I've been wondering if it isn't time to withdraw from the online community which I've only been a part of for the past couple of years. I've reconnected with old friends, and I've met some wonderful people this way...and I wouldn't change that.
My business has not grown, but my time has contracted, and I feel very fragmented and my attention is spread too thin.
These things have become DISTRACTIONS
At least with Meetup you actually get together with people in the flesh, through your on line connection.
I love the people I connect with through social media, so it would be kind of hard to give that up.
BUT THIS IS WHAT I WOULDN'T MISS...
The steady supply of headlines with links to follow. Because I follow them.
But I'm learning not to.
I've said it before and I still believe it...the trick is to be able to see what you don't like, and to be able to look at it without getting too involved in that story while holding a higher vision of what you would like to see happen instead.
But there's SO MUCH of that to see. And we live in a society (presently) which profits from the telling of tales to capture attention. What better way (current paradigm) to capture attention of a wide audience than to show WHAT'S WRONG out there. There are no lessons to be learned from the telling of the tales. They are mostly designed to distract and keep us coming back for more.
And make no mistake...In national politics the conservatives and progressives are both at it. The media is slanted to side with one or the other. Whatever side you prefer, they're not doing you any favors. They're not meant to.
They are meant to TAKE from you. They are taking resources from you of your TIME and ATTENTION. These are precious resources you cannot afford to give to the undeserving.
This is not about being an activist or burying your head in the sand or looking the other way. This is about Self Preservation. There is a very subtle war being waged right now for our attention. Nothing so complicated as a battle between the forces of darkness and light. I believe it is simply that when you have an idea in the national/global consciousness it takes on a life of it's own. It gathers energy from the telling and retelling of it's story. It becomes a living truth...a belief.
When that idea begins to lose it's hold on the national/global consciousness, and we the people stop feeding it with our attention, it fights back. And it can be pretty horrifying.
And they are fighting back. But they are dying.
Because I was noticing the affect all of this battle for attention was having on me. And I was hearing it from other people as well. So I turn away, that I may perceive an entirely different landscape...a whole new world. And use my attention and my energy to make that into reality.
Love to you...