Stay Lucid

Being present is powerful. Paying attention to the world around you has a tangible grounding effect. There’s so much happening in the world and we don’t even notice until the moment we choose to. We have to choose to notice our world and there are so many voices competing for our attention. It’s never been easier in all of human history to be so deeply oblivious to the world around you. We can live years of our lives without even taking much notice of the most precious things that make life so…..good. If you want a painfully real example, look through your pictures of your kids. Go back 5 years. Hopefully, you’ve got less regret than I do regarding where you put your time and attention when your kids are young. It’s so easy to miss the miracle of life happening all around us.

There is a plotted-out and concerted effort to get people to live their lives in a world that humans have made. A world that truly doesn’t exist. A widely accepted, interactive delusion. The virtual world is made by a small group of humans. Social media & Cellphones got 46% of all people spending between 5-6 a day on our phones (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1224510/time-spent-per-day-on-smartphone-us/) Humans spend on average 29% of their waking life with their focus on their phone, interfacing with a world made by that small group of people that made this world. What consumes our attention is dictated by “the algorithm” and what those who created it want us to focus on.

They want us to live in a world created by them, controlled by them that serves their purposes. What are those? Do some research. Search out the value systems behind the creators of these social media and technology platforms. They aren’t bashful about it if you look into it. It’s clear but I’ll leave that for you to search out.

There is a gravitational pull to keep us spending more and more of our lives in that world, living less and less conscious of the world we actually do live in.

The world that God made. The world where our families live. The world where we can actually affect real change. The world God Himself created for us to live in. The world where we have power. Where our labors & choices make a difference. The world where we can create real things.

A world where we are actually free.

A world where we are lucid.

A world where we are alive.

Over the last few years, the need has presented itself to me to cut off social media and cut down time spent connected to that virtual world. The online world. That need presented itself in the form of crushing anxiety and depression. Inability to focus my thoughts or actions in a straight line for very long at all. I already struggled with ADHD since I was a kid. I’ve found that accessive technology use makes that 10 times worse. So I get off of social media. After some time, what comes back, slowly, is my ability to think straight. My ability to solve problems, real, actual problems in my life. My ability to be present with my kids and my wife. My sleep is better. I find myself joyful more often than when I’m on the screens. I’m generally happy. Unaware of whatever it is that the internet wants me aware of.

The wholesome parts of my life atrophy when I’m spending excessive amounts of time on screens. The wholesome parts of my life thrive when I ignore that whole world that that small group of silicone valley cork sniffers has made for themselves. I find that I much prefer the real world to the virtual one. The world as God made it is far more beautiful than the world that humans made. Undoing the effects of our neglect is going to take work. Our relationships have suffered. Our work has suffered. Our world in many ways is being taken over by those same people that have been the architects of the virtual world and while we have allowed our attention to go where they draw it, they have been slowly making the real world reflect the one that’s been destroying the lives of so many who are in it.

The more of our attention we give to the fake, the more power we surrender in the real. It’s not easy. The way the world has gone, so much depends on that virtual world in order to function. It seems like the only way to participate in the economy of this day and age, one needs to be plugged in to some degree. I haven’t found a healthy balance yet. The time I spend unplugged, is time I don’t show my face to the people that enjoy hearing from me. Their attention is on the social media world. The virtual world is addictive and we have grown dependent on it like an addict is dependent on a substance. It pulls us to itself. It does so by the way it’s capture so much of our collective attention and established itself as the primary means of connection with our world and the ones that we love in it. It’s come in between us and we aren’t better for it.

This is a call to choose to actually live your life.

To hang up the virtual as often and for as long as possible and engage in the real.

To take in the present moment. Really look around you, breathe deep, take note of what you hear, what you see, who you see and how you can connect.

To think for yourself. Ask yourself the hard questions and honor your own thoughts enough to write them down. Fill journals with your thoughts about the world. Ask your questions. Follow your curiosity. Seek answers. If you see problems, seek solutions but get into your life.

To open your eyes and observe the world around you & decide, as an act of your own free will what you are going to do about it…

Be present.

Pay attention.

Think for yourself.

Take action on the dreams that are alive inside of you.

Stay Lucid.

Matt