It’s getting harder and harder to create the sort of headspace that’s conducive to introspection. Every single day we’re battered into submission by advertising telling us that we can’t possibly  live without Product X. For all its myriad benefits, Internet connectivity is a double-edged sword which, if not used with discernment, acts like a digital vise on our brains. The 24-hour news cycle provides a relentless stream of images and sound bites that often serve only to clutter our already overwrought minds. And the entertainment industry has become formulaic to the point of resembling an attractively-packaged lobotomy. The fact of the matter is that we have not been prepared to process all the data that are flung at us daily; for at no time in our evolution as a species have we had to deal with such sensorial onslaughts. In short, our lives are becoming impossibly and irrevocably commercialized: our responsibilities as citizens have been superseded by our potential as customers.

Some will retort that we all have a choice, we always have a choice. This is of course true to a certain extent but it also hides a more inconvenient truth: certain things are expected of us if we’re to be considered productive members of society. Uninterrupted connectedness is one of them, fealty to the economic order another. Thus what is often touted as the primacy of choice is only in fact an illusion of choice. All this to say, it’s of paramount importance to regularly clear out sufficient headspace to get away from the hype, the newspeak, the groupthink and all those other social constructs that only serve, more often than not, to make us feel inadequate. Now this is easier said than done. For one, it’s not in anyone’s interest that you take time out from your duty as a consumer.

And neither is not having any money an obstacle to spending any more; in our society of choice you’re free to indebt yourself in order to oil the cogs of the economic machine. Indeed, debt has become an industry unto itself and in these straitened times a very lucrative one at that.

So what’s the solution? In simple terms, downtime and reflection. But even these relatively basic choices have become luxuries. Because of rampant indebtedness, for example, many people can only dream of getting away from the grind of their daily lives for any amount of time. As a result they’re forced to forge on, deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of their disenfranchisement. And the more miserable they become the greater the need to validate their existences through the purchase of useless products. This is not say that certain people don’t earnestly pine for such superfluous pursuits, but on the balance of things it seems fair to say that there’s more to life than an eternal overdraft and empty boxes piling up outside the gate waiting to be collected by the rubbish truck. So yes, headspace is of the essence if the soul is to breathe. And if it doesn’t breathe, well it will asphyxiate or at least go into apnea.

And if that happens, irrespective of your belief system, you’re not doing yourself any favours. Fortunately though, you have the choice. Or do you?