Chronic fatigue is the new normalized state of a society that offers only a consumerist vision based on the quest for pleasure. Being positive, ambitious, dynamic and overflowing with projects and objectives: this is the promise of contemporary happiness according to the new ideology of personal development. Finding the resources within ourselves to face life and overcome all its handicaps, using motivational techniques and abstract projections: is happiness hiding behind the plastic facade of an anxiety-depressed society pressurized by all the injunctions to become the archetype of one's own happiness? Nothing less!
There are two kinds of fatigue: physical fatigue resulting from intense physical effort, and psychological fatigue resulting from a sustained and permanent mental load. The former can be dealt with by resting the body, while the latter is far more complex to soothe. It's a bit like a battery that's constantly discharging, with no autonomy of its own. It's easy to accept this state of affairs, as we're powerless to pinpoint the underlying problem, the root cause. We then turn to the promises of emotional detox made by people who offer yoga sessions or a nutritional approach to rebalancing our diet. Of course, all this brings only partial and short-lived results, as the origin of the disturbance is not addressed.
There's a sneaky credulity in thinking that stretching the body or choosing the right foods will, on their own, dissolve the weight of inner tensions and conflicts. But the purely physical aspect of these approaches can in no way resolve the contradictions of an existence based on fear, conformism, sensation-seeking and lack of inner vision. But how can we approach the complex pattern of the ego simply? How can we identify the points of tension? How can we bring order to the permanent disorder that is our daily lives?
There are so many things we hope for, and we put constant pressure on ourselves to achieve our desires. We're looking for harmonious relationships as a couple, in the family, with colleagues and friends. We dream of a happy tomorrow, a beautiful home, a fulfilling career, beautiful children, enough money to live happily ever after. We hope for good health, status, recognition, power, love and so on. There are so many things we desire, always in search of a future that never arrives. The fact is, we live in expectation of improvements that never come. But we keep hoping, convinced that a little yoga, a session with a shrink or repeated substance abuse will soothe this existential malaise that reflects the loss of meaning in a society that has become sick with acceptance and renunciation.
But what exactly is well-being? Can we live without the constant pressure to be something we're not? Do you see the contradiction in such a lifestyle? There's nothing to become, because that implies a headlong rush. The fact is, the individual is depressed. All his old models and patterns are collapsing. Paradigm shifts in society have given rise to deep-seated anxiety about tomorrow, and chronic emotional insecurity as a result of isolation, which now fills all available space. Everyday life is nothing but tension and discomfort. We dream of a different place, but in the meantime, the boat is taking on water, and it's only a matter of time before it reaches the bottom.
It doesn't know who to turn to, and has lost all self-confidence. All its former authorities have failed: politics, religion, education, science etc... No promise of improvement in sight. He no longer knows which way to turn. Normalized depression is the new Western norm.
There are no problems in itself, only the problem of existence. Psychological security does not lie in the accumulation of convictions and certainties. Only self-knowledge can provide the psychological security that instantly erases fears, tensions and chronic fatigue.