Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Trials and...

Can a person be socially anxious without being shy? I mean I don’t define myself as shy, but I would say I suffer from social anxiety. Is this not a juxtaposition and if so can we be both confident and awkward? Are these not complete contradictions of one another?
OR do we convince ourselves of our traits, so the way we feel about ourselves is often different to how we are perceived by others. Are we blinded by our own self analysis?
I mean the question ‘who am i?’ is one we all ponder, and I’m sure we like to think it is an easy question to answer, but maybe we just convince ourselves of that because to admit to anyone, let alone ourselves that we don’t really know who we are is too frightening for most of us. Does admitting that perhaps we are walking blindly with no REAL insight imply ignorance or stupidity or is it just being honest? Everyone is so determined to be sure of themselves so they are defined and secure in their niche, their little place in the world. Perhaps this is where many of our problems come from; we are so determined to be sure of ourselves that we stop asking questions and our TRUE selves can be lost in our reflection.
Is confidence merely a mask of insecurity? I mean I feel I can see it in the most confident of people, the insincerity of their obnoxiousness; you can catch it in the moments between the bullshit- a glance to the floor, a search for approval or the nervous breath of someone who is not concrete in their words. If you’ve felt it then you can see it in others. And I think that’s been my problem for many years, I have portrayed myself as something other than I am. So now I act and I cant stand the sound of it. Are we too busy putting on a show that we miss ever reading the story it was based on? And how can we ever truly answer WHO AM I when we are so desperately trying to prove we are something different?
I mean obnoxiousness and pride have been the flame that ignited wars, deaths, tragedy. People will kill to defend their strength, so we have forgotten the beauty of vulnerability.
I am starting to believe insecurity is truth. Overwhelming strength is easily faked but to be strong enough to question yourself seems to be more honest.
And as for social anxiety, maybe we all suffer from it, I don’t know. Maybe some just hide it better than others, for me its not seeing people or fear of embarrassment, its the fear of silence. My diagnosis is that I drank too much in my developmental years and never truly learnt to communicate with others without a crutch of drugs or alcohol. This was my choice and at 24 I have to re-learn those skills. But the thing that confuses me is that in work situations or speaking with people on the train, just everyday people doesn’t insight that fear into me. Meeting parents, going to the park and talking to someone else walking their dog – these things make me happy. Yet when I socialise with people of my age demographic who are trying to be something, or maybe they genuinely are something I don’t know, I crawl inside myself and instead out comes my actor and I force myself to communicate on a level I think is necessary until I can get out of the situation. Our generation seems to require this of us, that we stand out in some way. Whether it be a tonne of makeup or a bad attitude we are all searching for these things to define us. So what happens when we strip it away and we are all nervous and afraid of silence or sobriety, would the world be more peaceful or boring? We are all infatuated with judging others instead of questioning ourselves and I just wish it were easy to see the nervous vulnerability or each other and perhaps admit that we are walking blindly, if only a little.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Misery loves company

What have I learnt over the past few years?
I have been selfish, self centred. Well versed in being an arsehole a lot of the time. Partly due to my own misconceived perception that I was better than others but mostly through the jaded concept that I have had to struggle more than the next person. Oh how naïve I was, and now I can only look back and shudder at the thought. How typical…How white.
Who are any of us to judge another? We have created quite the cut throat society for ourselves.
It is ‘funny’ to be mean, our senses of humour are based on the shredding of others and it’s repulsive. Small mindedness fuelling small mindedness- spurring each other on in a battle of non wits. Whatever happened to being good or kind to your fellow man, I mean don’t get me wrong I’m quite new to this game but I know which frame of mind makes me feel like a better human being.
There is no solace in the goading of others; there is nothing but shallow conversation and lonely nights drowning in self appreciating social commentary.
It’s becoming blindingly clear that an attack upon others is a reflection of the insecurity in ourselves. The acknowledgement of others weaknesses to me represents the dismissal of our own. Its hard to look within, to crawl around our own crevices and search for our deeper meaning, what we want for ourselves, what we think of ourselves. Its pretty confronting at times especially if for most of your life you have been busy commenting on the ins and outs of others. So where do you begin?
It becomes harder and harder to distance yourself from negativity, I have had to move slowly away from the old persistent habit of gossip and nastiness. Sometimes it feels harder being kind than it does to be cruel, probably because we are creatures of habit and I had created this persona for myself, a persona that kept people from looking too closely into me and from me looking too closely into myself. I felt my past gave me some sort of wisdom, some sort of pass to be dismissive of others. It was wrong, I was wrong and that can be a hard pill to swallow. But sometimes the only way to grow is to denounce all pride, step back and say, I fucked up but oh well, tomorrow is a fresh day and tomorrow I will do something nice. Tomorrow I will smile at a stranger or have a conversation with someone I would have previously dismissed. Tomorrow when someone tries to indulge in nasty observations I will change the subject, walk away, smile and say I don’t agree. Because we all struggle, we all cry and laugh and want the same things, to love and be loved, to feel the kindness of strangers. Its incredible how much a touch on the arm or a comforting smile can mean when everything seems bleak and unoriginal. We all have our own battles so why be the one to create more.
I would be cliché and say “if I could take it all back I would” but I would be lying, if I hadn’t done the things I have, said the things ive said I would not have moved closer to who I want to be. Our paths aren’t decided for us, we are masters of our own future and if you’ve been an asshole for 25 years of your life, tomorrow can begin the next 25 years of trying to be better. Noones fucking perfect man and everyones just trying to make it through the days the best they can so unless you are a pilar of perfection, an angel sent from 'god' to judge the worthiness of others then maybe trying thinking before you say that mean thing you thought, its what I have to do everyday, break old habits, think to myself we are all sentient creatures just tyring to be happy, we all do it in our own way and each way is different, neither better nor worse than the other. And unless someone is hurting others, killing, or breeding negativity then let them be. I remind myself of this everyday and it makes the world a more beautiful place.

“Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle”