In times like these, with so much happening in the world, I want to share something with you that has been on my mind.
There is a war in one part of the world. A war in another. Political upheaval. Daily headlines designed to alarm you. And the constant stream of news, social media, and commentary that follows you wherever you go — into your home, your car, your bed, the moments before you sleep, and the moments after you wake.
Most people are consuming an enormous amount of this content every single day, and they are completely unaware of what it is doing to their inner state.
Here is something to remember. A quote by my guru: “Where awareness goes, energy flows”. Whatever you give your awareness to is what your energy is feeding and strengthening within you. If you spend hours each day with your awareness in fear, anger, outrage, and worry, then that is exactly what is being cultivated within you. You are watering it. You are growing it.
And then people wonder why they feel anxious all day. Why they cannot sleep. Why they feel a low hum of dread that they cannot explain. The answer, in many cases, is right there in their hands — in the phone they have been scrolling through for hours.
The news is not neutral. It is not designed to inform you. It is designed to keep your attention.
And the easiest way to hold human attention is through fear. Fear is highly magnetic to the mind. The more fear-based content you consume, the more your awareness gets pulled to the fear area of the mind, and the more your life begins to vibrate at that frequency.
I am not saying to disengage from the world. I am not saying to be uninformed. I am saying to be discerning. Wisely choose what you allow in. We protect the drains in our kitchen by placing strainers in our kitchen sink so large pieces of food don’t clog up the pipes. But when it comes to large pieces of emotional content clogging up our mind we are less vigilant about it.
There is a difference between being informed and being consumed.
Being informed means going to a source you trust, once or twice a day, gathering what you need to know, and stepping away. Being consumed means letting your phone, your television, and your social feeds dictate where your awareness goes for hours on end.
You have a finite amount of energy each day. Whatever you give it to is what grows within you. If you give it to fear, fear grows. If you give it to clarity, clarity grows. If you give it to the people you love and the work that matters to you, those things grow.
So here is a simple practice. Look honestly at how much time you are spending consuming news, political commentary, and reactive social media content. Then cut it in half. Or more.
Notice what fills that space. Choose what fills that space. Notice how your sleep changes. Notice how your conversations change. Notice how the same world looks slightly different when you are no longer steeping in fear all day.
The world has always had its difficulties. There has always been war somewhere. There have always been politics. There have always been crises. What is different now is the volume and the speed at which all of it is delivered into your nervous system.
You cannot control much of what is happening in the world. But you can control what you allow into your mind.
Choose wisely. Your inner state is not a small thing. It is the foundation from which you live, work, parent, lead, and build your outer life from.
Guard it.
