How to survive in a big city and not to go crazy?

Congratulations, dear Francis!
If there is something that does not suit me in our Christian religion and Western civilisation, then it is undoubtedly a terrible interpretation of the words from the Bible: “fill the earth and subdue it.” For thousands of years, these words have been used as an excuse for the predatory exploitation of Mother Earth and general disrespect for nature, thanks to which we exist on this planet.
It is exactly these words that Pope Francis referred to. The most important man of the Church admitted that it was an absolutely wrong interpretation of the Bible, he apologised and ordered immediate improvement. What, unfortunately, did not appeal very much to some politicians who see business in further contamination of the environment.
Why am I writing about all this? Because I sound the alarm! Well, I do not know if we are all aware of this, but we are now witnessing the greatest of “extinction” of the human species in the history. I am calling everyone to take immediate action to protect Mankind.

These are the facts – it is our Western civilisation that has contributed most to the destruction of nature. For millennia, it has developed according to two assumptions:

• man is something separate from nature
• we humans are the “masters” of nature and it belongs to us (depends on us).
But later this model of action was taken over by the whole world, so no one knows who to blame. Today we already know that this approach has led us to a dead end with exhausting natural resources, environmental contamination, etc. But STOP – I do not want to deal with climate protection in this text.
Let everyone have their own field, I would like to deal with Human Protection. It is amazing for me that so many people are fighting for the protection of animals, seas or climate. Who is fighting for Human Protection? Is man not a part of ecology and should not be primarily protected? Of course, this cannot be separated because in the end the Earth is a whole and if we cut down the Amazon forests or we are going to poison the oceans, we will not survive. However, we still have some time before this global catastrophe occurs. On the other hand, thousands of people are dying today and you have to save them as soon as possible! The reason for this “extinction” of the human species are the conditions in which we live, especially in cities (large and medium) and our lifestyle.

We are the witnesses of the greatest “extinction” of people in the history.

The vast majority of humanity in the so-called developed countries live in cities. And what do living conditions in cities look like? It is amazing for me, I think I will really believe some day that our civilisation was not created by people, but we are prisoners of some foreign Reptilian breed, who lead humanity to destruction. Because the living conditions we have created in cities are “from hell.”
We cultivate common, collective sadomasochism. These are strong words, but true. People doomed people to this fate. We live in tight cages built of artificial materials, full of chemistry. Some people designed and built such “prisons” for other companions in misery. We inhale polluted air, eat valueless plastic food. We spend half a life in front of the screen of electronic devices, exposing ourselves to widespread chaos and excessive stimuli. And then we are surprised that 1/3 of European society (including Poles) live in depression or have mental disorders. Not to mention the plague of civilisation diseases. It is not a coincidence or divine drive, but hard-earned results of their own actions.
“I am from the city, small and poor crankiness is born here, I live on it and will live on it” – a quote from Elektryczne Gitary, Polish pop music band.
A man is an integral part of nature and existing cities do not respect basic human rights to live in harmony with nature and close to it. The urban environment is not only “poisonous” to the body. It has the same toxicity on the mind.
But let’s not get overly pessimistic. We have already experienced worse threats – man has a unique ability to adapt and survive so we can deal with it.
But what to do? It’s about awareness, education. It is about creating ecology that will be friendly for a man. Let’s start with actions towards the Protection of Man.
If we love ourselves, love for the world will automatically be born. It always goes in this direction. I have not met a person who lives a healthy life, cares about himself and his food and would not naturally be interested in caring for the environment. So real ecology begins in us. Then such consciously living people will not be able to design and build more metropolitan prisons, but cities that are more friendly to people. We will change cities – we will give them a more “human” character.
The quality of life, contentment, mental and physical health among people living in cities instead of improving is getting worse. However, escaping from cities is not a solution. Not everyone can live in the suburbs in a detached house or buy a farm in the countryside, breed goats and live off the production of organic cheeses. This is pleasant, but for most people unavailable option.

So what to do? How to live in order not to go crazy? I present a few practical ways to deal with the challenges of living in the big city jungle.

Add more living space

Living space, though it has bad connotations with the Third Reich (Lebensraum), is a very important thing for our mind. It is not about the fact that we live very crowded in the city, this is not the biggest problem. Once, people lived “in a pile” in caves, and many tribes live in large multi-family huddles to this day. In such a crowd people did not have any great physical space and yet they were normal… Because they had ​​nature around them and could use it freely. The point is that the mind needs more space during the day even just for a moment. That’s enough for it when we spend all day in a small room, with too many stimuli and the mind is tired. It rests, relaxes and releases tension when it feels “freedom.” It is good to go for half an hour walk around a park, a square or even an empty undeveloped space once a day. It’s best not to listen to music on the phone but just let the mind “feel the surrounding space”.

Stay as close to nature as possible

Every minute spent around trees or plants, in the park or even on the square – acts as a soothing balm for a freaky mind. Put flowers on the balcony and cultivate them. Someone you know has an allotment garden – use it to maximum. Above all, the best for the mind is when it is surrounded by water – both the standing water, i.e. a pond, but the flowing water works even better. Staying and looking at the river literally “wipes out” all day stress and emotional dirt.
It is because the mind (consciousness) is like water. It takes the shape of the vessel in which it lies. If our close environment (embraced by senses) is artificial and crazy, our mind will be also like that. If even a small part of the time during the day we are in a peaceful natural environment, we regenerate quickly.
Also, being with animals is a brilliant form of working urban craziness off. Cats, dogs, horses – they are all “normal”. They do not pretend and are always full of love and peace. Because the mind is also like fire. Its condition is easily transferred from one object to another. If we are with animals – their natural tranquillity is transferred to us, our mind is simply inspired and resets. If we only stay with other “crazy” people, then our mind is even more egged on.

Change the surroundings and people – go away for weekends

Our daily life is the most troublesome because of our repetitive, schematic experiences, the same stimuli. Change it, break away from the “vicious circle” in which you live during the week for a moment. So even if you live in the suburbs, do not just sit on your lawn during weekends. Establish that if you live in a cottage, you sleep better and rest on a daily basis. This is some rest, but it’s not enough for a balance of mind. A man defending himself from depression moved to the suburbs. He quickly sold his cottage in the countryside and stopped leaving for the weekends because he still lived in the forest all the time. Well, a few years have passed and he is depressed again today. Without changing your surroundings regularly – the mind does not rest enough …
Weekends are over 100 days off during a year. They are a great gift, it is better to use them well – it is best to go to places close to nature.

Do an electronic detox

The excess of stimuli is the most tiring for mind. Electronic devices (computers, tablets and smartphones) in this context are the most “toxic”, constantly stimulating the eyes and mind to act and still exposing the so-called electronic smog. Free yourself from it during weekends. Try to limit staying in front of the screen to really necessary situations.
A mind that has an excess of stimuli and never rests cannot be healthy and normal. From the point of view of human ecology, I am not a big supporter of switching to e-versions of all magazines to read as well.
I know that paper production burdens the environment, but reading everything on the computer screen is even more of a burden on the human being. And as I mentioned, a healthy, and normal person will always care more about the environment than a stressed and sick person.

Rest is a change of the type of occupation

If we work intellectually (as most of us), when we rest, let us switch more to physical activity and body. In turn, if someone is a worker on a construction site, then the time spent with the book will be a brilliant rest.
WARNING for white-collar workers! You will not refresh your mind in your free time reading only books or watching even very clever and developing films. Because it’s the same type of stimulus (you only engage your eyes and brain).

A sound mind in a sound body

This is a truth known since ancient times. Most often it is understood that by practicing sport regularly – we also retain mental health. THIS IS GREAT TRUTH! It has been proven by a lot of researches and observations. The best would be an outdoor activity – because then we also have additional contact with nature (two in one). However, if you do not like running/Nordic walking or cycling, it’s better to go to a gym and move in a confined space than to lie and rest on the couch.
Why does physical activity work so well on the mind? There are several reasons: the most important thing is that the intense movement forces deep, rhythmic breathing. And as yoga discovered a few thousand years ago, breathing techniques (pranayama) can strongly influence the mind, which means that they can remove the effects of stress from our consciousness. Probably intense breathing is some kind of pranayama.
The second element is that sport stimulates lymph movement in the body. And this speeds up the removal of toxins. And all stresses and traumas are deposited just as toxins. By disposing of emotional toxins, we normalise the state of mind.

Stop the mind – that is the hygiene of stress on a daily basis

Do you brush your teeth twice a day? Do you take a shower? Why? Because the body gets dirty every day and accumulate toxins. Regular cleansing enabled us to free ourselves from many infectious diseases that once resulted from widespread lack of hygiene.
Well great! And what about the mind? Once the mind was not dirty because we did not have so much stress in life, so its hygiene was not so important. But today, every day we pack a lot of stress in ourselves. We must treat it in the same way as dirt.
Stress accumulated on one day is not dangerous. But if it is accumulated for many days, it becomes toxic and pathogenic. What is a solution? It’s enough to delete it regularly and we have a problem solved.
Since we devote a minimum of half an hour a day to body hygiene, the same should apply to hygiene of the mind. Everyone should get to know about some techniques – those breathing techniques, meditation, yoga, chi kung from the Far East work the fastest.

Remember that man has a unique ability to self-heal and survive, all he needs is some help and he will renew himself. The principle is simple: balance. The whole Universe has this rule in itself. Striving and returning to balance. It works like a pendulum: If you lean in one direction – then it leans in the other direction. If we are in a stressful, unnatural environment for 10 hours a day, let us spend up to 1 hour a day regenerating or staying close to nature.