Rise of escapism

The war between your mind and heart is nothing but a vicious cycle, of how some days the heart might win, and on some the mind, but never will you see that neither of them wins unless you do. Haven’t we all have faced the war, the ultimate battle between choosing right and wrong, heart and mind, life and death? Haven’t we all lived through the time when nothing seemed sure, and everything a blur, and all we could think of was a world where there was nothing but you and the woods? 

But why is it that now more than ever, people have started to run away from the realities and have instead found shelter under the large tree of escapism, where nothing exists but just sweetness, where everything they love is theirs, and nothing can hamper their peace? But today, we are not going to talk about how escapism is beautiful, but instead how it harms your mind and your heart, how it harms your life and your people. Let’s talk about running away, shall we? Or again, will you run away? 

Why is the turn towards escapism is becoming more and more popular, you ask? The truth is simple. We have chosen for ourselves a life that we never wanted in the first place. We live in a world where most of the population lives a life that has nothing to do with their dreams and desires. Instead, they live a life following what was desired from them by someone else. 

We are a community of devotees of lying. When we are asked of happiness, asked of our dreams, or asked about our lives at large, all we do is lie and expect the world to see through this forge and fight for what we cannot fight ourselves. 

We have been so inclined towards waiting for our saviors to help us survive, we have forgotten the first lesson of all the stories we read in our childhood, never will anyone help us if we cannot help ourselves. The pain from realities took over with such strength that we could not do anything but turn to the mystical world of fake scenarios and start looking for an escape from the life which we once considered a gift, is now nothing but a means to breathe and to daydream. 

The answer to what happened to us as a society lies in our beliefs somewhere, where we didn’t only build norms that hurt everyone. Still, also we built a wall around each individual and locked all of us alone in our cages, which we could not break, and now we have lived with it long enough for it to be our new regular, but have we learned? 

No. The honest answer to whether we have learned from our past mistakes is that we haven’t. We still push people to live their lives the way we want them to and expect them to be happy. We take over their lives and expect them to be okay with it. When did we as a society become a community of killers? 

When did we turn into a community of haters? Or better, a community of robots, for which nothing is alive and nothing is important, but just the fact that everyone should live a pre-approved and pre-designed life, and no one can tailor their life according to the one living it. 

The truth behind our need for escapism is the need to seek something personal. We have been so tired of living a life that no longer feels like our own. Instead, we have found a way to ignore the ways of life and have dreamt for us a new world. With our eyes closed, we seem to have forgotten the world is still here. It is not going anywhere. 

Amidst the pain of the past and worries of the future, we forgot to live in the present. We have indeed lost the edge to live. Instead of a fighter’s approach, we have moved towards ignorance as our coping mechanism, but it can stop if we want and will only stop if we try and never stop trying. 

Given below are a few ways we have found for you to fight the capture of worries and finally run free: 

1. Start moving: Movement doesn’t necessarily mean excessive strain on your body. Try to flow with the movement, do what naturally comes to you, connects with you, like a walk in the garden, a stroll around your town/city, a dance routine, or yoga. These are some ways we have found to be fruitful to fight chaos in the mind. To divert is to focus at times. 
2. Clean up: It can mean your bedroom, your entire house, your bed, or yourself, whichever you can find the energy for, find a way to clean something up. It is said cleaning is a type of meditation and can help reduce stress and anxiety.
3. Journal entries: Keeping a journal is an on-trend tool for many to organize their thoughts, pen down their chaotic swings, or doodle around. Keeping and writing in a journal will help you let out the thoughts and feelings that are trying to get out of you and help you lower the amount of burden your cute little mind has been harboring for so long.
4. Cooking: Cooking has shown excellent results in lowering stress levels and giving a sense of achievement to many. Cooking a meal from scratch gives us a purpose to direct all our energy and focus into completing one task at a time. It gives us time to process and to have a healthy and tasty treat at the end.

We are not promising you that these will bring you out of your rut or escapism habits, but it will surely help you build a healthy space for your mind, which will help you gather enough strength to work through this challenging time bring out a happier YOU. 

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