I’ve been somewhat of a straggler when it comes to technology. I remember being annoyed when text messages first became a thing, and for several years I was always yelling at my friends to quit texting me because my cell plan only included something like 30 texts a month! Once it became clear that texting wasn’t going away I increased my plan, and these days unlimited texts are just the norm and phone calls are the weird thing. 

Then smart phones became a thing and I avoided getting one until I started my business in 2014. At that time, an employee in the phone store mentioned to me how common it is for people to drop their phones in the toilet. I replied incredulously “What? The toilet? Why on earth would anyone have their phone with them when they’re on the toilet?” Um, yeah. It took me about two weeks of owning a smartphone to be scrolling through it every time I took a pee. I get it now.

And one of the most famous Carrie quotes in my group of friends came from way back in 2005. We were out and about, and people kept insisting on taking pictures with their digital cameras (this was before camera phones, of course). I was getting annoyed and declared “I swear, we spend more time documenting our lives than actually living them!” Oh, 2005 Carrie – you were so young and full of hope.

Look, I’m not trying to act like I’m above our cultural norms, and I’m not trying to act like pointing out how much we use technology is a revolutionary statement. We all know that as a society, we are very invested (some would say addicted) to technology. But there’s also a lot of good things about this stuff. Like, 2005 Carrie complained about digital cameras, but 2018 actually enjoys taking photos for Instagram (sometimes). And the introvert in me loves that texting and emailing lets me avoid the awkwardness of phone calls. So yeah – my point is not “technology is baaaaad!”

Here’s what my point IS, though: in the past few years, I have personally realized that there is less and less space for life to talk to me. I am as guilty as anyone of using my phone to fill up small pockets of time: I’ve been known to scroll through it on the toilet, or in line at the grocery store, or waiting for my food to come at a restauraunt. 

These little innocuous periods of time seem unimportant, but I can remember a day in which they were spaces for life to talk to me. Instead of getting into a phone vortex, I would people-watch while waiting in lines. Or daydream about the novels I wanted to write while taking my daily dump. Or, you know, actually TALK to the people sitting with me in a restauraunt.

Perhaps most importantly, it is now harder to make space for any daydreams or insights waiting in the ether to come through. When I’m sucked into the whirlwind of a phone, I’m in a state of distraction. It’s never about connecting more deeply with the present moment, it’s always about withdrawing. Sometimes it’s even about pushing away the discomfort of, gasp, having nothing to do for five minutes. 

Lately I’ve been trying to ease out of the habit of automatically picking up my phone in any tiny spare moment. Honestly, the urge has become so engrained that lately I’ve taken to leaving my phone out of reach so that I don’t even have the option. I doubt I’ll ever swear off technology entirely, because I do enjoy the connection and creativity it can bring. But it certainly has an oversaturation point, and that’s what I’m trying to address here.

Because I want more space for life to talk to me. I want to be open to the little messages from the universe. I want to be aware of the sights, sounds, sensations and smells of each present moment. I want to feel alive and present, not distanced and distracted. This isn’t a want that is manufactured by my ego. It is a craving of my soul. So I guess I’ll keep trying to make more space for life to talk to me.

But first, let me go see how many ‘likes’ my latest post got on Instagram…

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If you missed part one of this series, you might want to read that first. Or, just be a rebel and read this one right now! We’re talking about how to stay up to date with the news of the world without totally falling apart in the process.

Don’t jump ten steps forward.

When you hear bad news, your brain might automatically start future-tripping into all of the possible ways this could play out from here. And when this happens, you tend to imagine only the terrible things that might be coming. It’s a Nine of Swords type energy.

Look, I’m not going to tell you to “just be optimistic.” There are scary things happening right now, and being concerned for the future is natural, and to an extent, healthy. Being aware of what is not going well and considering the real implications that could have on the future is necessary.

What’s not necessary is always assuming the worst outcome. What’s not necessary is jumping ten steps ahead and living as though your imagined worst case scenario is a given. When you let yourself obsess about what might happen, you can easily become paralyzed by despair. It renders you unable to live in the present moment, and it renders you unable to do anything that might be in service of a more positive future.

Pay attention to good news too.

It is a psychological fact that our brains focus more on bad news than good news. This is a survival tactic – you need to be aware of threats in order to survive. I have found that I sometimes have to remind my human brain that, hey, there IS some good stuff happening in the news lately. You might not see it splashed across as many headlines because it’s not where attention naturally gravitates, but there is a lot of good stuff happening every damn day.

Do you need a little good news right now? Here are a few pieces of good news (taken from this video. Please absorb them and remember to seek out evidence that the world is a good place, and is in many ways becoming a better place.

• Charitable donations are at an all-time high.
• Several terrible diseases, including polio, now pose almost no threat to humanity.
• The percentage of people living in absolute poverty is the lowest it has ever been.
• The percentage of kids in school is the highest it has ever been.
• Literacy rates are the highest they’ve ever been.

There are lots of reasons to feel optimistic, grateful and encouraged, REMEMBER THOSE TOO. Pay attention to good news. Remind your human brain to do this often. On a somewhat related note…

Take a broader perspective.

It is easy to get so swept up into the constant barrage of daily news. But to be a whole, functioning and spiritually sound human being, it is necessary to give yourself permission to step back and adopt a broader perspective. There are several different levels you can take this to:

A broader perspective on your own life. What myths resonate with you? How and why do you belong to this time and place? What purpose do you find in your life, what lessons does this time in history hold for you?

A broader perspective on human history. Read books that were written ten, fifty, a hundred years ago. Read ancient philosophy. Visit natural history museums. Commune with your ancestors in whatever way speaks to you.

A broader perspective on the universe. Look up at the moon as if you’re seeing it for the first time. Look through a telescope if it is available to you. Consider the vast scope of planet earth, our solar system, the milky way, the unfathomable expanses of the cosmos. Sit with your astrological chart and the cosmological perspectives it offers on your current incarnation.

Give yourself time to process and integrate the news.

Some of the stuff I mentioned above ties in here as well. It seems like these days we’re constantly being pelted with new pieces of news. The news moves so damn fast that it already sometimes seems hard to remember what we were freaking over a week ago or a month ago.

You need time to sit with what is happening and process its implications. If a piece of news hits you with a particular gravity, allow yourself to step away from the TV or computer and process it. You might do this by journaling. You might do this by talking to a friend – in person, preferably – we all need more face-to-face contact these days. You might do this by crying, or meditating, or going for a walk. Whatever works for you, give yourself the space to process.

I’m like a broken record with this, but it’s worth saying again. It is hard for you to be conscientious, effective, centered and productive if you’re frazzled and falling apart. Taking care of yourself in troubled times is NOT SELFISH, it is necessary. We need you to be well so that you can keep being a force for goodness, equality, and justice in our world.

Take action in your own way, when you are ready.

In the past few years, I’ve noticed an increase in people on social media trying to dictate to the rest of us precisely what actions we should be taking. Sometimes this is good – I appreciate that well-informed people can push us in the right direction and ask us to contribute. But I am weary of implying that there is only one right way to respond, only one proper action to take in any given situation.

Feel into your own heart and soul. Ask yourself what actions feel in alignment for you. What actions can YOU take that come from your heart? What actions can you take because you feel compelled to do so (not just because someone on Twitter said you should)? A few ideas of actions you might choose to engage in. But do not feel that you HAVE to do any of these things. Trust that you are a good person, and do what is in alignment for you.

• Calling, emailing or faxing your representatives (if you live in the US).
• Volunteering your time to causes that matter to you.
• Donating your money to causes that matter to you.
• Praying.
• Sending love and light.
• Amplifying marginalized voices.
• Seeking further education on issues that matter to you.
• Making changes to your lifestyle that reflect changes you want to see in the world.

Keep creating our new story.

One of my core philosophies is that human beings are natural storytellers. So many aspects of our existence that we take to be facts are actually just aspects of either our personal or collective stories. Much of the upheaval we are seeing in the world today is the crumbling of our old collective stories. Those stories are fading away at a rapid pace, and perhaps we are here at this time to help create the as yet unknown new story.

The crumbling old story is one of human dominance over nature. It is the story of patriarchy. It is the story of racism. It is the story of corporate greed. Even as this story is dying around us, it is still currently trying to claw for survival, and it does so in more and more atrocious ways. But it is glaringly obvious that this story is no longer working, and even if it tries to cling on a little longer, it is simply not sustainable.

We do not yet know exactly what the new story will look like. But perhaps all of us are here at this time for a reason. Perhaps we are here to be creators of the new story. I already see evidence of the new story emerging around us. And even though the details are taking shape, the new story is one of heightened awareness. Greater consciousness. Justice. Equality. Care. Tenderness. Honoring of each other and honoring of our shared planet.

We need YOU here to keep creating this new story. So stay informed, yes. But also: do what you need to do to stay in your magic.

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During the last few months of the vitriolic US presidential election, I started a descent into a very dark place, a dark place worsened by constant exposure to bad news, then more bad news, then worse news. I’m still trying to fully pull myself out of that dark place to this day. I know I’m not alone in this because it’s something I see coming up frequently for friends and clients. We want to be informed, we are devoted to staying woke…. but sometimes it feels like we might lose our last shreds of hope in the process.

Leading up to the election, it was not abnormal for me to spend 3 or more hours a day scrolling endless news articles, opinion pieces and social media posts related to current events. I would walk away from this haze of scrolling feeling dazed and energetically frazzled. Perhaps worst of all, I wasn’t really giving myself the proper space to process the news, to contextualize it, and to figure out how to respond consciously to what was happening in the world.

Ironically, what begins as a desire to stay informed can easily spiral into over exposure and hopelessness. And when you’re feeling fatigued and hopeless, how the fuck are you going to live a meaningful life and contribute to the betterment of society? What point is there to consuming all of this news if it doesn’t translate into truly increased awareness and real world action?

Once the election was over and the reality set in that things were only going to get scarier on a national and global scale, I knew I had to do something about the way I’d been consuming news. I started slowly but surely creating some boundaries for myself, and I’m still fine-tuning them to this day. What do you know? Now that I have some healthy boundaries in place, I am actually better informed, more capable of processing information, and still able to maintain some semblance of centeredness and hope.

Here are a few of the boundaries that have been useful for me:

Ask of any news source: “is this trying to inform me, or is this trying to win?”

A few months after the election, I saw this video (which you should totally watch because it features DOGS) from one of my favorite people on the internet, Hank Green. In this video, Hank says:

“We’re being asked to pay attention to a lot of different big things at the same time. The way that we’re fed content about what’s going on in the world right now is inefficient, and it’s overwhelming, and it’s manipulative. Too frequently now, the people who are tasked with trying to inform the public are trying to win rather than trying to inform, and that is something that I’m getting super sick of.”

When I heard this, I was like “hoooollly shit. Soooo true.” So much of what masquerades as news is actually just clickbait, purposefully designed to be inflammatory and prey upon emotions. Because humans are driven by our primal feelings, we sadly are more likely to engage with content that is designed to win – be that winning money or winning by denigrating the “other side”. So now, before I consume any news, I try to ask myself if what I’m engaging with is actually set up to INFORM me.

Structure your daily news intake.

This is especially important if you are, like me, a highly sensitive person. A few years ago I had no structure around the news: I’d randomly find myself logging into social media and clicking through random articles throughout the day. Sometimes I’d even check my phone first thing when I woke up. This was wreaking havok on me, making me useless to myself and society. So no more of that crap!

Here’s what my structure generally looks like now: I wake up and either meditate or go for a walk first thing. Then I have breakfast while going through my planner and mapping out my day. THEN – once I am spiritually and physically nourished – I check the news. I try to only give myself a certain amount of time (usually around 30 minutes max) to get caught up on current events. I will admit that I often end up scrolling through Twitter in the afternoon and get swept up in the news again, but I at least try to be structured about how much time I spend doing this. Which leads into the next point…

Be wise about your news sources.

We all know that certain news sources are biased towards one political spectrum, and it goes without saying that choosing news sources with as little bias as possible is ideal. My personal go-tos are PBS and NPR. NPR has a daily podcast called Up First that I listen to frequently. It’s only about 15 minutes long, so it’s not too overwhelming, and they do a pretty good job of describing what is happening without getting too swept up in commentary. PBS has a weekly political news digest that I receive via email. I also check NPR’s main homepage once or twice a day.

Differentiate between opinions and facts.

I really do believe it is important to be educated and aware of what is going on in the world. However, we have a strange culture around news right now. A lot of what we consider to be “news” is actually just someone else’s opinion on the news. Sometimes I find myself reading endless opinion pieces, or scrolling through people’s scathing political burns on Twitter, or watching politically minded comedians (ilu Stephen Colbert) and telling myself that this is all a part of keeping up with the news. But, uh, in reality…that’s keeping up with people’s opinions on the news, not the news itself.

There are times when I benefit from taking in other people’s perspectives. Sometimes another person’s thoughts can help me consider my own thoughts more deeply. So I’m not completely opposed to sitting with external opinions on current events by any means. I’ve just found it’s important for me to distinguish between “the facts” and “the opinions.”

Speaking of other people’s opinions, there is a masochistic part of me that wants to read the comments on every news article I encounter. People, do not be like me! Do not read the comments! When you read comments, you will probably wade through 99 garbage opinions to maybe find 1 helpful perspective. I need to get a lot better at following my own advice on this one.

…continue reading: part two.

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