Benefits to social media? I say there aren't any!
One of the very first lessons I learned as I embarked on my spiritual studies was, “Turn off the radio, stop watching the news, and begin listening to the wisdom of your Inner Knowing.” It was actually pretty easy for me to make this shift because, as a teen being lectured to by my mother about how I should, “... read the news and know what is happening in the world", I would always press for an answer to the question, “Why?” The only reasoning my mother seemed able to give was, “Because it is important.” I didn’t believe it then, and I most certainly do not believe it now.
In Truth, the world and all its human affairs are minuscule when compared to The Infinite Universe. The events of the day are not omniscient (all knowing) things with power over our daily wellbeing. So many of us have gotten way off course by believing that current events do have that sway over us, however. Imagine how different the world would be if we all just stopped believing it? Imagine if we deleted our social media accounts, turned off our smart phones and returned to the simplicity of a telephone line and calling a friend to go out for a walk. Would that really be as hard as we may think?
We have become a culture that is overwhelmed and over- entertained. Yet, what we have come to mistake as 'entertainment' has actually been proven to be stress producing. It immobilizes each and every one of us from fully accessing our internal wisdom that is screaming to be heard. We often find ourselves unable to hear anything over the high pitched buzz of, “Reader beware!” This focus can lead us to feel frozen in time. YOU ARE FROZEN! WAKE UP!
You might have noticed I recently disappeared from Instagram and Facebook. I am farm-sitting (homesteading on Quadra Island), with internet service that has to bounce off several towers before anything happens. It is slow. (Let me be clear: even though I do post on these platforms in my professional life, I never actually use them personally, except maybe for 5 - 10 minutes, here and there, as I seek to expand my understanding of typical users. I quickly feel that I have had enough. Anyway... I digress….)
I was out and about on Quadra one day, taking pictures and dreaming up creative ways to share the deep wisdom of the ages in an effort to help wake people up to their power, when I had the thought, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I must tell Collette.” The next day, I got a very scary message in my Messenger feed saying that 'They' were going to freeze my account. “Oh no, that's the place where I store my work for the Centre! The Centre! I must save it.” In all my panic, I did exactly what we get warned against, and I got locked out - BAM! Just like that, I froze our account. Finally, after some fancy footwork and specialized help, we 'got back in', but my ‘boss’ would no longer give give me access.... I needed to listen to that voice within. (Isn’t that what we teach, after all?)
So, it has been about a week now, as I write this article, that I have been off social media. Frankly, I can’t imagine going back. Since then, I have had numerous conversations with friends about things happening 'out there', where I honestly had no idea what they are talking about. I heard new words to describe events of the day that I hadn’t heard about, and I found myself at more choice as to whether or not to refuse to include those narratives in my own dialogue. I have been watching people rant as they gather in groups, and click their tongues or nod their heads in agreement around the stories they have ingested that affirm, “It’s so bad.”
Is it?
I am thinking that they have forgotten to 'look up'. Sure, maybe they did 'a prayer', but then they didn’t get what they wanted. From there, I ask, "what was the prayer?" Was it something like, "Dear God make it different than this” ? That isn’t a prayer.
Okay, enough ranting. I wish for each and every one of you that you would follow my lead. Turn off your screens and your radios… ALL of them!! Just stop it! Instead, I invite you to wake up to the authentic calling of your heart. To help you, let me end this message with my morning prayer:
Love is the great teacher. My heart holds the deepest wisdom I can access. So, I am still... I listen and I understand. I am open to Its profound Truth. I hear the Calling, and, in faith I follow. I dare to be so open and vulnerable... to explore my deepest self. And, as I allow this, the world around me transforms magically. All the barriers, all the walls, dissolve into pure Light, and I return to my Truest Essence. I am courageously walking the path of self-discovery, and I am daring to understand who I really am at the core. My life continues to fall into place, and Nature celebrates my awakening. In my beautiful moments of self-realization, I witness how the entire world blooms in response to my understanding. Life is here, right now, in all Its fullness. I am this Life. And so it is.
Light up your soul. Give it your full attention. Start now.