Tempest: How to Manage Habituation

“Turning in circles, been caught in a stasis
The ancient arrival, cut to the end
I’d like to be taken apart from the inside
Then spit through the cycle right to the end.” Tempest Deftones

 

Habituation: the diminishing of a physiological or emotional response to a frequently repeated stimulus.

 

Wake up. Get Dressed. Eat. Go to work. Come home from work. Get Food. Watch TV. Go to bed. Repeat. This is the basic repetitive cycle for 70-80 % of human beings on the planet. Humans are creatures of habit. We adapt to changes in stimuli and assimilate those changes to the point they are no longer abnormal. Habituation. So the question is how do we escape? Should we escape, considering that every human shares the same characteristics for a reason? Is there a balance between frequently repetitive stimuli and dramatic stimuli that prescribes change and evolution?

“Stuck in a Rut”

The idea that your life is on autopilot and that you have no real stimuli in your life to motivate you, is the most common feeling of people who work defined hours over a years or decades. The idea of being a slave to the system of order day in and day out, is repugnant to most, but why? Some would say there is a lack of stimulation. Stimulation is the catalyst for change and without it potential energy builds. So let us address the aspect of energy, potential and kinetic.

Most people who have complain of complacency feel tired, exhausted, or worn down. They feel they do not have the energy, the will to manifest a change, even though they know it is required. This feeling of lethargy is a manifestation of “potential” energy. Law of Conservation of Energy states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant — it is said to be conserved over time, energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it can only be transformed from one form to another. So the potential energy that exists in your life is actually the same kinetic energy that changed you to become who you are. So the “rut” isn’t really a “rut”. It is a recharging point, building and conserving the energy needed to go further. So embrace the potential, observe the common, and enjoy mediocrity, for what comes next is change.

“Brace for the glory”

People fear what they do not understand and no one understands change. The alternative to the lethargic, boring pace of day to day life is kinetic. It is the movement of life beyond what a person believes they can handle. You lose the job, get into an accident, your spouse leaves or cheats, the children are causing problems, or the ultimate change “Death” visits your home. Your life becomes a tempest. It is “moving day”. Everything and everyone must go and there seems to be no control in what goes where. It is terrifying and disjointing, yet beautiful and cathartic. While in the moments the changes invoke fear and confusion, yet looking at them in hindsight, the changes were “not so bad” and possibly beneficial to you. Returning to the concept of energy, the changes are not as chaotic as they appear in the moments.

“An object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion with the same speed and direction unless acted upon by unbalanced force” Sir Isaac Newton. So an unbalanced force changes your state from potential “stuck in a rut” to kinetic “my life is chaos”. Yet, if we look, the “unbalancing force” isn’t that strange or foreign. It is usually currently connected to us in some way. It is the dramatic example to shake us from our apathy, created by the very same potential force that sustains said apathy. So in essence the Tempest is our own creation, manifested by our dormant will to invoke change.

Hamster Wheel of Life

So we need both? Yes.

One propels and propagates the other. As the song says “turning in circles, been caught in a stasis”, which is an apt metaphor, it’s a beautiful cycle that is lost upon the most. The wheel is turning only because you are moving it, when you stop it’s your energy that is propelling it onward. You desire direct control and, if you consider all of the factors involved, you have it. Yet, people still feel lost on the wheel. This self-contained system confuses and bewilders some, but how or why?

Lost in self. People have the ability to become so consumed with the actions they propagate that they become lost in their own mind. The hunter that is so obsessed with the hunt for food he forgets to eat. The woman, who takes care of her entire family, yet falls to exhaustion because she did not take care of herself. The wheel is turning only because you are running on it. Do not forget that in your daily steps. “I turn the wheel with my will. I am the determiner of my path and destiny. If I choose I determine where my energy should go or lay dormant and growing. I did not create the wheel, but I am the master of it.”