Life is such a challenge: need some help?

Life and living standards have increased. You would think that this would make life easier, but I do not believe this is the case.

Life is very different from when I was young. With five adult children and many nieces and nephews, I see how the young run their lives.

Life is faster, more complicated plus there are greater physical distances between people as they travel or move for work.

I believe history will write up the 21st century as a revolution. The 19th and 20th centuries were an industrial revolution. The 21st century will be a technology and environmental revolution. Cleaner energy will become available, more effective health care and healthier life styles.

If we get this change right, both the planet and ourselves with have the opportunity to heal.

Understanding what is happening can help you with the challenges in your life. Be kind to yourself as changes in society take place. Change is not always easy.

Hope of a better life is important to enable the necessary changes to take place.

In the 20th century mobile phones arrived making communications via voice and text easier. Using smart phones there are now apps for most things, for example music, banking, games, TV, meditations. How we watch TV has changed with on-demand streaming through such services as Netflix and Amazon Prime.

The foundation for releasing people from time and location constraints has arrived.

In the 21st century many new services and ways of living will arrive. For example using the smart phone platform with Artificial Intelligence (AI), new services are becoming available for health problem diagnosis and on-line doctor surgeries at a time that suits you. AI helps to release doctors’ time for the important people facing conversations.

Good quality health care will start to become accessible for many more people.

However, we each need to play our part in this. We need to flex and change our lives so we can take advantage of the new technology and changes. Change is not always easy especially if you are older and remember a different way of living. Undoubtedly some of us will get left behind.

We need to recognise some people will need help to move into a new way of living.

Some people will not be able to afford the new technology needed for 21st century living. Or perhaps they are struggling to set it up if it is too complicated, or just not be able to keep up with all the change. We need to help one another in this change. We do not want groups of people to become excluded from things like good health care.

My observation is that the speed of change is rapid now and getting faster.

So we need to find a way of providing help to prevent anyone from being excluded. New technology brings both good and bad aspects. We need to harness the good things and mitigate the bad things, for example children experiencing too much screen time. It must be culturally alright to get children off their devices and out into nature.

With an ageing population, many people are experiencing feelings of isolation and loneliness.

This is increasingly being called ‘alone, together.’ As I a former widow, I will vouch that loneliness is the worst of human emotions. This is even more so when you feel lonely with lots of people around you, such as in a town or a city. So often these days you see people all around you on buses and trains with their heads in a mobile. Few seem to look around, smile and say ‘Good morning’. In this environment, how will children practise the art of face-to-face communication? How will families feel together? How will the old or those who live alone feel part of a community?

A good change is that physical distances are mitigated.

WhatsApp and Facetime enables families and friends to more easily stay in touch with one another. The video aspect makes it feel like a more personal conversation. Even if they live the other side of the world, take the time to talk to someone who is important to you, so they know you love them. These things do matter.

Occasionally a good old fashioned card is really appreciated. Your love goes with the card, whether you believe in such things or not. When I posted about my ‘Love corner’ in my kitchen which has cards from all of the people who are important to me, I had an amazing response.