THIS WORLD, YOUR WORLD.

There‘s a way to not be carried along by the rush-rush, buy-buy of this world, and that is to create the world that brings balance, peace and harmony.

If you‘ve ever felt that this current world and you don‘t jive, morally, ethically, value-wise, that you are just being carried along or that maybe you are being subsumed by the trends, the news, the general mood of the moment, then maybe it‘s time to think about how you can shape a world that is more like the one you want, one of less noise, less ups and downs, less chaos, with more spontaneity and joy. Here are few ideas on how we can do to make our own lives more our own.Or maybe we can just find ways to cut through the noise.

BOBBING V. LEAPING
Life, at least in our own memories, might have felt more contented. Like ducks, we lived our lives happily bobbing about on the waves, not really considering the impact of 'just bobbing“ and going with the flow wherever that took us. 

Now consider the salmon, single-mindedly leaping upstream against the current, they set the intent to get what needs to be done, done. If you want to change even the small things in your life, try going against the flow, be the salmon, not the duck…  

A PERSONAL RETHINK
Maybe, as a duck you let things happen around you. Too busy to do anything else, you bobbed, and let everything around you shape your life, ethically, emotionally. To keep in the flow, you backslide on personal beliefs or maybe forgot to challenge them. You avoided the leap of how to live more authentically.  This leap often needs the right conditions and environment, one of less "noise“ where self-reflection can manifest.

SILENCING THE NOISE
Noise keeps you from silence, and silence is what’s needed to start owning your life. During “quiet time” you begin to see what distracts, what gnaws at you, what nudges your inner peace and sets you off balance. Noise isn’t aural in this context. It can be…social media and how easy it is to start mindless scrolling. It’s everything that distracts. It can be slave-like relationship to your phone.  It can be the number of notifications you receive from your various apps as they ping into your lives. (Tip: cancel some!)

Sure, it’s 2026 and like it or not, social media has its place in our lives. From keeping in touch with community groups to those groups of specific intent and interest, to family members. Follow what you need to, if via algorithms you find yourself reeled in by fitness reels on how to get off the floor, or feeling overwhelmed by too much information from a particular group, it‘s likely time to ration your intake. Ditto emails: if shopping online results in triple daily offers from a brand, you have no further interest in, there’s an unsubscribe button. It’s time to click it.

ENFORCED STILLNESS
Need more help in focusing yourself away from the noise of the external world? Take the example of Michelle Obama who, during the pandemic, found knitting a way to reduce stress – and produce what she called “enforced stillness”. Making bread, drawing, baking, playing chess, when done consciously will produce the same result. Similar to meditation, enforced stillness, can bring you peace away from the noise and make you feel in charge of your world.

TIME CHANGE
Culturally programmed to go to sleep at a certain time, to start work at a certain time, from time to time upending these formulaic ways of organizing our days, can make you feel like you are less of a hamster on everyone else's wheel. To try: once and a while get up before sunrise and head down to the lake or park and experience the peace that’s within you without the noise of life around you. Or go utterly early bird and start work at 5.00 am while the rest of the city is sleeping.  With less noise and more clarity you’ll refresh your sense of self and the world. 

MAKE YOUR OWN RITUALS
OK, we laughed when we read about the Tik-Tok trend to do away with plates and serve food literally on the table. But sometimes taking the leap (just like that salmon) by questioning and upending common everyday rituals can result in discovering new experiences that become your own and add to the feeling that you aren’t just another duck bobbing around in the waters of life.