You’ve done everything you were supposed to do. You went to school, got an education, got a job, turned it into a career, got married, bought a house, had kids, raised the kids, continued working, and now you are retired or starting to think about what’s next.
And you are miserable. You played the game the way you were taught, and you still feel empty inside.
From the outside everything looks good. You have friends, family, status, and some degree of comfort and security.
Still, something is missing.
The uneasiness can appear as you get close to midlife. You begin to blame others for your dissatisfaction, usually a spouse, sometimes the kids, often your boss. If only they could do things differently, then you could be at peace and be happy.
Maybe you make some changes. Big ones or little ones, the changes range from switching jobs or careers, leaving a relationship, moving or redecorating. You change the outside in the hope that it will make the emptiness go away.
Only it doesn’t. If anything, you feel worse than before.
This isn’t a new phenomena. It used to be labelled as a midlife crisis; now we call it discovering your true self. The problem is, the solutions are looked for on the outside and it is from within that the pain originates.
None of this is your fault. You are not alone. It is a sign of what is happening in the world and you have your role to play in it.
When it is time to evolve, there is no choice to be made. The fish that crawled out of the sea and started to breathe on land didn’t decide that they liked things better the way they had been. There was no turning back.
The primates that evolved through various forms, eventually becoming the genus Homo to where we are now as Homo sapiens, were no more capable of ceasing the dramatic changes that happened through generations than you are now.
We are evolving into something new. A new generation of sapiens is coming into the world.
What worked in the past will no longer be acceptable. The ability to find contentment in purely the physical manifestation of yourself is no longer possible.
There is a yearning to develop the consciousness, the higher part of ourselves, and that can manifest in an unsettling manner. It can leave you feeling ungrounded and dissatisfied but without a good reason to feel that way.
You should have everything you need to be living a comfortable existence, but it isn’t enough.
In our efforts to resist this we are turning to distraction and self-medication. Drinking is socially acceptable and is used as a crutch. Drugs, whether legal or not, aren’t looked upon as favourably but their prevalence in society is undeniable.
Children are medicated routinely now because they just aren’t coping anymore.
Video games, social media, movies, television, news and gossip serve as wonderful distractions that alleviate the realization that we don’t feel okay. The stirring won’t go away.
The unease you feel is real. Acknowledge that it is there instead of trying to cover it up. It won’t go away by being ignored.
Take time to go within. Still the mind, learning to access the quiet that exists on a deeper level. The answers lie in the silence of the soul.
None of this is easy; none of this is comfortable. Feelings are being stirred up in a greater way than ever before, and we are seeing it play out on the world stage.
Those who are clinging to what was will continue to fight and struggle, unaware that the next step is one towards joy and bliss. Whether we get there or not without mass destruction in some form is the question.
Look within and find peace. Go into the world with that peace at the forefront of all you do.
No one of us may be able to save the world, but we can do our part to save ourselves.