Pay Attention to the Mental Noise

Have you ever found yourself reacting to something personal that someone posted on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn (or any other social media site)? And by reacted, I mean that somewhere inside of you there was something that was not feeling good. Not because you were maligned or denigrated, but perhaps you felt less popular, less admired, less chic, less informed, less something because of the post you read.

Have you ever despaired of answering all the emails you receive in a timely fashion? Have you ever breathed a sigh of relief when something happens to your hard drive and they all disappear?

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by information:

• when you check an online newspaper and an article you find of interest, simply keeps leading you to more and more information?
• when you search for something on any one of the popular search engines, and find not 10 pages that will supply you with the needed information, but 785,000 pages that will do so, all in the click of your mouse?
• when you receive yet another one of those newsletters in your INBOX (that you had happily subscribed to when you found it), but mentally groan in pain, wondering whn on earth you are going to find the time to read it?

And while all this is going on, you are fielding land line and mobile phone calls, you are text messaging, you are downloading something on one of your devices, you are Skyping someone, you are WhatsApping someone, you are converting documents to pdf, you are scanning photos in order to improve their color, and you are also (strangely enough) watching the tournament at Roland Garros on TV.

All of this is mental noise. When do you ever turn it off? When do you have a relationship with yourself, instead of with the devices (which I thoroughly love myself ... I'm NOT putting them down, just putting them in their place)? When do you have time to have a relationship with your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, if your eyes are always on some device or another?

Try to pay attention to this mental noise that is separating you from you. And when you succeed in paying attention to it, find a silent place within. Reconnect with yourself. Don't allow the magnificence of what we as a global society have created, keep you from you.