Mindfulness and Social Media

I am sure I am not the only one here struggling with bringing mindfulness to my social media activities! As a self-employed yoga, meditation and mindfulness teacher I need to use social media to promote my classes and courses, to build and engage with my audience and to share certain techniques I consider useful for many people. However, I can sometimes feel how my energy drains while using it and have the need to get away from it for a while.

This is why I wanted to share with you the following extract on this regard from the book Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It has really good tips and reminders that we all can use in order to never ‘switch off’ our alertness even while in the fast-pace of social media:

“You can even bring this orientation (moment by moment mindfulness) to your electronic communications, whether it is texting, email, spending time on Facebook or Twitter, or sharing photos and videos – whatever your preferences. How? First by being in your body as you use your devices, and thus being in the present moment. Second, you can construct text mindfully, with full awareness of what you are doing. If you are responding to tons of email, you can pace yourself so that you are not feeling like you are playing Whac-A-Mole and running faster and faster to respond, even as you fall further and further ‘behind’. You are only falling behind in your own mind, especially if you lose touch with who is doing all the doing, namely, with who you are, and the whole domain of being. Otherwise, as you well know, you can click send before you even realize that you didn’t want to say what you said, or forgot the most important point. Also, you can become aware of the impulse to tweet, to share a moment or a thought, and how easily it can come between you and the experience you think you are having (and broadcasting to others) but aren’t really having because you are too busy advertising your location and impressions to take a moment to drop in your experience and actually feel it, and let it develop unevaluated and unshared, at least for a moment. These are all going challenges brought on by the speed-up of virtually everything, and the endless appetite and impulses for recording and sharing our experiences even before we allow ourselves to have it, breath with it, digest it, and assimilate it in our own heart and mind. These are all new occupational hazards of carrying wireless multipurpose micro-supercomputers in our pockets and purses. We do this stuff just because we can. But do we ever stop and ask ourselves, even for one moment or one breath, what might be lost in this process of documenting and sharing so quickly?”

The practice of Mindfulness is healing and transformative as long as you practice ‘all the time’ regardless your situation and what you are doing. The techniques are easy to learn and it only requires practice.

I offer mindfulness sessions and courses for companies and individuals. Feel free to have a look at this section of my website for more information about the different courses I offer or get in touch to discuss which approach is most suitable for you or your company.

Looking forward to hearing from you!