Does a bear forget how to hibernate?

I find it interesting that the human species can circumvent the natural rhythms of nature. From time to time we get stuck in our own lives. We forget what is most important and we lose our ways. As civilization has evolved, we have lost touch completely with the natural world and live a life so unlike the other animals and plants that surround us. We are fooled into believing that we no longer are part of nature.

But what would happen to a bear that forgets to hibernate one winter? What happens to the tree that does not blossom one spring? It is unfathomable and it would be akin to a bear or tree choosing death. Yet humans do some of the most unnatural things day in and day out.

Take for example some of the things humans do not do on a daily basis.

• Eat a nutritious diet
• Exercise
• Get enough rest
• Breath
  

The list could go on but you get the point. I wonder how we forget the basic elements of life and all but decide that these are optional in order to sustain and prolong our lives?

I believe we easily lose our way because part of the human experience is to make sense of what life is all about; yet so many people never spend enough time defining what this means to them. They are never forced to do this and the society we live in now does not help them define this. Where would you learn this - school? As educational funding has declined, we are lucky if they get basics like reading, writing, math and science, much less philosophy of life.

Then most of us enter our 20's and while we should have the time, we are distracted by starting a career combined with active social lives. Add to that the increasing demands of our modern technology-based society - I see it in myself even. We are addicted to email, texting, calling, games, and music. We fill up every single millisecond of time and don't leave ourselves any time to sit back and just think about life.

We have lost time for reflection and pondering the journey we are on and how we want to make the most of the journey ahead. Maybe we need to start instituting technology breaks where we put down the computers, cell phones and televisions just long enough to ponder what life is all about.

I was fortunate that I took this time in my 20's to sort my life out and I am incredibly grounded thanks to long hours of reading and writing about the topic. I know what my life is all about:

• Starts with getting out of myself and helping others, I feel most alive in the service of bringing the most out of other people.
• Be your own best friend - that means do something nice for yourself when you are having a bad day and don't be overly self critical.
  
• Balance - don't get too high or too low.
• Cast a grand vision and chase it fiercely.
• Keep moving forward and don't leave any stone unturned, but be smart about the order in which you turn over the stones.
• Respect the rhythm of life and flow with the ups and downs.
  
• If you don't like your life, change it or shut up and stop complaining.
• Attitude is everything.
• Put it out there - tap into the grander energy of the universe and if you put your well defined hopes and dreams out there, the universe will send you what you need (but it might not be what you want).
• Greet every day with a smile - nobody likes to be around grumpy, moody, and mean people.
• Reflect on life and learn from your mistakes and experiences.
  

I refer back to this core all the time, but I dug it out of the ground. I know so many people that just wander aimlessly and when life gets really difficult, they have no foundation to interpret the world around them. Plus life in our 20's is simple, but the 30's and beyond are met with an increasingly complex world filled with intense jobs, relationships, children, aging parents, and so on.

My life moves at a pace that I can barely keep up with now and there is no time to just chill out and just take it all in. Plus by time I am done with my day my brain is simply fried. I would be hard pressed to have meaningful thoughts about figuring out the meaning of my life at this point.

The only answer I have is to take technology free vacations. Put down the cell phone and get reacquainted with a different side of our brains. Don't check email for a week and see what happens. Don't watch television for a week and see what happens. I believe our brain chemistry would be altered and we would realize that while having access to more information is making us smarter in some ways, it is no doubt coupled with very serious side effects. We are losing touch with what life is all about and potentially the lack of time pondering life is actually making us dumber about understanding what life is all about.

There is something very appealing to the idea of just checking out of the technology rat race and getting back to basics. Slow down. Write a letter instead of an email. Slow down. Read a book instead of staring at a computer. Slow down. Check email three times a day vs. three times an hour. Slow down. Have dinner with my family and spend more than 15 minutes at the table. Slow down.

At the end of the day, we should all be looking for ways to slow life down because who really wants this to go any faster than it currently does?