by Jamesscotthenson | May 15, 2017 | Blog
I don’t hate selfies as much as I am supposed to at my age.
I think they can be fun, I take them with Max all the time.
I don’t even get that mad when the group of young people in
front of me holds up foot traffic to stop and take their selfie.
Not that mad.
There is an ego-feeding aspect to the selfie culture that is
worrisome though, there is something about turning the camera back on ourselves
all the time that may not be the best thing for us.
There is also this driving need to document every situation
now, to document it with ourselves as the center of attention. I wonder how
many things we miss in an effort to never forget about them.
We already view the world through so many lenses.
The lens of our brain’s interpretation of different light
spectrums and sound waves.
The lens of our thoughts and feelings about the situation.
The lens of how we wish things were.
The lens of how we think things will turn out.
The lenses of our beliefs and culture and socialization and
everything else.
Now the very real lens of a phone or iPad.
It even shifts the focus of the situation from what is
happening to ourselves, and we see us instead of what is going on. We took the
time to go see something, paid money for it, and we are taking pictures of
ourselves.
I am not even saying this is necessarily always a bad thing,
but we can at least be mindful of what our focus is on.
We can, at the very least, ask ourselves if we need to be
the center of everything that happens.
Maybe some things are not about us at all.
Maybe.
by Jamesscotthenson | May 14, 2017 | Blog
Yep, I see the hypocrisy here too.
I’ll write this, and then post it on Facebook and LinkedIn.
I used to post on Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram as well. I may post this on
Quora. I’m less reliable on there.
We have created an entirely new level of awareness for
ourselves with our virtual networks and everything they entail.
Likes.
Dislikes.
Reactions.
Shares.
Comments.
So many ways to make us feel validated or invalidated, all
through collections of people we may not even know, or should have forgotten
about years ago.
But, like so many other things, these are neutral, it’s all
in how we use them.
Staying in touch is useful and worthwhile.
Sharing cool things is fun and may be helpful to someone.
Learning is good.
Social media can serve these purposes if we let it.
Notice how you feel when you are on social media. Notice
what it is you are looking for.
Are these things good? Do they make you a better person?
Notice the feelings associated with likes and shares and
comments.
What are we training our brains to crave there?
Is this good for us?
We can be mindful with social media, even if it is geared to
take this away from us.
It’s not easy, but it is possible.
by Jamesscotthenson | May 13, 2017 | Blog
Yes, I get the hypocrisy in writing a post about the dangers
of the internet and posting it on the internet.
The internet is much like money, no matter what you think of
it, you use it. Every time you swipe your debit card or use your GPS or check
your bank balance from the comfort of your living room or order something off
of Amazon, the internet is helping you out.
It is also like money in that it is neutral.
It’s a tool to be used, and nothing else.
But, like all things, when it becomes something it is not,
it creates suffering.
I am not even going to touch on pornography or videos of
people dying or the silliness of Tumblr. Those things are obviously problematic
in their own ways.
Just ask yourself how much time you waste online. Don’t even
think about social media, because we’ll look at that tomorrow.
Think about browsing news sites or memes or pictures of
cats.
There’s nothing wrong with these things, but they are not
useful beyond a small amount of time to decompress (whatever that means).
Are you mindful on the internet?
How often do you click on something that brings you
suffering?
How often do you feel that familiar twinge of guilt over the
time you’ve spent online?
How often do your kids or partner try and fail to get your
attention away from Reddit or whatever site has your awareness fixed?
It is hard to be mindful with a thousand choices flying at
your every second.
We are not evolved to handle things in this medium, yet we
saturate ourselves in it for hours each day.
It is insane to think this is free of consequences.
by Jamesscotthenson | May 12, 2017 | Blog
Money is a difficult thing.
I hear people say it doesn’t matter, but we live in a
society where it determines our health, our safety, how our family lives,
whether or not we get to take vacations for work (or even days off). It has a
major impact on how people see us, and whether or not they take us seriously.
Money matters. To say it doesn’t is to admit privilege.
How can we be mindful with our money?
The first way is easy.
Stop buying shit you do not need.
Stop buying shit at all.
Buy food and clothes and put gas in your car. Buy the things
you need to survive in a healthy way in our society, and nothing else. It is
amazing how much peace this alone can bring us.
When you do spend money, spend it on others.
I cannot explain how much easier everything is when other
people come before yourself.
Give money to those who have less than you.
Giving is a priority, not a luxury.
Stop comparing. Notice how much you already have, think
about how much it would seem like a treat if you did not have it. Go through
your stuff and see what you can rid of. Get rid of it.
Money is neutral, it’s not good or bad.
It’s a tool, nothing more.
We make it one thing or another with how we use it.
Use it mindfully.
by Jamesscotthenson | May 11, 2017 | Blog
I talk a lot about thoughts and memories and all that stuff
that goes on in our head, but there is a single word that encapsulates all of
it: imagination.
We have all these ideas and scenarios that seem to be
occurring, but that we cannot document or show in any real way. If we are engaged
in a story that never happened or could never happen, we are okay with calling
it imaginary, but we want to think our memories are more real.
It may be difficult to accept, but our memories are not any
more real than our fantasies about being the biggest movie star in the world or
being a princess or being able to fly or whatever.
Our memories are made of the same material as the screaming
crowds and dragons and the wind as we soar through the air: all imagination.
Then we take these imaginations and create stories around
them and we apply these to our present situation.
And we suffer.
We suffer because instead of being present with what is, we
are investing time and energy in things that do not exist in any real way.
They existed when they were happening, but the only place
they are happening now is in our head.
Nowhere else.
There is not somewhere where the past is still playing out,
there is not somewhere you can go to change it or make things different.
The mind likes to latch onto this idea, but it only serves
to put us in opposition to what is.
What would right now be like without comparisons?
What would the past be like without ideas of how it could be
different?
What good is there living in the imagination?
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