We are influenced by our senses. They are affected by what is happening on social media. New phrases are being used on social media, and they can change our life.
Examples:
- Cat fished. The meaning is to try and trick somebody by pretending on social media to be someone else. If a random, attractive person starts talking to one online and S/he or Hir (gender neutral) is catfishing. Such people make up fake lives and live in that fantasy.
- Gaslighting; means to manipulate someone, using psychological methods into questioning their own sanity.
- Cyberbullying: Cyberbullying (using digital technology haunting our children and also adults. It has led to adolescents committing suicide. Guardians are the last to know.
- Invasion of privacy.
- Identity theft.
- Children being lured into seeing offensive images.
- Interacting with total strangers with fake identities.
It is becoming very difficult to survive all these happenings. Many of us are lonely and therefore we join chatrooms. How do we overcome our sense of this aloneness. There are three kinds of loneliness, Emotional (absence of meaningful relationships), Social (a perceived absence in the kind of social connections), Existential (a feeling of fundamental separateness from others and the wider world). We could be suffering because of one of them or all three. Then we turn to social media as we need to ventilate.
There is a way for us to express oneself. It is in following the Yogic Path. How does one follow it? It is very subtle because, one goes voluntarily to a Yoga class. What happens in a Yoga class? One engages with other people; one gets enthused and buys Yoga clothes. There is something to look forward to. No demands are being made. One’s sense of isolation is reduced. One is motivated to practice and the reason is that one feels better. One sleeps well and one is able to look at one’s life rationally. The feeling of why me is reduced.
Channelize the energy inwards
The next step is when one becomes aware of the rational behind the asanas, pranayama, mudras and bandhas. The purpose behind these practices is for one to get in touch with oneself. The asana is described as a state of prayer, perfect communication with oneself. Pranayamas balances the life force, prana and this is accomplished by breath awareness. Mudras are described as expressions of one’s psyche. They channelize the energy inwards with simple hand gestures. Bandhas are locks which work on one’s psychic centers, elements and nadis.
The best component of all this is one does not need to know any of this. It is the internal change which happens and one finds that one becomes less needy and greedy. The brain is not controlling us.
How does this connect with social media? One becomes more realistic, and self-aware. One develops will power, which occurs through daily sadhana. One does not succumb immediately to what one sees and reads. One is in charge of oneself and of course the compliments which one receive on one’s freshness and looks make one’s day. One learns the art of discrimination and develops resilience and gradually becomes free from fear.
Aim Hrim Klim