More often than not, the first thing I do after waking up is resist the urge to distract myself. It’s as if immediately upon waking my brain realizes the sheer chaos that lies ahead and opts to defend itself through escapism. Instinctively, I reach for the glowing adult pacifier waiting on my bedside table, and all is well.
Escapism seems so nice because our brains know that being awake and being aware means getting back to making our way through immeasurable complex systems and doing and many things as we can. Being awake is sending text messages. Working out. Cooking dinner. Hoping on a quick call. Walking the dog. Cleaning the house. Making coffee. Finishing a book. Writing an article. Ignoring the headlines. Working about the future. Buying groceries. Drinking enough water. Stressing about school debt. Fighting anxiety about the changing world order. Ruminating on our powerlessness to affect meaningful change. And anything else we cram into the confines of a single day. With this realization in mind, can we really blame our brains for wanting to escape the overwhelming deluge? For realizing that life is mostly difficult, and choosing the path of least resistance?
This helped me realize that I’m not somehow uniquely addicted to screen based technology or algorithmically curated content. That my tendency to opt for a morning distraction results more from a having to face the terror of life, and less from an extreme case of brain rot (though I am certainly to some extent brain rotted).
Thankfully, a solution is just as near as the pacifier I often use in its stead.
In the approximate words of Ernest Becker, to navigate a world that is unfathomably chaotic we must simply “partialize” our experience and accept some sort of a delusion. Which in our case could be as simple as firstly, focusing on our set of responsibilities and passions. And secondly, allowing ourselves to believe that even in the midst of our crazy schedules, political unrest, constantly rising living expenses, modern technology derailing our collective futures, and truly “unprecedented times” that today could be a good day. That experiencing joy, or hope, or a delightful moment is not totally off the table.