I’ve mentioned in this space numerous times that I often get aggravated with respect to my need to check in with social media too often (according to me). I can excuse, rightly or wrongly, my checking emails and texts as so much of our business communications use these mediums today. But why the need to check Facebook or Instagram or any other social media for that matter? Why the need to be plugged into the news all the time when very little of it is actually “new”.
I’ve noticed something in myself which I’m sharing, only in an attempt to get people to ask themselves questions about their connections. The days where I feel the most stressed are the days where I am most connected, to the outside world. To my emails, my texts, my Facebook, TV cable news etc… It is those days in particular that I need my time on the mat the most. Is it my age that makes me feel like all the connecting, all the chatting, all the sharing, can be exhausting? Possibly; but it makes me wonder if we are all so hyper-connected because we aren’t comfortable connecting with ourselves. Are there days where we don’t really want to feel what we’re going through, we don’t want to accept the way things are, and we’re looking for something to distract us, something to escape into? The computer’s right there. Let’s jump into someone else’s life for a few minutes!!
I have no doubt at all about the positive power of these social connections. I have benefitted greatly from the power of online referrals, and seen the awareness that can be raised for certain important issues. On a grander scale, I do believe that we all need to feel connected to a community; to be a part of a greater collective.
Still, I put the question out there. Is it possible that at times, we submerge ourselves in social media, or in the “news”, literally in other peoples lives, as an attempt to NOT see or to NOT feel what is happening within us, within our lives, within our families? I believe that to be true; and that is why, as my use of social media increases, so does the amount of time I require to create space, and to find time for silence and introspection.
It is said that we teach what we most need to learn. This must explain why I have found myself taking a few extra moments of meditation, a few extra moments of silent observance, in every yoga class I share.
We put so much out there. We are so connected to the outside world. I venture to say that what’s most important is within us. It may be uncomfortable at first… but go there. Stay in touch.♥