Virtual Insanity
Our capacity to absorb what is going on around us seems to be infinite and compared to what was happening in the teen years of our parents lives there appears to be more information out there, both wanted and uninvited. The boundaries between our offline and online lives seem to have disappeared as we all become seamlessly connected to each other wherever we are. Our social media 'personas' feed into our offline life so that we hover in the mid world of on and offline, creating a personally constructed world which we think we can control with a swipe or glance. Yet this is not true as evidence shows that in the connected world we are nudged and guided to where algorithms have decided to take us.
As we become data driven and give up part of ourselves we have entered into a digital pact. Julia Hobsbawm in her book Fully Connected writes about our inability to absorb a tidal wave of information and maintain a healthy balance in our personal and professional lives. This Age of Overload, or Virtual Insanity, is complex, dissatisfying and unproductive leading to a plethora of health issues, both mental and physical.
We urgently need to find a way of stepping back and I have found that meditation is the perfect antidote.
Taking a non-negotiable decision to meditate for twenty minutes gives me time to purposely disconnect from everything around me and step into a safe space where I let my body rest very deeply in its least excited state and my mind settles. A digitally directed ‘meditation’ is quite simply not the same thing.
When you have in place a self-sufficient technique which is not relying on anything other than yourself, there is a feeling of empowerment and liberation. For the twenty three hours and twenty minutes when we are not meditating we are, or believe ourselves to be, in control of all aspects of our lives. When meditating we deliberately and gently disengage from this approach surrendering to the natural flow and energy arising from the time spent sitting with our eyes closed.
Research shows that a consistent regular practice has a compound effect which builds a healthy balance and approach to all the diversions and demands of our connected lives.
In these moments thoughts naturally arise triggered by the release of stresses both recent and long-past. There is no agenda - I'm not trying to meditate or encourage or suppress thoughts. I'm letting nature do what it wants to do; naturally, effortlessly, simply and easily. When I end my meditation I can choose how to re-connect with the world. Over the many years I have meditated I have found that the beckoning electronic finger, or thumbs up can be kept in its place. That digital world can be entered and left on my own terms, my powers of discrimination and intuition nurtured twice daily by meditation.