MY NOTES FROM NOTES ON A NERVOUS PLANET

I just love love love Matt Haig’s books. His books are solely close to my heart because he daringly talks about mental health and the journey of people who have mental health issues walks on.

I had been diagnosed with anxiety disorder five years back. Reading this book had been the perfect literary treat.

Revelations I had while reading the book – Notes from the Nervous Planet by Matt Haig are

1. Most of the people think we talk about mental health just because it’s trendy.

Hear out world ! Loud and clear. We do not talk about mental health because we are weak and fragile. Contrary to that, we are warriors who fight from the mind with the mind. We do not talk about mental pain just because it is something easy to talk about. Far from that, we carry judgements of people around, walk over it and keep on pushing and fighting. Over that, we become unstoppable and speak up for all to see. Mental health is not a celebrity trend, it’s not something which is in fashion. Stop telling us that you have felt this way in your life, that it’s normal to feel this way and that everyone feels the way we feel. No, everyone do not feel the same way we feel. Just come and live inside our heads for ten minutes, you’d have the taste. It’s a constant battle, constant tiff with illness which just can’t wait to grip us in it’s wings.

2. We are yin to the yang.

We are mild people. It is a legitimate truth that we have abundant to be grateful about in this developed world today and the technology of course. But don’t you think we have fleetingly solved the problem of scarcity and put it back with the problem of excess ?

Literally everywhere, everywhere people are seeking more.

People who are walking on the journey of mental health can spot speckles on the culture of ‘more’. The heightened sensitivity in us let’s us passionately talk about veganism, sobriety and minimal living. We are yin to the frenzied yangs.

3. We are awake in the dizziness of freedom.

While it is fabulous to have experienced all this freedom in 21st century. Absolutely, fabulous. But we have to remember that even if the choice is infinite, our life span is limited.

People who are composing and working on their mental health are fully awake in the dizziness of the freedom culture.

A gentle reminder, it’s high time we need to mindfully edit choices that are in front of us.

4. Trust me, we are worried about everything.

We are worried that we might upset people around us. We are worried that someone might get hurt because of us. We are worried that we are not grateful enough for our privilege. We are worried about the harm we are causing to the planet earth. We are worried about the pollution. We are worried about the species going extinct because of us. We are worried about the generations to come. We are worried about the soil and water that we humans have incessantly been contaminating. We are worried about the consumption of excess plastic. We are worried about all those people who are being bullied at their workplace. We are worried about the mental health rights and how misunderstood the people with mental health issues are. We are worried about the humans that are being exploited. We are worried about the starving children. We are worried about the corruption. We are worried about the animals that are suffering. We are worried about all the pain in this world. We are worried about how much we are worried about the earth.

5. Non-human animals and flora is genuinely healing.

Dogs and cats don’t have news. Since resting is a part of being them, they rest and they don’t feel guilty about it. Politics and economics are not important to them. Modern existence can be dehumanising. We are losing sight of what really matters. We are terrified of not being productive, something I’m really working upon.

Spending time with animals and plants, genuinely heals. ‘Notes from the nervous planet’ granted the revelation – we anxious people are not fond of shopping complexes and the places where we cannot come in contact with nature.

The world that show us that shopping is therapeutic, the culture that literally obsesses with the stores with illuminated signs, we find them draining and exhausting. The culture of consumerism calls forth the thoughts of not thinking about the environment. The cloud of being inconsiderate towards our sweet Earth looms over us.

We want to live with a vision of minimal life, responsible towards our each action. We want to run towards kindness and tenderness, desperately wanting to be gentler with each life.

STUDIED FACTS FROM THE BOOK THAT WERE MIND BOGGLING TO ME

1. Homo Sapiens (Humans) have only been around since 2,00,000 years. Last 50,000 years were the ones those picked up a gear. We’ve only had farms since 10,000 years. Reading and writing has been around only for a minuscule of 5000 years.
2. In 2016, at the International Geological Congress in Cape Town, leading scientists have put forward the idea that we – our planet – have entered fundamentally new phase. We are leaving the ‘Holocaust Epoch’ – one marked by stable climate since the last Ice Age – and entering something else : the ‘Anthropocene Age’ or ‘new age of man’. The one which will be marked by deforestation and rapid extinction of species. Well, the modern life is slowly killing the planet.
3. First pocket watch came about during the 16th century. Once upon a time, there were really just two times. Light and dark. Sleep and awake. Since then we serve time rather than time serves us. We wonder where time has gone. Our culture is obsessed with time.
4. In another 1,50,000 generations humans might evolve and adapt to unnatural light, but right now our bodies and minds are still the same bodies and minds of those humans who existed before Edison patented his light bulb. In other words : WE NEED OUR SLEEP.
5. Marketing psychologists have a ‘psychological component’. FUD stands for ‘Fear, Doubt and uncertainty’, often legitimately used by businesses and organisations. FUD is so powerful that we subconsciously crave more. We are, in short, encouraged to be addicts.
6. Email, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter checking constitutes a neural addiction. Each time we check social media ‘we encounter something novel and feel more connected socially and get another dollop of reward hormones, telling us we have accomplished something.
7. In 2018, a research study conducted by King’s College London found that being able to see the sky helps our mental health. And not just the sky. Seeing trees, hearing birdsong, being outside, and feeling in contact with nature.