Meditation and Media
I guess we need to talk about our commodification and how it affects our inner world.
What constitutes our inner world. Well, many might say it how we grow up, our society, culture, identity, etc. But let's look at the representation of those thoughts. In our head we see images, we hear voices speaking, and most often we don't feel bad about it.
When we have a terrible thought we get consumed by the thread, one thing leads to another.
Example: I lost my car> oh no, I need it for my delivery job> I won't make money> I will become homeless
Or when we get a new job
Example: This new job will get me money> I am excited about the new role it's going to be so much cool> I want to set a tone to give everyone cake when I join> maybe I can work hard to get promoted within the next two years
Of course, these are not the same for everyone. But we all have thoughts and one thought leads to another. Emily PG Erickson talks about the cocktail party in our head and how we can zone out different voices in our heads when we want.
And she rightfully wrote that meditation sucha as Vipassana helps us do that.
Our biggest concern shouldn't be what thoughts we are having but how those thoughts are coming
The internet has done a marvelous job in informing us. But the problem began when it started persuading us when it started commodifying us. By manipulating us and brainwashing us.
Our minds which are very hackable it seems are the victims of incessant thoughts circulating. We buy things on a whim, we get hooked to watching things, we act in unison in order to belong hell we have also adopted the language of memes.
Have you ever heard two people's conversation in memes?
One of the easiest meditation techniques is to let your thoughts pass you by as you don't engage in them. You let them pass one by one. And if you do that long enough you'll see that your mind becomes thoughtless.
While Emily talks about focusing on one specific thought I am telling you to silencing them. Now imagine you scrolling through social media on an infinite scroll, if the meditation practise holds out, we are lending our thoughts to a thoughtless place.
In those very deep places of our minds we are very malleable. It is where you can give yourself suggestions to be better or live better. That is what auto suggestion is. If we keep scrolling, the question then becomes, hat are we feeding our brain.
As we let our inner thoughts be ruled by social media. We are letting whatever people talk about and advertisers want us to know to seep into our deep end of the mind.
I cannot stress this enough, make your inner world stronger. Spend a little time imagining things. 10 impossible things before breakfast.
