I have been thinking a lot about consumption. What we eat. What we buy. The media we consume. The music, words, images all coming in as fast as our hands can click to the next screen.
It is so much food, stuff and information and, like so many others have said, it is overwhelming.
I don't think that having one more thing will make me happier. In fact, the amount of things in my home and office are overwhelming to me. Papers, trinkets, supplies are all packed in every nook and cranny. It looks organized-ish, to some it might even look sparse, but to me it just feels like too much stuff.
And the media, games, tweets, updates, email, news shows, sitcoms, etc are all coming at such a rapid pace that keeping up is just exhausting.
But exhaustion isn't what I am worried about - it is that we are consuming and consuming and we aren't doing anything. We aren't creating anything. I'm not creating anything.
All of the time spent listening, recording, reading, retweeting is taking away from the time that I could be making something. Something new, maybe something fabulous, maybe not... but at least I would be exploring my own information that I have accumulated over time and pushing it out into the world as something new.
The question is how do you jump off the treadmill and start living a full creative life and still stay relevant? Does relevancy matter?
I think it happens in small steps with managed goals. It isn't an all or nothing throw the TV into the woods moment. It is more about defining what I want my life to look like.
I think this month will be that - defining what I want it to all look like. Then putting the pieces together - slowly and carefully - rather then stuffing one more thing on top of another.
Reading over this I see how disjointed even this post is. How I am struggling to say enough is enough. How I am looking for my own words in my crowded head. Let's see what happens when I put my life together in my own terms and what that looks like. How about you; are you having a stuff, information, media overload? Are you managing it well? Are you missing out on the joy of creating something for yourself? I'd love to hear what you are doing to make your life/time your own.
My current resources: Dharma Talks, Yoga App & paper/pen.
Flickr Photo: xray delta one
