Do You Ever Feel Like the World Has Gone Mad?
There are many, many reasons why you would. Turn on the news or scroll through your social media for 5 minutes and at least one absurd story is bound to make your blood boil. Twenty minutes ago I read an article that talked about new wifi-programmed diapers that let you know when your baby wets the diaper VIA an app and I almost lost my mind. Without a doubt: the more time I spend online or plugged into any news source, the more I lose faith in humanity.
Something I’ve realized recently though, is that the bulk of this insanity seems to be contained to the online world. In my day to day, I experience almost none of the madness. Of course there’s subtle manifestations of power and greed: sexism, racism, etc. But these fear-based subtleties are not the things wreaking true havoc in my world— the real chaos is generated in the amplification of our problems in the media. Which begs the question: how much of these problems are real?
The media is a business, and they sell fear. We turn on the TVs, we buy the newspapers, we click the bait when the headline is shocking and bubbling with fear. Fear gets a reaction and so fear we are fed. It’s the one-in-a-million real-life scenarios of insanity that are put on display in the media and online, and then every news source picks it up, spins it, turns it into clickbait, and then we the consumer are hit with varying degrees of fear and insanity from 35 different angles.
Take a step back and think about the last time you really experienced any of the insanity of the online fear-based world in your day to day life. I’m willing to bet it dwindles down to significantly less 1%. So there’s your real world experience vs. the online world experience, and we spend so much time plugged into this cyber-reality that we begin to think our ‘real’ world has gone mad.
I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t have any idea what’s going on in the world (although, it wouldn’t kill you)— what I am saying is be mindful that the world that you’re painting for yourself is laced with artificially amplified fear, greed, and monetary incentive. These media conglomerates spew fear and then let the layperson battle out wars on social media as a result. Whose war are you fighting?
We learn information via the (corrupt) media, and then we go to war against out fellow man online. This war ideological war is carried out on facebook, youtube, and instagram comments. We’re entangled in drama that does nothing but suppress our divine cosmic union with all living things, and it is this fear that prevents us from transcending our conditioning and finding true inner peace.
It’s not easy to break-free from the insanity of the cyber-world. What works for me is to avoid posting a negative comment anywhere, ever. This includes anything passive aggressive, condescending, or ego-driven to any degree. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not fully there yet. I still get triggered sometimes, and resort to some less-than-noble comment… but 9.9 times out of 10 I stop myself before hitting the enter key, or I (seriously) delete it minutes later. I know in my heart if a comment came from a place of light or a place of darkness. Even the slightest inkling of ego has no place. I don’t want to contribute to chaos in the world, and it’s my responsibility to avoid watering the seed of chaos.
It’s easy to point fingers at the world’s biggest problems, but unless we start dissecting every last inch of our own self— we have no place accusing others of changing. Anytime we war with our fellow humans, we become a part of the problem.
THREE SIMPLE WAYS TO RE-ESTABLISH SANITY INTO YOUR WORLD:
Part 1: Heavily filter-out the mainstream fear-based hyperbole being blasted into your brain. This means no nightly news, and as little exposure to main-stream media as humanely possible (CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, FOX, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, USA Today, Washington Post, etc, etc, etc). Be mindful of the Facebook friends you have that only re-post inflammatory click-bait bullshit (unfollow them!), and in general: spend less time on social media.
Part 2: Refuse to partake in stoking the fire: no more hate-based comments. Catch yourself ideally mid-type, before hitting enter. Check in with your intention, always. Does it really sit well with you, what you’re about to put out into the world? Would you speak this way to your loved ones? Take a breath and really connect with your higher self. Serve the good.
Part 3: Gratitude. This is a trick so simple that most people ignore it, despite the word being plastered everywhere these days. Reconnect with the real world that you live in, find gratitude for the infinite fountain of beauty in life. For the little things. Smile at a stranger, hold the door. Don’t underestimate the power that all these little seeds of love are planted in the world. Focus on watering the seeds good that in time will bloom into a forest of wild, unbridled, infinite love.
