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It’s Time For You To Drop Out…Of Everything

Have you ever heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

It’s a classic psychological theory that outlines the different levels of human motivation.

According to Maslow, we humans have five levels of needs that we strive to fulfill: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

Now, here’s the thing. In our modern society, most of us have already achieved those basic needs. We’ve got food, shelter, and security covered. But we’re still feeling anxious and depressed. We’re still searching for something more.

Because really, no one gives a shit about the latest International conflict when they’re being beat by their spouse, trying to feed their children or picking up quarters on the side of the road to put gas in their car. Trust me, I know from experience.

But that’s just not where most of Americans are these days. They have the time and mental bandwidth to give a shit about too much.

Enter social media and 24-hour cable news.

These platforms have created a world where we’re bombarded with negative news and images. We’re constantly being reminded of the world’s problems, and we feel like we should be doing something about them. We are made to believe we are supposed to care about everything.

But here’s the reality… our brains didn’t evolve to care about this much stuff. We’re supposed to be solving the problems in our homes and in our communities. We aren’t supposed to even know what’s happening in Eastern Europe or on the Mexican border.

We’re simply not equipped to handle all of this information. It’s overwhelming, and it leaves us feeling helpless and anxious.

So what can we do?

As Timothy Leary said when pushing psychedelics in the 60s, “turn on, tune in, drop out.”

No, I’m not suggesting you drop LSD today. But he was on to something.

Turn on: Turn on your self awareness. Think about your thinking. Discover what is happening to your brain through media manipulation.

Tune in: Tune into your consciousness. Think about your external environment. Realize how the manipulation is impacting your actions and the world around you.

Drop out: Drop out of conformity. Stop doing it just because everyone else is doing it. Use the extra time you have from not worry about a lion eating your family to do something more productive.

Stop scrolling through Facebook. Go build Legos with your kids. (Why are you still here?)

Shut off the TV. Go outside for a walk.

Go find answers to the big questions. You won’t find them worrying about Donald Trump or Joe Biden today.

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