So it’s a new year, which usually brings about a strain of anxiety, forcing us to make promises we didn’t keep the year before. Those New Years resolutions… Will we ever learn?
One promise that we do manage to keep to ourselves is to purchase more gadgets and stay abreast of technology trends. But our desire to stay connected may be exactly what’s keeping us disconnected.
We seem to succumb to the pressures of getting more gadgets, in an effort to keep up with those who usually have more gadgets than we do, as if they represent the new measuring spoon we use to in our recipe of self worth.
But in an era of digital domination, are we numbing our instincts? And if so, what is the price we’re paying?
Lecturer and spiritual activist Marianne Williamson says, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.” How much more in tune would we be if we tuned out?
Right before the big waves hit in the Tsunami of 2004, it's amazing to think that animals in the wild sensed a shift and fled to higher ground. Also, a group of Thai fishermen known as the Morgan sea gypsies saved an entire village of nearly 200 people because they too knew the signs of nature thanks to their ancestors.
I feel the common thread here is that whether you have two legs or four, the ability to discern that little voice in our heads is engrained in our self-preservation folder. We all have it, but we have to be open and available to see, hear and sense it.
My grandmother and her generation were always trying to sit us down to just listen. There were jewels in each story but we had to discipline ourselves to get past the “It was a cold day in 1929…” in order to get the lesson. You think these people are invincible when you are children until you know better. And it is often too late to take in the treasures they were trying to fold back into your DNA.
Now please don’t get me wrong: I’m waiting on my new iPad as we speak. I just wonder how much more connected we would all be if we disconnected more. So instead of lying to myself about all of the things I’m going to do in 2013 that I didn’t in the last five years, I’d rather challenge myself to quiet my mind regularly-- Unplug, if you will.
Perhaps I am intimidated by how paramount my immeasurable power is or can be if I powered down and tuned in. Even if it’s just for five minutes a day, I know it will create small shifts that will yield extraordinary results.
But it’s good to know if all else fails, I can find an app to remind me.
