Consumption of Information

Don't be like these kids!

                                                 

We all know about consuming food, bringing in the world through our mouth and digestive system.  But we consume things in many other ways too.  Our lungs consume the air around us.  Our eyes and ears consume information from all that we see and hear.

Right now we are being bombarded with an unprecedented amount of information.  We are consuming it all day long.  We have to recognize that this can be exhausting for us and our brains.  My caution to you, my friends, is that you have a healthy relationship with the information you are consuming,  just like you have a healthy relationship with the food you consume. 

I recommend these tips to protect your mind and body:

1. Pick no more than 3 - 4 sources that you trust to get your information from.  Set your technology so that you are not getting a feed of news from hundreds of different sources.
2. Set specific times of the day for sitting down and reading news.   Don't multi-task!  Don't read the news while you are eating, watching Netflix, taking a bath, or any other form of self care.  
3. Digest!  Just like setting a low activity level after you eat - set aside time to digest what you read and hear.  Take a quiet moment to process it.  Do I agree?  Do I understand?  Did this create questions for me?  Can I make connects with this information to experiences I've had?  How does this make me feel?  
4. Meditate!  Doing yoga and meditation is recovery for your mind.  When doing yoga, your mind is talking to your body constantly - directing breath, muscles, bones.  There is not space at this time to ingest or digest new information.