Thanks to  Angela Arnett , Jennifer Cusano, Julian Walker  and Kate Bartolotta’s and their brief videos about the double edged sword called social media it was great to hear their view points and I just adored the “realness”of everyone’s videos…makes me feel closer to everyone.

Once I got started I realized I had a lot more to say about the topic,  as I mused about social media and mindfulness the lines were blurred for me and in the end social media is just a tool. Like any other tool how you wield it is what matters.  That I’m as real online as offline. That I agree with Kate’s assertion that we need to remember there are real people online, with Julian’s thoughts that avoiding real issues isn’t really communicating either.    But, I also believe that it isn’t about “yogic” communication — it’s about human communication.

Do we need an yama to tell us to be nice?  Perhaps as much as we, as humans, need the 10 commandments or the beatitudes or five precepts.  But in the end it has nothing to do with any one philosophy or some magic set of ethics.  It’s people, being people and no matter what guidelines we employ mindfulness is simply the ability to think before we speak, breathe before we react, pause before we hit send.

Can yoga help us be better at that pause? I believe it can.

Is it incumbent on us to better employ mindfulness? It sure would help us in the press these days.

Do only yogis practice it? No and you don’t need to practice yoga to employ it.

Personally I would take it out of the yoga vernacular and just slap it back into the mainstream —” Human Communication”, that is kind and real and thoughtful has no socio-economic, philosophical, religious boundaries.

Be real. Be true. Be thoughtful.