Sometimes a slice of life is all I have to give.
I start with a snippet taken from my journal a few months ago…

A Quiet Dream as I Wake Up

I lie in bed and think about the fact that it was a peaceful, lovely dream. I can’t remember it but I wish I could stay there longer as it has left me with a good feeling.

There are happy places in my dreamscapes just as there are unhappy dreams too. It is a bit like my waking life: there is happiness and unhappiness; there are difficult challenges and victories; there is peace and love and there is war and terror.

The way I cope with the pleasures and displeasures of life is to think to myself: you do your best to move your body, dance, get enough sleep, eat and be grateful; what more can we do? It doesn’t pay to be miserable; be happy, live a peaceful, loving and content life. This is my choice.

You are blessed!

For most of us bloggers and readers we are blessed: we have clothes, we have food, a place to sleep and eat; we have family and friends. We are loved, appreciated and cared for. The one way to make ourselves unhappy and overburdened is by taking on more that we can cope with. A small example that I want to focus on is – social media. It is a trap for wasting time, for longing for more, for filling ones life with so many frustrated desires and wishes; and unhappy thoughts that create a dissatisfied, overloaded brain and heart – more than we can handle emotionally and mentally.

From my quiet dream I embraced the desire for that peaceful, lovely feeling and I decided to foster it by making a choice as to how I live. For example, when I was facing surgery I chose not to doom-scroll and worry and rather to trust the medical team to do their best.

I also intentionally addressed my relationship with social media and my growing dependence on technology by being more mindful of how I use my time. I realized that I tell myself that ‘I am so busy’ when in actual fact I ‘go down rabbit holes’ wasting time on the internet and if I stopped I could make a lot more time available for my priorities.

I use the setting on my phone called ‘Digital Wellbeing’ which tells me how much time is spent on different apps, such as – YouTube, Instagram, Facebook etc. It’s helpful because it shows the individual time spent on each, i.e. when I am researching on the web I can see how many hours I spend compared to inanely watching stuff that doesn’t build into the life I want to live.

The types of things we actively fill our time with might be different to yours. We like making useful things; we have begun playing the guitar again; I am learning to play the piano accordion, we do fun activities with friends. Our time is often filled with community building, relationships, hospitality, the arts, and living environmentally conscious lives.

Sometimes I hear people say they are trying to stay off social media to gain peace or live more constructively. It almost sounds like a punishment. And I wonder how they plan to make it happen. Do they just grit their teeth and hope for the best? The social media trap is easy to fall into. We all do – it has become part of our culture. I think we really need to engage with real life instead of living in one’s head on a phone, laptop or computer. One experiences a contentment when one actually lives, rather than numbing oneself with social media, scrolling on and on; getting repetitive wrist injuries, eye strain, and insomnia. I don’t say this in judgment but out of deep concern for humanity. Social media doesn’t yield long term rewards.

As I embark on this journey on minimizing social media I have reacquainted myself with sustained effort in the face of things going wrong or when I make mistakes. Determination and persistence are two qualities that fade into the background when we are engaged in activities on social media. I think that it trains us to have short attention spans; wanting a quick fix, and easy, shallow answers that contribute to an empty life. It might feel rewarding in the present yet how do we feel in the long run? Does social media have a good impact on the life we really want to live – or dream of living? And does it leave us with a peaceful, lovely feeling?

I am happy to say that as I disengage with social media I find myself loving my life even more and appreciating my husband, family and friends in a deeper way. I hope you find the same is true.

What are your thoughts about social media?

Have you noticed an impact on your quality of life?

Take care and have a productive week.
~Morag Noffke~