Disconnect to Reconnect
When you disconnect from the non stop stream of incoming distractions, you create a doorway to something wonderful. Each of us has an inner oasis imbued with a deep intelligence. it resides inside everyone, including you.
Our Delicate human psyche has deep default settings. For millennia these settings predispose our minds to infinite incessant distraction. 2,500 years ago Buddhists called this the “Monkey Mind”, giving our attention to one thing only to rest fleetingly before racing to the next thing….. on and on and on….
Our Delicate human psyche has deep default settings. For millennia these settings predispose our minds to infinite incessant distraction. 2,500 years ago Buddhists called this the “Monkey Mind”, giving our attention to one thing only to rest fleetingly before racing to the next thing….. on and on and on….
“People in the UK check their smartphone every 12 minutes.”
OFCOM
Presently we are utterly distracted because of the huge grip our internet connected devices have on our psyches.
“88% of smart phone users spend on average a quarter of their waking lives on their phones.”
Adam Alter, Irresistible
disconnect
Too Smart Phones
Today the power packed into even a mid-range smartphone runs rings around our minds capacity to retain its autonomy. When we go face to face with our phone it absorbs our attention completely. It then only scatters this finite attention across a variety of apps, links, new tabs, infinite feeds, auto suggestions, not to mention, e-mail, text messages, whats-app and social media. I know this because I am my own best guinea pig in this regard.
I’ll sit down having ‘chosen’ a YouTube video I am all set to watch. For example a talk by a favourite teacher to enjoy. Before long the sidebar recommendations are calling to me. Tempting me to click.
I resist and stay with my video. Then hello, an email notifying me of that new book; I click and purchase, but before I return to my video I see some new recommendations. I’m curious; so I click. The topic is ‘projective geometry’ of all things. I haven’t heard the term so I Wiki’ it and see examples of how this principle is behind many things that grow.
One illustration shows how elderberries grow….. oh and a hyperlink on their health benefits…. I click on that….. oh, hang on I get a text message from a friend and I reply.
Now, So ,OK Wait! What!
Where was I? …. Oh yes the health benefits of elderberries, no, the projective geometry thing, oh yeah the book….. where am I, what am I doing? ….How far I have fallen from my original meditation video. This is the story of my phone life. I guess you get the essence of what I am trying to share.
Not once, ever; have I finished an hour of flitting around on my phone and felt ‘Now that was a satisfying use of my time, I feel nourished and fulfilled after that’, not once; Ever! Not to mention an hour of zombie scrolling on my favourite infinite feed. Only leaves me feeling depleted! This is exactly what I am advocating we DISCONNECT from.
I’ll sit down having ‘chosen’ a YouTube video I am all set to watch. For example a talk by a favourite teacher to enjoy. Before long the sidebar recommendations are calling to me. Tempting me to click.
I resist and stay with my video. Then hello, an email notifying me of that new book; I click and purchase, but before I return to my video I see some new recommendations. I’m curious; so I click. The topic is ‘projective geometry’ of all things. I haven’t heard the term so I Wiki’ it and see examples of how this principle is behind many things that grow.
One illustration shows how elderberries grow….. oh and a hyperlink on their health benefits…. I click on that….. oh, hang on I get a text message from a friend and I reply.
Now, So ,OK Wait! What!
Where was I? …. Oh yes the health benefits of elderberries, no, the projective geometry thing, oh yeah the book….. where am I, what am I doing? ….How far I have fallen from my original meditation video. This is the story of my phone life. I guess you get the essence of what I am trying to share.
Not once, ever; have I finished an hour of flitting around on my phone and felt ‘Now that was a satisfying use of my time, I feel nourished and fulfilled after that’, not once; Ever! Not to mention an hour of zombie scrolling on my favourite infinite feed. Only leaves me feeling depleted! This is exactly what I am advocating we DISCONNECT from.
"It was always giving you the same kind of content that you’ve already watched. It couldn’t get away from that. So you couldn’t discover new things, you couldn’t expand your brain, you couldn’t see other point of views. You were only going to go down a rabbit hole… by design."
Guillaume Chaslot, Algotransparency.org
How Do I Disconnect?
Simply Disconnect from your phone. Once you do it you will feel better… I like the principle of FULL BLACK SCREEN. Go beyond airplane mode, completely fully power off….. slide it to black….. go a step further and put it in a drawer. Notice the happy lightness you begin to feel.
It’s wonderful even if it is a little disorientating at first. After a while a warm solitude arises. In this space our minds become new, free and fresh again.
It’s wonderful even if it is a little disorientating at first. After a while a warm solitude arises. In this space our minds become new, free and fresh again.
Reconnect
By liberating your awareness you reclaim the choice of what you would like to rest your heart and mind upon. Beneath the busy distracted, over scheduled ‘rush hour’ state of consciousness we live in day to day — There is a deeper Source.
REconnect
There is a supportive intelligence inside each of us, Holding us up, guiding us, helping us. When we Reconnect with this intelligence it can guide us through any challenge whilst revealing insights and enabling breakthroughs. Ultimately it connects us with who we are at the deepest levels and facilitates the arising of our true nature.
The best part of reconnecting with this deeper dimension of ourselves is how completely empowering it is.
Turning inward for guidance is a deeply personal process. Different for each of us. A radical act of trusting yourself is involved. When truth emerges it is your truth. You develop a relationship with your inner-wisdom, unique to you. You feel so good that you no longer look for; nor need; any validation from any person or thing outside yourself. You build belief and faith in the fact that the person who knows what is best for YOU is YOU.
My mission is to create ways for you to effortlessly connect with this inner wisdom.
Why not treat yourself to 15 minutes of phone free tranquility?
Will you give going FULL-BLACK-SCREEN a try?
The best part of reconnecting with this deeper dimension of ourselves is how completely empowering it is.
Turning inward for guidance is a deeply personal process. Different for each of us. A radical act of trusting yourself is involved. When truth emerges it is your truth. You develop a relationship with your inner-wisdom, unique to you. You feel so good that you no longer look for; nor need; any validation from any person or thing outside yourself. You build belief and faith in the fact that the person who knows what is best for YOU is YOU.
My mission is to create ways for you to effortlessly connect with this inner wisdom.
Why not treat yourself to 15 minutes of phone free tranquility?
Will you give going FULL-BLACK-SCREEN a try?
Copyright Geoff Fitzpatrick © 2021
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