Living in a Bubble

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Our Cocooned Lives

My recent interactions with few of my undergraduate (MBBS) batchmates left me wondering how much circumscribed our lives have become.

Although living in the same city, within a few miles from each other, despite the presence of internet and social media, we barely know each other. Even if I leave out the personal stuff, I hardly know anything about most of them on the professional front either. It is true that it is not easy to keep a track of everyone’s life in a batch of hundred and fifty. However , my list didn't stretch beyond five or six people.

I thought I was the one living in a bubble, but it equally surprised me to discover that everyone was living a similar life - cocooned inside the shell of their routine life of work, household chores and kids, peppered with the occasional medical conferences.

The Social Disconnection

When I asked my friends from other fields (outside medicine), they too portrayed a similar picture. This is how disconnected we have become from each other as humans.

Our work takes up a major chunk of our lives and most of it, we are dissatisfied with it , we make time for our families on the go, talk to our children while dropping them to their schools, our social circle is in shambles and our health takes a hit.

Sadly, we become disconnected from our bodies and minds too, that we are not able to identify when we need rest, when we must call it a break, when we must say ‘No’ to unhealthy habits and patterns.

How Mindfulness Helps

The practice of mindfulness helps us to restore the connections within our bodies and minds first and then with the outside world- our families, children, our work, friends, our community, our environment and nature.

When we step out our bubbles, and start building well connected lives, it can bring a profound sense of peace and stability in our bodies, our minds and our lives.

Dr. Suhasini Das, MD
Consultant Psychiatrist

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