how to be aware in an unaware world

Tag: mindfulness

Advertising
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads,” Jeff Hammerbacher, an early Facebook engineer, told me. “That sucks.” Silicon Valley began to look an awful lot like Hollywood.”
Above is an excerpt taken from the popular and fascinating biography titled Elon Musk and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance.
I think Jeff is completely right in his sentiment. The unfortunate truth is that the majority of advertising stems from a morally unstable business model.
Advertising produces a lot of meaningless work, invisible products, and unnecessary services.
It’s also a huge waste of human potential and talent.
Reflection
If a product or service is good enough, it should sell itself. It actually needs zero advertising, beyond the initial release.
Rather than advertising, we should outreach aka talk about the things, services, etc, that we actually use and enjoy every day.
I see marketing differently than advertising too.
Marketing is just that, placing a product or service into the market and spreading the word about it. Talking about tried and tested products is far more effective and sustainable than plastering advertisements all over every place possible.
So why is advertising still so prevalent and still so widely used?
Well, for one, advertising is imposed along with a quota in mind, and structured around that quota. And boy do business love their quotas.
Really good marketing is also completely free. Because again, the product or service should sell itself.
People talk, share their interests, and slowly, with honesty, that product or service grows traction and people support it, not because they are fooled into supporting it, but because they actually intend to use it to better their lives.
Same with production, if a company sells something faster than it can produce, it will fail (or fail, re-coupe, fail again, then slimly succeed someday down the road).
Encouragement
My intention in creating these cute little blog posts is to encourage. Encouragement to live mindful, meaningful lives. Without this, my musings come very, very short of having a purpose. So this is why I share a small, completely voluntary encouragement!
I encourage us to consider what we feed the mind. To illustrate this encouragement, below is an old Cherokee parable:
A grandfather is talking with his grandson.
The grandfather says, “In life, there are two wolves inside of us which are always at battle.
One is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery, and love.
The other is a bad wolf which represents things like greed, hatred, and fear”.
The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”
The grandfather replies, “The one you feed.”
There is an awful lot of control we forget we have when it comes to what we watch, listen to, read, and spend our hard-earned money on.
I encourage us to write down the ten or so things we buy most daily. If we’re unsure, we can either download a spend tracking app or simply take a small notepad with us everywhere we go and write down everything we spend money on and the amount associated.
I did the latter and got an excellent grasp on where my money was going (cough Amazon cough). And slowly but surely I was able to reduce my dependence on the service and the cost associated with it to zero. That’s right, I completely deleted my Amazon account and haven’t used it for the past year or so.
Thank You
At the very end of each blog post, I also want to thank you, the reader, for tuning in to my cute little tidbits on mindfulness.
Thank you so much for reading or listening to this post, I am so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity and space to write what I love. If you have found any value in my blog, you can support me over at Buy Me A Coffee!
Three Links
And at the very, very end of every blog post here, I want to share just three links that inspired me before, during, or after each post. I will try to have an article, audio bit, and video (for those who learn from different mediums).
October 17, 2023
Photography
“Photography is nothing short of a miracle; a window into humanity, and a time machine in our pocket.”
While sitting in a picturesque, instagramable library called Starfield in Seoul, South Korea, sipping on a warm latte, and observing all these people running around frantically taking photos of the place, I had this realization:
Photography is less about the actual process of taking photos and more about mindfully observing a subject. Whether it is captured or not isn’t the point.
Reflection
I can think of no better use of the common phrase, “quality over quantity” than in photography. What defines a gifted photographer or any artist for that matter, is quality creations not mere quantity of works.
I believe that playing the numbers game is not art, it’s business (and it ought to belong there).
It’s like when Ben Stiller in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty encounters a world-renowned photographer in some epic mountain range waiting for a rare snow leopard to emerge from a cave.
Upon finally seeing the leopard emerge from the cave, the seasoned photographer decides not to take the photo he’s waited so long for, but rather to observe the leopard in reverence and awe.
It’s observation, not capture that is the point of that scene. The greatest photos on Earth, I’d defend, are not taken at all.
I’ve been capturing moments ever since my father gave in and gave me his old Canon XTi when I was about 11 years old.
From then on I absolutely fell in love with the process of photography, but more importantly, the act of observation through the camera’s lens. A separation from the outside world and my perspective of it.
Naturally, I’m a horribly and easily distracted person, making observation quite a task, but with a daily meditation practice, photography became more of a mindful activity than a creative endeavor.
As in all forms of art, there comes quite a bit of praise and criticism, which I found difficult to navigate until I remembered, “Oh shit, this has nothing to do with the photo, but rather the seconds or even minutes before the photo”. I realized the point was to pause, think back, and tell a story.
And I began thinking about my thinking when I captured a certain photo. Remembering all that took place inside and outside my head.
Then I wrote long, descriptive captions on almost every photo I published on Instagram (not the most common approach mind you).
I want to show those who stumble upon my memories that there is so much more going on behind the photo than the photo itself can capture.
Encouragement
From the simplest drop of rain sliding down a window pane to the awestruck beauty of the Northern Lights or the sighting of a rare and beautiful thing, there are so many moments of paralyzing awe.
I encourage us to observe ourselves observing the world around us. What moments are meant to simply be observed and what moments call us to capture, caption, and share?
It is knowing that those moments that stop us in our tracks and require our entire attention are the same moments not meant to be captured.
With a little bit of mindfulness, you’ll be surprised by the amount of those moments in a single day.
I am so thankful for the journey in photography I’ve taken since picking up a camera 18 years ago and so excited for a new chapter in observing this big, beautiful, strange, and ever-changing world.
Want to see and read some of the moments I did choose to capture? They are sprawled all over my Instagram.
Links
Thank you deeply for your time and attention in reading this post, it is a rare gift these days. Feel free to comment, like, and share it. You can also support me by Buying Me A Coffee. Thank you in advance!
October 9, 2023
Detoxes
“There may be no Wi-Fi in the forest, but I promise you there’s no place you’ll find a better connection.”
A connection with nature, ourselves, and the universe should not be underestimated. The breath of the wild is the same breath in our lungs.
Our uninterrupted connection with nature means an intentional disconnection from the distractions and motions, the fickle affairs of men.
Digital detoxing is defined as purposefully taking time and attention away from screens (Yes, even the work computer screen) so that we can purposefully direct time and attention towards nature, by ourselves, with loved ones, doing anything, or doing nothing.
“Detoxing” from our addicting digital devices is a way to focus on real-life social interactions and connections without distractions.
By forgoing digital devices, for a sustained period of time, we can let go of the stress that stems from that constant connectivity.
Reflection
Our brains are a tricky place to navigate as it is, throw in the bombarding, unregulated stream of social media posts, likes, comments, texts, emails, ads, and alerts, and you have an impossibly confusing maze in your mind.
The average U.S. adult spends around 11 hours each day listening to, watching, reading, interacting with, or being distracted by digital media.
That leaves roughly 5 hours each day away from devices and screens (and boy do those 5 precious hours go by quickly).
The excessive amount of dopamine that our devices channel into our brain leads to an excessive amount of stress hormones (known to be one of the leading causes of aging and cellular degeneration).
In other words, reduce the screen time and increase the nature and community time and you can reduce the stress hormones and increase the amount of time in nature with those you love.
In other, other words, there is a direct relationship between our time spent with technology and our stress levels.
One study found that 70% of participants checked social media on their phones while in bed, which dramatically increased their levels of anxiety, insomnia, sleep duration, and yes, stress.
Hand in hand with mindfulness, more time spent using digital technologies was linked to increased symptoms of ADHD and conduct disorder, as well as worse self-regulation.
Another study suggested that the advent of the internet on smartphones influenced overall job satisfaction, job stress, and feelings of overwork (checking emails well past getting off work).
Comparison can be the thief of joy, and detoxing from our social media connections can be a good way to focus on what’s important in our lives without comparing ourselves to others.
Constant connectivity via our vibrant, viscous phones can feed the fear of missing out or FOMO.
Every time we see an Instagram or TikTok post about someone else’s wonderful and adventurous life, it causes and crazy drop in dopamine, leaving us with feelings of discontent and depression.
We might also find ourselves overcommitting to social events and gatherings out of the fear that we’ll be left out of the experience.
FOMO in our digital lives leads to the infatuation of constantly checking our devices out of fear that we will miss an important text, DM, or post.
Doing a digital detox is one of the most impactful ways to set limits and reduce our fear of missing out. The key is to do it in a way that doesn’t leave us unintentionally stressed and just want to throw our phones off the Golden Gate Bridge.
Now, I know this is a hard pill to swallow, and I totally agree that many apps and websites can teach us a more mindful and intentional approach to life.
This process is often more about recognizing the patterns in our relationship with our devices and setting boundaries in a way that benefit, rather than harm, our emotional and mental health.
Encouragement
Once or twice a week, I try my best to practice digital detoxing by going to a park or forest I’m familiar with driving to so I don’t need GPS to get there. All I bring is a hammock, a good book, some snacks, and an open mind.
Each evening, a sacred time to read and set the mind up for deep rest, I will leave my phone and computer in the living room (my Fitbit will wake me up).
Also, through daily meditation practice, I can catch myself pretty quickly when I’ve been caught in rumination or FOMO or doom scrolling or any other side effect
When I find my mind wandering to all the replies and tasks in my digital life (as it inevitably will), I will simply write them down as they come.
No matter the length of our digital detox, a little goes a long way. We are able to create the opposite habit of putting away the phone, coming back to the present, and appreciating nature as it asks us to.
Links
Thank you deeply for your time and attention in reading this post, it is a rare gift these days.
Feel free to comment, like, and share it. You can also support me by Buying Me A Coffee. Thank you in advance!
October 6, 2023