Lonely, angry and people who fear, are easy to control.

I feel that some people don’t know how to interpret social media and it makes them unhappy, bitter and angry. I believe that many things have changed and are changing for the better. People have a lot more possibilities to change their surroundings, and to be more informed about what is going on in the world. I think before it was a lot easier to do “bad” things, since spreading information wasn’t as easy as it is now. Many people say that the world is becoming worse and it’s a terrible place to live in, but we’re simply a lot more aware of the bad things that happen worldwide, it doesn’t mean that they didn’t exist before.

What really makes me happy, is that the more we have information, the more we can develop and change our surroundings and the way we work together. If I think about any subject: education, health, technology, etc, all these things have improved a lot during past 10 years. To make yourself heard and to show what you think, wasn’t that easy. You really had to go out and make the effort and connect with people. Now we can just click or even scan our face to access the internet and reach endless amount of information and people.

It’s not only happiness and joy online and I’m not saying that the world is perfect at the moment. I think we’re just in the beginning of something that we don’t know about, and we need to somehow adapt to it. I’m just sometimes worried that so many people have such a negative image about the future. I think that not even long ago, we used to spend so much time on things that weren’t relevant, and now when we have a lot more free time, people don’t know what to do with that. Boredom is a very tricky concept: some seem to get bored with everything and some don’t have enough time to even think that boredom exists. Some have no time to relax at all, while others don’t even know what ‘working hard’ means.

If you’re not familiar with cameras, I will give you a little introduction. In modern cameras you usually have an autofocus setting, and the camera’s inner built technology does all the work for you and finds the focus point in the scenario. You can also use a manual focus and find the focus point on your own, by turning a ring that is around your camera lens. Usually when you start taking pictures it’s easy to use the autofocus and let the machine do all the work, so that you can focus more on observing your surroundings. I personally think that using manual focus can bring out new interesting focus areas, that the machine wouldn’t have chosen as the first option. On the other hand, there is a high chance that autofocus can bring out good results as well. How is this related to your life?

Many times we’re doing things automatically without thinking about what we’re doing, we let our autofocus do the job. We’re not thinking too deeply and the result is alright. If we were to look at our daily tasks more carefully, there’s a possibility that we’ll find new and better ways of doing things. If you let autofocus do all the work for you, you don’t even have a chance. It’s like you’re organizing your new home: you arranged it the way that you did before, or you’re used to. When time passes, you slowly start to realise that maybe things should be arranged in a different way and you start to pay more attention to details, to make your house more functional. This is what happens to me with my thoughts many times.

We have a certain perception of ourselves and when we grow, we realise that we’re not the same anymore. We have a more detailed understanding of how who we are, and why we behave in a certain way in different situations. We might wake up to the reality one day and see, that we need to use the manual focus instead of autofocus on some things to make them work better. I had a talk with my friend and we agreed that there’s a core in inside all of us and most of the time the core is hidden, because it’s something that needs to be protected. There’s no way to navigate those layers inside of ourselves using autofocus, this type of work needs to be done manually.

Whenever we follow the same thought processes that we have learned throughout the years and continue trying to fit in and think the same, just to feel accepted and protect the core, we’ll never give ourselves a chance to be who we really are. We could influence things we do, and re-evaluate these automatic processes that are built in us, but change is scary and it’s easier to fear than be fearless. It’s easier put on an autofocus than take the risk.

I see more room for change when we’re at times capable of observing ourselves from the outside in a harsh way. I think it’s bullshit to start every morning by saying to the mirror at 6.30 in the morning that I love myself and I can do everything. No, no, I don’t, but I still wake up and will continue. You don’t need to love yourself every day and as well you shouldn’t hate either. I think that by shutting down certain emotions, for example hate, will have a deep damage when silenced. The more honest way to approach yourself sometimes is to say out loud: “In this moment I don’t love myself and I would love to, so I need to do something to myself to be able to do that, and make the necessary change to this vicious thought process.”

Whenever we’re creating something new and better, change is the hardest and most needed part in the process of developing. If we’re never letting go of autofocus, take situations into our own hands and get out of our comfort zone, our ideal reality will always stay as an illusion and it never becomes our reality.

A friend told me that she recently heard a 5 year old saying the following words: “Life is not fair!”, and I can say that I definitely agree with this kid. Life might not be fair, but if you try to be as fair as possible with the people around you, maybe we have a bigger chance to create a fair world for everyone. If we want the future to be better, we cannot just keep complaining and avoiding responsibilities, we also need to do our part. If we continue navigating this world using autofocus instead of trying to do things in a more ‘manual’ way, we might not appreciate certain details that are key-elements for a better future.

That’s all folks!

-Eeva-