HOW CONTENT CONSUMPTION SHAPES OUR BELIEF SYSTEMS
WE ARE THE CONTENT WE CONSUME
Scrolling, swiping, commenting, liking. A blueprint is being created in our minds as we perform these functions that have become our second nature.
This evolving blueprint determines how we think and act.
Think about it for a second — when you watch/consume something like say The Last Dance, you are amped up, motivated, inspired and ready to rock and roll. Personally, I am very happy with the two-episode format release every Monday. It serves as some sort of restart to days and nights going into each other through our current lockdown life.
Okay back to the correlation between content consumption and our minds.
Like the positive, hopeful feelings that are derived from a show like The Last Dance — similarly a show like Black Mirror can take you down a spiral of are you f#$%ing serious, to this is what is happening to the world, to me, to my life. The negative what ifs start playing out, our imagination begins to run wild and the ever so famous anxiety kicks in.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF SHARING EMOTIONS BROUGHT UP BY 2 OPPOSITE GENRES OF CONTENT?
Content consumption is one of the main things we chat about with our family and friends. We forward memes and videos by the dozen almost every day.
Some are funny, some are scary, some are thought provoking. What happens as we consume all of this is that different parts of the brain get activated. With the amount of screen time we have, it is very easy for these parts of the brain to switch on and off quicker than we can manage.
This is one of the main reasons meditation and other spiritual practices have been on the rise for quite a while now. It is to get the mind to stay still for even a minute or two.
Imagine each of your brain lobes having a different colored light bulb. These colored light bulbs switch on and off so quickly that they get merged with each other ever so often and signals of confusion are sent to the rest of your body. ADD becomes a way of life then. To be fair, a very very large part of our demographic deals with this to some extent. And this is okay, because screens are an essential part of our life.We need to work out a consistent way to deal with this, since moving forward our screen time or rather screen lives is only going to increase.
THE TRICK TO BALANCING YOUR THOUGHTS WITH CONSTANT DIGITAL CONSUMPTION.
Listen to or watch some sort of positive content right before you sleep or just when you wake up — or even better at both these times of your day. The reason being that your subconscious mind is the most active at these particular times. The theta brain wave state is active during these times and absorbs what you are consuming and creates programs in your mind in a natural, effortless manner. This over a period of time (not very long because I know impatience, anxiety & ADD) guided your belief system programs to not be overwhelmed with negative emotions that crop up after say not a very pleasant digital consumption experience.
It is literally as simple as typing in positive affirmation podcast or something similar on YouTube or Instagram or whatever you fancy and playing anything that sparks a dash of joy and curiosity in you.
Try it out for 10 days before you sleep and just as wake up. You will see and more importantly experience the difference.
I will leave you with this mini poem I have written on this subject. I try and live by it to the best of my ability.
WE ARE THE CONTENT WE CONSUME,
THE MORE POSITIVITY WE ABSORB
THE BETTER WE SHALL EXECUTE.
Stay safe, stay home, stay sane and remember #bekindalways to yourself and others.
