Many people are not just tired. They are overloaded. With information, opinions, tools, self-optimisation options and now also with AI answers available any time. The nervous system hardly gets a chance to settle. The line between genuine insight based on conscious perception and mere reaction to constant overstimulation is becoming blurred.
We are living in a time when news and answers are more readily available than ever before. Information is everywhere. Tools and apps too. And with generative AI, yet another layer has been added: we hardly have to research and wrestle with anything any more, hardly have to wait, hardly have to be still. A response can appear “on prompt” within seconds.
And that is exactly where one of the dangers lies.
Because not every quick answer brings real clarity. Not every form of external guidance brings us closer to ourselves. On the contrary: if we are constantly being advised, reassured, sorted out and soothed from the outside, something essential begins to fade – our ability to think, to listen and to orient ourselves inwardly.
Alongside everyday stress and ongoing socio-political uncertainty, many people are experiencing a deep sense of overwhelm. Some are aware of the wider forces at play, many are not. And on top of that there is often a kind of mental and energetic overcrowding. On social media and across alternative channels, everything becomes share-worthy content: every sourdough loaf, every smoothie, every conspiracy theory and every prophecy is given the weight of a prime-time headline. And countless posts are copied and recycled over and over again. Throughout the day, online and offline alike, an endless stream of impulses, opinions and outside influences rains down on us.
More and more people seem checked out, incoherent and almost remotely steered, as if lacking any real inner connection. And nowadays it is not even always clear which information is real and which is a deepfake. Perhaps these are among the most troubling phenomena of our time.
So the nervous system stays on alert. We function, react, consume and try to make sense of things. Try to understand what is unfolding in front of us and where all of it may be leading. And in the process, it becomes all too easy to lose our orientation for what is essential and what is not.
Mentoring can be an important form of support here, precisely because no preparation is needed. Anyone, at any age, can seek help. At best, a mentor is neither a guru nor a know-it-all, but a benevolent, neutral and seasoned outsider. Someone who helps expand perspective, recognise the bigger picture and distinguish the essential from the non-essential so that we can become self-directed and inwardly grounded again.
Because that is really the point: not a new form of dependency or attachment to technology, but greater inner authority and a lived connection to the Divine, or to one’s own Higher Self.
Generative AI may offer quick answers. But when guidance is permanently outsourced, independence and self-discovery can easily become an illusion. Real maturation happens where we learn to sense, to question, to discern and to find solutions from within ourselves – in relationship with ourselves and others, in our work, in our creativity and in the way we live our lives.
Perhaps these are some of the defining questions in this age of AI:
How do we remain open to helpful tools without handing over our inner authority? How do we continue to evolve soulfully in the face of accelerating technology?
Cover image: wise old tree, Tiruvannamalai, India (own archive)