Communication Overload & Updates
Hi Everyone,
It’s been a very busy start to the fall season with school and many new projects about to launch (some noted below). There are just so many seemingly endless demands on our time today, and all the while time itself seems to be speeding up. I find that unless I just say “STOP” to everything that is not immediately relevant to my family’s balance and well-being, I will fall down the rabbit hole or perhaps into the snake pit of madness.
I think anyone who wants to should be able to opt out of e-mails and texts. Yes, I know all the arguments in favor of being “connected,” but I feel the negatives can greatly outweigh the positives, and the positives are only relevant when communication devices are used as needed, not as if the user is on steroids. Sure, you can connect with old mates from grade school, or talk to your brother who’s deployed in Afghanistan, or check in with your grandmother in Mobile, Alabama. But we all know that the constant flurry of messages and instant messages can ultimately create more of a disconnect than a real, meaningful connection. Humans have always thrived in close communities with frequent, personal contact with one another. Culturally, we lost that kind of connection a long time ago, but our souls still long for it. The result: now we are binging on digital-age connectivity.
We are seldom aware of how the mad pace of connectivity chips away at us and our personal sovereignty—but it will become all too clear once it’s too late and we’ve got nothing left. Modern communication sets off a lightening-fast chain of reactionary human experience rather than the kind of active, interpersonal, spirit-to-spirit conductivity that can truly nourish and sustain us. The digital age keeps us hopped up in a hyperactive and hyper-reactive state that makes mindfulness and living in the moment practically impossible.
One of these days, after sufficiently gorging on e-mail, texting, blogging, tweeting, uploading, and downloading, we will face the paradox of feeling at once too full and completely empty. We will want to abstain from the madness of hyper-communication in some centering, grounding fashion—such as doing yoga instead of aerobics, or conserving instead of consuming, or detoxing instead of grabbing another bag of pork rinds. Once everyone has sufficiently gorged and purged, we will reserve modern communication for important exchanges with family and friends, clients and colleagues.
As a personal rule, I don’t e-mail my family unless I need to send an important document as an attachment. I prefer to speak voice to voice. And I don’t appreciate receiving texts where business is concerned. It puts me off when people take the liberty of sending me texts the moment they obtain my cell phone number—even if they only met me five minutes ago! Texting is for family and about ten of my closest friends, and sometimes when one of my children is playing at another home (or vise versa) and we parents need to connect. That is all!
The problem is one of BOUNDARIES. As we move faster and the population swells, there are fewer and fewer boundaries. This is very unhealthy. It’s actually crass and invasive, another violation of the inner space where we build and hold our power. Modern communication does not ask, but demands that we keep pace with it, at all costs. And if we don’t, we are considered rude, unprofessional, disrespectful, uncaring. But we must remember, it’s still our choice whether to engage or not in this madness—WE ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE. It’s like any other drama we choose not to engage in any longer because we see how it undermines our power.
The disengaging process, however, is not for the insecure or faint of heart. We actively choose to be the discriminating e-mailer or the anti-texter, or else these modes of communication will choose us. We must protect our life force, our great indwelling spirit, against all the pressures of modern communication, which, if we let it, will consume all of our time—at electronic speed, thousands of pixels at a time! I’m not afraid to be the anti-texter. If I give my time to the endless streams of texts and e-mails, I lose my life, literally. I squander my vitality, my moments of wholeness, my time with my beautiful children—and I gain nothing in return but a pinched expression, mental overload, and obstruction.
When we finally recognize that it’s our lives that matter—not the millions of little items that incessantly demand to be communicated, robotically, without end—then we will start to protect what’s important, to reprioritize and re-harmonize as human beings.
Of course, not all modern communication is bad. We should all find our own comfort zones within it, as my preferred modes of communication might not be yours. For instance, I would appreciate having an automated phone app that communicates to others how I choose to use texting and e-mail, and thus maintain healthy boundaries. Here’s what it might say: “In order to maintain precious clarity and inner calm, I only use e-mail and text messaging in emergency situations. Please do not be offended if I do not reply to you if it is not a critical matter, and I will reciprocate the courtesy. Please call if further discussion or clarity is needed.”
If you are feeling intensely overwhelmed and stressed for no clear reason, consider your communication practices. The disease of modern civilization is escalating. The mad will go madder to the point of self-destruction, and the rest of us will finally recognize the madness for what it is and do whatever we must to reclaim our sanity!
Okay, moving on . . . I have a few things to tell you about:
We will be launching the Natalia Rose Institute Family Community next week. Expect a full curriculum on everything from pre-conception and fertility to childbirth, nursing, infant and toddler feeding, and the older years. Everyone interested in the life stages will get something out of this—and perhaps have something to share themselves!
The Special Edition Newsletter is nearly ready. It is being created in 12 parts, so look out for one each week for twelve weeks starting on November 1. If you haven’t already signed up to receive the issues, you can do that on the home page. I hesitate to call it a newsletter because it is far more than that. It is really a book delivered in twelve parts, so I recommend saving the issues, so you may refer back to them over time. Eventually, I hope to offer the content in hard-copy book form.
The Culinary Institute is opening its doors on October 18 to our first group of student chefs. Doris will be training these students as no culinary institute has ever taught before. This is the future of food. The class is already close to full, but if you’re interested, we can take another 2–3 students. You’ll find the information on the <a href=”../events.php”>Events</a> page.
Emotional Eating S.O.S. is on the presses now and will be available in hard copy in just a couple of weeks. We are also developing an area on the site called the Emotional Eating S.O.S Club, to offer anyone who needs it a place to express any imbalanced consumption habits they may be struggling with. It will be coming later this fall, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I recommend familiarizing yourself with the core causes and solutions offered in the book.
I’m currently putting together a book on the program required for defying aging. If I have enough time to write, I’ll have it ready for e-book release (and available to community members) in early spring 2011. Subsequently, that will also go into hard copy production.
The Rose Bar chocolate is going to be ready to order within the next 10 days, so please stay tuned for that announcement. It really is the best 70% chocolate you will find anywhere. Ask anyone who has tried it.
You’ll also notice we have re-launched our shopping area, complete with rollover notations about our favorite products and how we use them. We also have a new shopping partner, Opensky.com. They will periodically be offering discounts on the products that go through them. You know I’m not one for promotion, but I thought some of you might be interested.
That’s all for now, but the wheels of life are always turning and the fire within is strong, so there will always be more to come.
Love to you all, and may you have the hearts of lions and the vision of eagles!
