I interact can't even fix their attention on me during a 10 minutes conversation. I sense that as humans, we are losing ground of what is valuable to us, the ability to self-regulate.

We all know what is to be blamed for our mutation... the advent of technology... and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I am afraid of being swallowed up by it, really afraid that I can't sleep through the night anymore. One day, while tossing and turing, I felt like I was suffocating and needed air badly. In a desperate attempt to grab air, I started to breathe forcefully fast at first. Once my breath became normal, I continue to breathe slowly with even pace of inhaling and exhaling. This made me feel calm and less anxious. Then I started to reciting mantra in my head. That night I slept like a baby.

It felt great! The next day, after a chaotic morning of getting myself ready for work and the kids ready for school, I hopped on the subway train and was about to pull out my SMART phone. Then, I stopped myself... Why not breathe through the train ride just as an experiment? It felt great again. Can this be an incident? Is this what the gurus called "Meditation"?

One of my coworkers said he started taking Adderall to combat his ADHD and asked me if I would like to give it a try. I told him that I would get back to him after my breathing experiment. It is free and produces no side-effect.

After days and months, I feel there is hope again. The hope of regaining control of my life. If, like me, you feel you need help in coping with the chaos of being human in today's world, please join me in my breathing experiment. I can't promise it will solve any or all of your problems but I can almost guarantee it will make the process more tolerable. At least, I have't feel the need to get the prescription for Adderall just yet.

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