The Legal Alien

I get called an alien quite a lot, but now I officially am one – a legal alien. I’ve been in Denmark for precisely fourteen days enjoying my earthly-extraterrestrial status and next week I’ll get my CPR number, a human ID reference that will upgrade me to resident alien, which is basically a VIP version of what I am now. Then and only then, I’ll be an honorary Dane.

It’s been an interesting two weeks, although I can’t say it’s been any more bizarre than the rest of my existence to date. I’ve relocated to a country I’d never been to before, on my own, in the middle of a global pandemic, to start a new and seemingly very important role at one of the world’s largest brands, while running a business and in my spare time, writing my first book. All the while garnishing my life with a totally unexpected L bomb.

And yet, despite the apparent chaos of the world I’ve created for myself, its the lunacy of the outside world – and my perspective on it – that’s making me feel an utter sense of calm right now. I have never, ever, felt so far removed from society as I do now. I have never ever felt like such an alien.

The C Word

What’s happening out there is by far the greatest social experiment I have, and probably will ever witness in my entire life. The insanity of humanity has never screamed so loudly. It’s grabbed the megaphone and its sinister voice is shrieking out of every speaker, haunting us with all those fear-funding words that have been added to our international diction overnight.

We’ve learned new phrases and we repeat them daily. “Self-isolation”, “social distancing”, “lockdown”. They’re on the news and filling up our social feeds. Morbid illusions are hitting every screen. The C Word is all we talk about and all we think about. Our minds are being conditioned and our bodies are being filled with dread.

One minute we’re celotaping up our porches so that the postman can’t deliver a potentially contaminated letter with a disease that has a reported 0.2% death rate. The next, we’re making homemade placards and gathering en masse to protest about something that has been a horrendous problem for thousands of years, half of us acting as though we’ve only just realised it exists.

We’re being told to queue patiently for hours outside the corner shop and yet, when we get inside we’re rubbing shoulders with everyone we’ve just been standing at a safe 2 metre distance from. Meanwhile, in airports around the world people are not allowed to sit next to each other in the waiting lounge, but when they finally board the plane they’re arm to arm, knee to knee and breathing in each others’ recycled air for the entire duration of the flight.

Some of us are making the most of it. We’re taking the time for mental and physical freedom to better ourselves. We’ve discovered the preciousness of time and we’re getting creative, working on our dreams. Others are taking it as a time out, enjoying a slobbathon from the comfort of our sofas with our only exercise involving a trip to the fridge. Alcoholism is the new normal, insomnia has us in its stronghold and we’ve taken our Netfflix binges to a whole new level.

The Insanity of Humanity

It feels as though I’m watching it all play out through a TV screen, like I’m seeing a film for the first time and yet I’ve somehow already read the script. To me, the chaos makes sense. And if we think about it properly, there is nothing going on in the world right now that we should find shocking or surprising, other than the mindlessness with which we’re responding to it.

So many of us are gulping down the information we’re being force-fed without question. We’ve now witnessed how quickly the mainstream media can take hold and governments can exercise their force, how panic is a seed that can be planted so easily and spread like Japanese knotweed, poisoning our each and every thought.

Social media is helping divide and conquer at pace. We get our backs up when anybody dares to question the beliefs we’ve held onto for so long. Those who challenge the mainstream view are voicing up and getting beaten down more than ever. They’re being dubbed conspiracy theorists, ironically by those who wholeheartedly put their faith in politics – a puppet show that surely is the epitome of conspiracy.

We seem to have to cultivated a universal approach to selective outrage and angst. We’re all inhaling the toxic fumes of media hype, living in sheer panic of a disease we know nothing about when we have far greater chances of destroying ourselves from things that have lived in plain sight our entire lives, worse still through the mental decomposition that results from all this panic.

The preoccupation with what’s going on at surface level is distracting us from reason. The rules don’t make sense. The statistics don’t add up. The actual situation doesn’t warrant the level of despair we’re letting ourselves feel. The mental affliction greatly outweighs anything that the physical ever will. This is not the first global crisis humanity has ever witnessed and nor will it be the last.

Lockdown is a state of mind

If you think about it, insanity was born in the mind. It has consumed our inner and outer worlds from the moment humans morphed into existence and the The C Word has done nothing but shine light on it; our ability to manipulate the mind and our inability to control it, our deeply embedded fear of death and our innate need to survive.

And so, while everyone else seems to be doing emotional acrobatics, I feel like I’ve been lying in a flotation tank for months. It’s a calmness that comes from clarity and by practicing the four stages of consciousness I talk about with my interns: awareness, acceptance, accountability and action.

I’m aware of what’s going on out there and yet, while I side with the rebel-thinkers, the ones who go in search of exposing the greater intentions of higher forces, for the sake of inner peace I choose not to join their crusade. Instead, I pay attention to the thoughts that enter my head, the words that leave my lips and the energy I surround myself with.

I accept that insanity is what defines us. Madness is our comfort blanket and we love to wrap ourselves up in it. Our egos feed off the drama and for some reason, we willingly let our thoughts and emotions be dictated to us by those with ulterior motives. More often than not, there’s a global crisis going on inside our heads each and every single day.

I know that the only thing I can truly be accountable for is my own mind. I take control of the thoughts that pass and what I do with them. I carefully choose the information I consume. My newsfeeds are filled with wise quotes and inspiration and conversations with anxiety-ridden friends have not dipped by coincidence. I am not buying tickets to that circus.

And finally, when it comes to taking action, you can see it in the microscopic choices I make each day. I’m doing good stuff to be a better me.