it’s a shame our minds respond with more engagement to fear based logic – or it’d be heaven on earth.

Social media….. It’s how we now consume most of our information, and it influences everything from elections to public discourse. How is it that we ALL  know social media is not real life, yet it has so much influence over us. It’s teaching us an unhealthy narrative, to become so far ingrained in our single-minded views that it allows little leeway to being open to other ideas. It’s teaching us that shaming and dismissing other peoples views and calling them a bigot or a racist is perfectly acceptable.  Most importantly it’s teaching us to be unkind. The media in itself it’s such a selective sample of what’s actually going on in the world, is this causing more harm than good?

nomindyoga – Ryan Pedley

has a great perspective on this :

“Most media and news sources know that the fastest way to convince you of their message about the situation is to go straight to the brainstem. This is the ‘reptilian brain’ which governs our fight/flight responses as well as the decisions that are cold, compulsive or rigid.
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The processes of the reptilian brain are as unsophisticated as they are dangerous and there’s one key emotion that evokes responses from it more than any other. And that is FEAR, and they are using it CONTINUOUSLY.
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Now I’m not going to get into whether you should be trusting mainstream or alternative media like twitter as telling the truth, I’d say neither.

FEAR is what media sources are using to control the narrative you think you made up on your own. What I’m suggesting is that when the mind is in the fear based decision making of the reptilian brain – you’re also being programmed to believe whatever they tell you to believe.

So should we switch off the news, delete twitter, and close ourselves from the world? It sounds appealing, but in the long term that’s another form of avoidance that comes with its own fear based gravity. So what to do?

Stay open! And also, stay strong!
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Once you know there’s a mechanism at play of media such as twitter and facebook trying to drive fear into your brainstem, you’ll have an uncanny ability to not let their stories affect you so negatively.

Cultivate a healthy agnosticism to the messages you’re receiving – maybe they’re right, maybe not, but probably the truth is somewhere in between. Spend some time looking at different sources to form a rounded view and don’t fall prey to the tribalism that’s polarising our society on every issue that comes up. Keep cultivating love, generosity and compassion as your guiding lights and most of all – have faith, Stay sane”

– Ryan Pedely