Add Socialisation to the list.

The Parallel University teaches us that humans are constantly speaking to themselves inside their heads.

The vast majority of those thoughts are negative, and it is a huge struggle to suppress those negative thoughts. Positive Mental Attitude is a great way however it is exhausting, a bit like trying to build a sandbag levy in a flood. Drugs, alcohol, endorphins, cortisol, adrenalin, watching sport, reading, video games are all on the list. But the one that wasn’t on the list was socialisation.  It was mentioned that solitary confinement has been used as a form of torture for centuries, but the true need for socialisation was not brought to light.

There are many reasons we need socialisation. Some need it to gain kudos, others need to simply converse. We all need to think carefully about our need for socialisation and what happens when that need is not satisfied.

The one constant in all of this is that whatever we do to suppress the negative thoughts we need more of it as time goes on. Just like 2 beers used to be enough and now we need 4, having a coffee and a catch up once a week used to be enough and now it is every day. 

At the same time, we are socialising less with our own families. Where the evening meal used to be a potential cauldron of debate it is now more a rush to masticate food before racing back to devices, sporting events, video games or watching TV.

Instead of sitting around after work or sport and “having a few beers”, we race off to pre’s before rushing out to clubs and parties.

This was written only three weeks into the COVID-19 self-isolation and already the feedback is of a realisation of what our ramped up need for socialisation was costing us. Last year while travelling up the Queensland coast in our boat we met up with some friends who said how much money they were saving by living on a boat. No socialisation expenses, no trips to Bunnings. Maybe this quasi lockdown is just what we needed. A review of our wants needs and desires. 

Sometimes you need to put on an old pair of pants to realise just how much weight you have put on. Maybe we just need to put on an old lifestyle to realise just how much our lives have changed and what that is costing us.