Understanding Fear and Social Media

Fear is often a thought, and one that hasn’t happened yet. Social media thrives on its ability to alarm us to get our attention, and hopefully keep it. When we absorb large amounts of social media, the views, opinions, and projections of its authors become our thoughts, cognitions, and fears, often without our awareness. How do we filter out factual information from fearful projections? How do we limit the access that technology has to the information we process daily? Are we even aware of how sensitive our brains and nervous systems are to even the hint of fear, scarcity, and impending doom? We relish in the entertainment of knowing the severity of situations far outside our sphere, and then are lumbered with what to do with it all once we’ve absorbed it.

Reconnecting with Internal Cues

As we grow and mature and become attuned to our environment and responses, we have more choices. We all have the ability to discern and intuit built into our infrastructure. These subtle cues are occurring within us all the time. Often, however, we miss these cues as the more we are attuned to the hum of technology, the less we are noticing and receiving our own internal signals. The racing of our thinking and planning of our rebuttal sidesteps the intelligence of our bodies. Does this even matter? I think it does.

The Role of Meditation in Reclaiming Presence

My understanding of meditation is attending to the body. In a few moments of breath and stillness, we slow down, settle, and raise the volume on our own experience. This is listening. With greater practice, we reduce the need to control and influence what we experience and gradually rest in the peaks and valleys of emotion, sensation, and experience. It is here that we develop presence. We are resting within a flow within us. This is calming to the body and the mind. This is where we begin to experience a sometimes unfamiliar feeling of coming home. And this is where we hold our true power.