Do you feel it too? Under greyest skies, record storms hail down on anxiouscitizens crowded in polluted megacities, where each just wants to get out ofthis hell, either in the family-SUV stuck in a self-contributed traffic jam orin a sardine-box-style public transport facility. The faces bend to theirsmartphones, the blue screen light sparks rays of hope mixed with a good punchof electrosmog.

Arrived athome, the newsfeed promises the white middle class an escape from reality. Forinstance a plastic straw decorated cocktail on a seemingly unpolluted dream beachin Thailand for only 500 bucks or at least the unique opportunity to purchase anew outfit from the hottest brand to post on your Instagram account in thepursuit of “sharing” your joy. Chasing the illusion that the more you take, themore you’ll get. More likes, more friends, a sexier body, a higher salary – youjust gotta be disciplined to have your perfect life. You gotta get moving andseize it. And now the next thing: be mindful, be healthy, be positive – successguaranteed, I mean all these billionaires do it too, don’t they?

Behind thesurface, a profound insecurity, an unpleasant feeling hard to rationalize withthe Western mind. After all, it’s not YOUR responsibility, all that shit goingon in the world, or even in your neighbourhood. And you probably can’t bebothered to think what it would mean, if it was. The others don’t do anythingeither, do they? So why bother at all and just “live the moment” instead – that’swhat the Buddhists preach, isn’t it?

The fallacyhere is that your happiness is independent of the happiness of others. To pushthe logic of our contemporary materialistic individualism to the extreme, youhave to choose your friends well, choose a job in which you can flourish, doyour yoga practice and a second sport, meditate and eat healthily. The othershave nothing to do with your well-being, the argument goes. And yet, we growtogether in our communities, that have sadly become very shallow in times wherefacebook friends are mistaken for real ones. Where the next love is just a swipeaway. Where the next retreat will give you back the energy you lost in yourbullshit job. Where investing time and love in others is just a waste of time,they may not be worth it, after all. What have they done for me?

Nature maywell be smarter than your smartest reasoning. It always allows us to let go ofour fears, anger, isolation and uneasiness. If we allow it to enter. If weallow our inner peace to grow. We’re not alone in this, but we have to go the firststep. To cultivate our intentions. To visualise the change we want to see. To believein it. And all the rest will follow: deeper relationships, more joy, betterhealth. A natural intelligence, not a forced one. A natural joy, not a boughtone. A natural success, one that is unique to you, yet embedded in yourcommunity and culture.

After thestorm, we’ll collect what it has left. Will it be love or plastic? And if it’splastic, what can we do with it?

Stay tuned,The Perspectivist will help you to build a better after-storm world.