By Josh Lockhart

Have you noticed that a lot of movies, games and TV shows have a Zombie theme to them? From the TV show The Walking Dead to the new movie World War Z to the never-ending Zombie attacks that happen in Call of Duty or Trenches or Resident Evil.

A professor from Clemson University, Sarah Lauro, believes that this current craze with the undead isn’t a fad, but that it is part of repeating trend. Historically there have been fascinations with the undead when there have been high level of cultural dissatisfaction and when people feel disempowered by the economy.

I think we can all agree that our world is currently in an economic crisis. But what are we dissatisfied with in 2013?

When I look around we have many tools that allow us to clean our homes in a matter of hours instead of days. We are able to heat a meal in less than five minutes. We can start watching or listening to media instantly. We can gather information easily through the Internet instead of going to the library. We can get anywhere in the world in 24 hours. We can send a message to anyone in the world instantaneously.

Modern technology has allowed us to do things that were not even imagined just a few centuries ago.  In a recent cross-national study, it showed that developed countries reported having more major depressive episodes than undeveloped nations.

This is a trend is that despite all of these things that allow us to do things faster, we spend little time living in the moment connecting with others. We spend a lot of time worrying about what we will be doing next, and fretting about what has been, that we miss what is happening here and now.

Start living in the moment by:

Slowing down and listening to your heart

Letting go of worries and being thankful

Taking time to just breathe and ponder

Paying attention to your feelings

Savouring the food you are eating

Unplugging from technology more often

Looking around and observing the wonders of this planet

Listening wholly during conversation

Immersing fully in one activity instead of multi-tasking

Smiling and acknowledging people around you

Doing more of what you enjoy

By living in the moment and being with those around us, we will begin to feel connected to other people, but most of all, ourselves. And we will have less of an urge to be zombie-like ourselves by passing our time with things that dissatisfy us.

– Josh Lockhart BHEcol, PHEc & MC (Candidate) is a husband, father, columnist and counsellor. Josh focuses on helping individuals, families and communities lock their hearts together. Learn more at http://www.lockingheartstogether.blogspot.ca

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