Tag: meditation tips
The Meditator’s Guide to Mindful Social Media
Navigating the Digital World with Awareness
If you observe people between the ages of 30 and 70 navigating the digital landscape, you will notice a distinct difference. Their engagement with social media is rarely the breezy “tap-tap-like” routine common among teenagers.
Instead, it is more strategic, thoughtful, and occasionally exasperated. It resembles checking the refrigerator for the fifth time, hoping something nutritious has miraculously appeared. For this significant slice of adulthood—a group to which most of us belong—social media has become akin to our morning coffee: we rely on it, we question our dependence on it, and we occasionally declare we are quitting, only to return the very next morning.
People in this demographic generally do not use social media to rack up followers or chase fleeting trends. They use it to stay connected, to stay informed, and sometimes, simply to feel a little less alone in a noisy world.
The research is loud and clear: when used actively and purposefully, social media can support mental health, physical well-being, and even cognitive sharpness. However, when used passively, angrily, or endlessly? Well, everyone in this age group knows the remedy: “That is when you need to put down the phone and go outside”.
Perhaps the real secret is this: social media works best when it is a tool, not a residence. But before we embrace this behavior, we must ask: are meditators an exception to these rules?
Tips for a Deep and Surreal Meditation Experience
It happens to me all the time. In fact, if I’m not careful, it probably will happen in every session that I sit down to meditate. It goes something like this.
I sit down to meditate. I’m hit with a lot of thoughts from the past or the future. I’m more conscious of something else coming up right after meditation, and so my attention doesn’t go deep enough. More than this, my attitude is somewhat superficial, nonchalant and casual – as though meditation is a daily chore and I have the typical “Let’s get this over with” feeling inside me.
Result? I barely touch even the basic benefits of meditation and worse, I end up spending 15 to 20 minutes pretending that I’ve completed my daily meditation.
With experience, I learned how to do the exact opposite – get a meaningful, profound and surreal experience out of my daily meditation by focusing on a few essential things.