Running with the Red Queen

More questions than answers.

Last week I packed away around 80% of my clothes.

After one week, I feel I’d be perfectly content with getting rid of another 50% of what’s left on my shelves.

Learning to say ‘no, thank you’, I’ve had enough’ is a very difficult thing to do.

From an evolutionary perspective, we’re not wired for it.

But we need to have a mental shift and start recognizing MORE is often a liability, not an asset.

Consuming more: food, information, entertainment robs us of depth, attention, experiencing, reflection - everything that would normally, hopefully, lead to learning and wisdom.

We also understand that to stay in the loop we are often forced to keep running -not to advance, but to just ‘stay where we are’.

Many of us are out of breath, and ready to quit, but we don’t have a real option. Or do we? If so, how do we do it?

How to combine the necessity of growth and adaptation, with our wellbeing?

From FOMO to JOMO

Van Valen came up with the "Red Queen hypothesis

Under his hypothesis, species have to "run" or evolve in order to stay in the same place, or else go extinct, as the Red Queen said to Alice in Lewis Carroll's “Through the Looking-Glass” in her explanation of the nature of Looking-Glass Land:

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

We crave more. Always more. It's how we survived as a species. But now, more isn't better. We drown in information. We overfill our plates.

We feel the pressure to keep up, to run faster. Just to stay in place.

Like Alice in the Looking-Glass world, running with the Red Queen. It's a constant race, all to stay even.

The costs are often hidden.

We're tired, stressed, but why? We haven't stopped running to see.

How do we keep moving without collapsing?

We start saying “no”. This is enough. We need less.

Less noise, less stuff. We choose with care. We savor each bite.

What do we truly need? Just what makes us live well.

Ah, there you go! What does make us live well?

It's hard. It goes against everything they tell us. But maybe it's the only way to step off the treadmill and walk our own path.

Free is not really free.

More really is less, a lot of the time.