Online we encounter loads of people.
Just scroll through a news feed of any of your social media accounts and you see loads of updates from the people you befriend and follow.
There is a load of data that we take in. Think about it…
When you count all the tweets, posts, videos, images that we consume on a daily basis….it’s a lot.
One of the reasons why we focus on our online persona so much, is because more people “encounter” the online version of ourselves more than our offline version.
In the real world we may go shopping, run some errands, go to the supermarket, but we don’t engage often with people. We just do our thing and go home.
Online we work harder on being seen, for others to pay attention to us, for others to admire and validate us.
The danger is that the more you absorb things people say about you plus the things they say in general online, (because you want to stay in the loop and compare their lives with yours), the more you shut down your own inner voice.
There is so much chatter going on online, it’s exhausting to keep up.
Keeping up can result in a stressful feeling, a feeling of constant preoccupation.
The more you continue to pay attention to that chatter, the more you allow that chatter to enter your mind, the more you silence your inner voice.
With the advent of the smartphone, we can occupy our minds with non-stop ongoing chatter. Not just from social media, but also from emails, the news, blogs etc.
Unfortunately we often take that chatter more seriously. Often times, we purposely take in that online chatter BECAUSE we want to silence our inner voice.
That inner voice speaks the truth. Whether we like it or not. So the more we want to escape that truth, the more we want to fill up our heads with distraction, whether that is a movie, games or social media.
Don’t silence your inner voice. Have your moments of solitude. Enjoy your own company. It’s there where peace, reflection, centeredness, clarity and “course correction” can be achieved and found.
Have moments where your smartphone is not with you so you can have some my myself and I time.
Then you won’t get distracted by other people’s voices plus you won’t feel the temptation to grab your phone so easily just because you’re programmed to do so.
Guard your mind.
Understand that a lot of that online chatter is not even serving you. There is not much value to be found.
Be mindful of the information you allow in your mind and do prioritize your inner voice.
When you aspire to lead a life where you feel truly happy, fulfilled, yourself and loved, listening to your inner voice is a must.