How can I live a focused life in a world full of distractions?
How can I keep my attention on my goals & dreams while being online?
If the product is for free, your energy and your data are the price.
Our attention is the highest form of currency we own.
Where attention goes, energy flows.
We are all familiar with thoses phrases, and unfortunately, their message is only becoming more relevant as we grow increasingly numb to the overflow of information.
I wish I could say that I have a conscious relationship with social media and navigating the fast-paced online spaces in general, but truth is I don’t, no matter how hard I try.
Currently, I spent most time on Instagram.
As an aspiring content creator, While I genuinely appreciate all the positive sides it brings (staying connected with friends, sharing my own content, getting inspirations etc.), the addictive, fast, superficial exchange of energy make me crazy.
I long for a detox.
The Trap of Social Media
When I feel amazing and life is good, I rarely scroll because I prefer living in real life. I don’t even think about the massive digital ecosystem of creators/people I know well/people I don’t know.
Life feels simple.
But when those darker times hit, consuming fun and inspirational content can be an uplifting push.
However, the majority of times it results in uncontrolled addiction again.
During my every day life, I can feel my mind recalling a reel I just watched, or imagining the reactions I’d get from posting a picture of a place I’m currently at.
Whenever I have a spare minute, my fingers almost automatically open the app.
No matter how subtle it is, there is an energetic connection linked to this platform somewhere in the background, which distorts the way I perceive reality.
Life feels complicated.
Taking a Step Back
As a 90s kid, I’m grateful to remember a slower world.
We sent postcards to one another.
I spent hours in the library reading books without interruption.
I miss being bored.
I miss having a mind that is not constantly filled with opinions, thoughts & dreams of others that I carelessly download into my consciousness like fast food.
As a highly sensitive person, I’ve realized that consuming is not a passive act.
It’s reactive and stimulates the monkey mind.
Watching a story from a person I haven’t spoken to in years instantly make me recall the story of the relationship I had with this person and the environment we have been in back then.
Reading a post from a seemingly successful creator makes me compare myself to them, and provokes any kind of thoughts and emotions -no matter positive or negative- I didn’t have just moments before.
And what about motivational content?
Reading a quote from Neville Goddard or Joe Dispenza can be quite inspiring and uplifting.
It can feel like I finally got an answer to a seemingly urgent problem I had.
An answer that I wouldn’t be able to tell you a day later, as it got buried somewhere in the pile of information I kept collecting afterwards.
And honestly, if I just meditated for 10 minutes instead of scrolling, the urgency of the problem might have dissolved completely.
Consuming fast content always triggers a reaction and stimulates our nervous system.
It shortens our attention span.
It makes us confused about what’s relevant and what’s not.
And it can become a trap:
To constantly create problems so we can keep looking for solutions.
Instead of pausing for a moment and ask ourselves:
Is all of this is really relevant in the first place?!
Am I caught up in a meaningless hamster wheel right now?!
There are slower, more nourishing ways to stay inspired and connected:
Online through blogs, newsletters, emails.
Offline through postcards, phone calls, meetups.
How I will Reclaim my Energy & Attention Span again
I do believe that we are living in the age of information war, a war on consciousness.
We have to be more conscious about how we spend our most precious currency and learn to protect and declutter our mind space.
To start is by realising that there is a need for mindful caution in the first place!
And there is no way around it other than removing ourselves from the source of noise for a while.
It is the only way to sharpen discerment and get sensitive again to our own thoughts.
For 2025, I will take a 6 months Instagram break.
I want to be very clear on how I want to direct my energy.
How else can I hear MY intuition, MY voice, and follow my dreams if I am constipated by other people’s voices?
I expect that it will regulate my dopamine/validation seeking and help me to be a more mindful consumer and creator in the long run.
Instead of posting on Instagram with immediate feedback, I will train myself in creating into the void here on this blog.
I hope that it will grow my confidence and creative capabilities, as I entirely won’t and can’t care about other people’s opinions anymore.
I would be more tuned in into my unique energy and gifts, develop a deeper relationship with my inner muse, and find a new freedom of expression.