The Numb Place

Life isn't just about darkness or light, rather it's about finding light within the darkness. - Landon Parham

When everything lacks color, tasteless, and dull when time is empty, emotions are dead, and ambitions are just rotting thoughts, we have entered the Numb Place.

Living in a time of information overload, we feel pressure from myriad sources, and there are times that we struggle. From waking up to closing our eyes, it is easy to fall into the traps of physical and emotional demand and supply. We should value only two commodities, time and love, but modern life treats them with impunity.

We live deluded with unlimited time, and that love is lacking or limited. In truth, we live with a ticking clock. We can never recover lost time and yet waste it on things that are undeserving of such a precious source. Our capacity to give and receive love is endless. We can love anything, yet we rarely invest in enjoying the most beautiful state of being.

The most helpful mental requirement is our perspective. The most damaging is our expectation. Our feelings rule us, but when they become overwhelmed, we retreat into the Numb Place. The pessimist has expectations of failure, whereas the optimist anticipates success. Applying perspective, we see only potential outcomes without color or emotion, and often we find that it doesn't matter.

Ironically, society abhors the problem of its own making. Violence, chemical misuse, vandalism are all symptoms of people struggling under the weight of modern life. The grandiose expressions of this disease fill the media for us to condemn and judge with the same condemnation and judgemental conditioning that caused them. Sadly, we are contaminated with the same plague.

One early symptom of this malignant illness is when we slip into the numb place. A deer may freeze stock-still in headlights, its fear holding it from thought and action. Under the full-beam of life, we emotionally react the same way. We go to the Numb Place.

Like an automaton, we maintain existence with the actions required to complete our tasks, but inside, something inside has died. Initially, this goes unnoticed as we slip deeper, our friends question our well-being, and we learn the mantra of Okay, I am fine, and no problem. As we go deeper into the Numb Place, we become more distant from the world, and the journey back becomes impossible. We have escaped from the trap of societal expectation into the prison of our psyche.

The cure can be simple, but in our robot condition, it is hard to fix ourselves. The medical realm has a plethora of remedies, but unless we add the missing ingredient, these chemicals and processes fail. To heal, we must stop treating the symptoms and cure the disease. The quintessential item is a real willingness to be fixed.

We feel beyond repair. We have lost sight of what is valuable. What is left is governed by our expectations rather than with perspective. Failure feels written inside us, waiting. We forget what matters.

We need to love ourselves again. Everyone's journey to live life afresh is different; some are longer, some are harder, but all are unique to each of us.