The internet is flooding of articles on how to be present. All over you can find books telling us how to live in the "now" and lots of public speakers and workshop holders will try to teach you how to live mindfully but when you think about it, really.. Does it even work? The way we interact with technology today and how we communicate with each other through it is very isolating, isn't it? Looking at one single device all day not in each others eyes, not speaking verbally. Just glancing at one spot all day bending our necks and cramping our body in such unhealthy ways humans never have done before, all day. yikes.
I read a really good article on how this has affected the youths of today a few days ago. With the title "Have our smartphones destroyed a generation?" Here is a little extract from it.
“I’ve seen my friends with their families—they don’t talk to them,” Athena told me. “They just say ‘Okay, okay, whatever’ while they’re on their phones. They don’t pay attention to their family.” Like her peers, Athena is an expert at tuning out her parents so she can focus on her phone. She spent much of her summer keeping up with friends, but nearly all of it was over text or Snapchat. “I’ve been on my phone more than I’ve been with actual people,” she said. “My bed has, like, an imprint of my body.”*
Well, what I wanted to pinpoint in this post is that I have a few thoughts of that there might be a possibility for it to help us turn this the other way around and that we will within a decade see a huge difference in how we communicate and how we interact with technology. I can't help but wonder, could this turn into a power tool for us to use when we want to be more present and mindful? Could entering an immersive reality for an hour besides our own function as a therapy? Not only do I believe so but I'm almost 99,9 % certain of (it might seem a bit crazy) that this will also make us happier and more social with our peers which also might help on living mindfully. After all, we are social beings made to explore our surroundings. Right now we just sit still all day almost, exploring only blue light and letters but that's a side track.
So here is what I think could happen; if we use VR & AR in a way which we will feel immersed with all our senses, it will be an easy gateway to get in touch with our inner child, by that I mean that children are always in an extreme state of presence which is where all the yogis, articles and public speakers want us to go. Actually kids are always present, right here in the now playing around laughing and inventing their own realities within this one. If you let yourself play and being entertained in a way were you can interact being in a surroundings you feel really captivating in Don't you think that you will become amazed and filled with awe and excitement, just like a child? To add an example to the table; imagine entering a reality where you dream scenario is coming through, for instance if your dream always has been to go to New York, you just put on your Mixed Reality lenses and equipment and boom you're walking straight into the city, without the hassel of going to the airport and flying for hours. And you experience everything as its completely real, the smells, the though, feelings, sounds, visuals everything. It feels completely real. Don't you think that you would become completely excited and paying attention to everything around you, at least for an hour? Just like a kid suddenly entering the playground? You get my point? This might actually help us get grounded and forget everything outside our own little reality bubble we've already built up, our normal life for an hour or so, or at least I think it's easier than sitting on a pillow saying ooooohm to reach a place close to living in "the now". Or what do you think? So perhaps we can use mixed reality as therapy? To get a break from our noisy minds? A reality in which we become fully present with our whole body? Imagine for those who can not reach a state of presence cause they are so captivated by their chaotic inner thoughts, always living in the future and the past simultaneously filled with feelings impossible to cope with. And then if you enter another world where you know you can just let go of it all, and you let go of it all cause it's so captivating and magic that there is no way you actually won't be able to not be present. Perhaps some people will call it an escape, explaining that you're basically escaping from yourself. But isn't it better to have an hour with a silent, mindful mind each day than not, have a place you can go to for inner peace? If you ask me, I believe it's gonna be a great tool.
I'm not sure if I explained this in a graspable way for you guys.. But in someway perhaps you understood? To add another example; imagine playing a game where you really have to focus and be present in able to win or to actually play it, or imagine running from a lion. In order to succeed in that very moment you have to be fully in the now to be able to cope with the situation. And if one create such an exciting an non stressful reality you will enter that state of mind? Don't you think? It is interesting how we will be able to use virtual worlds to actually be able to cope with the other reality we live in, cause we have messed our lives up soooo much that we need to enter different realities to be able to not struggle. Crazy how this all have turned out like this but it's amazing the how our new way of living will become. At least we will have options for everyone, and not only those people who actually manage to calm down and relax by saying ohm sitting in a lotus flower. The things is, I don't think that is too many.
Excited? Yes I am.