Bus ride thoughts

I read a quote once that said “you spend most of your life in your head, make it a good place to be.” I’ve been thinking about that a lot and quite frankly most times my mind is a good place to be, it’s where I live and I’ve tried to make it comfortable. But there are times when it gets really hard to be in my head. Self-help books make it seem like all you need to do is change a thought and suddenly it’s rainbows and butterflies but that is not true or it hasn’t been for me.

There are so many things that influence how a person thinks; from social conditioning , to life experiences to personality traits and temperaments to prevailing emotional state and other things.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been evidenced to help a person understand that their thoughts affect their feelings which in turn affect their behavior and changing one of these creates a positive change but even that happens over a long period of time with regular CBT sessions.

I’ve discovered that one of my thought patterns is to wander towards the state of the world. This usually occurs when I step out of my usual “me -centered” thoughts and try to think about others or the way the world works. These thoughts often come to me when I’m feeling neutral, neither sad nor happy. Most times they occur when I’m deep cleaning, taking a long walk or on a long bus ride.

As I sit here today on a long bus ride, I’m thinking about our collective humanity. How at the very core we are all the same. How we all have the. same physiological needs and how we are all mortal beings and yet we always find a way to differentiate ourselves from one another. We’ve created divisions and sub divisions amongst ourselves for millennia immemorial. We have established close-knitted groups and fight those who we deem outsiders because they don’t align with our self-created values or beliefs or because they look or dress differently from us.

Opportunities and riches are hoarded amongst these cliques, making it so hard for non-members to find a way in. Categories are made based on levels of wealth acquired and keeping the majority of the population out of the top levels. Sometimes others make it from one level to another and forget where they came from because of the shame associated with being in the lower class and yet a few others embrace their new status and help to emancipate their people.

We have made great technological advancements as humanity. Our knowledge has increased greatly and we have made living much easier than our ancestors could have ever dreamt. We have created numerous convenient labor-saving devices and other luxurious comforts. This has been a good feat for us but for the one fact that it has come at the dire cost of hurting our environment, damaging our natural habitat to make space for what most fits our wants not needs.

I’m sitting here having all these profound thoughts and not doing anything about it. I’m just like the rest of us. I could justify by saying what can one person do and continue to perpetuate humanity’s campaign to destroy and plunder earths’ resources by using all the incredible inventions we have created with the case in point being my very presence on this very bus.

Of all the living things on earth, Human beings are the most destructive, hateful and selfish creatures. Even the little goodness and kindness that we show ourselves and a few others we care about is not enough to make up for the harm our presence has caused the earth and other worlds we will discover and destroy.

Perhaps the only thing we can do is try to live more diligently, knowing that we are here but a for a time and the clock is ticking.