What's feeding you this season?
The first thing we think about when we hear the word "feed" is food, but in reality, there are many more things contributing to our physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental health. In a society where we are bombarded by experts galore, social media addictions, streaming TVs available on every device available and so much more there are challenges to what we allow to pour into us that we may not see coming.
It is so important that we take note of how our minds and our bodies are responding to the things around us.
How are you responding?
What fruit are you bearing from the things you are watching, reading, and entertaining on a daily basis?
I am doing a negativity fast, and in this fast, I've begun to notice how my body feels with certain things that I am watching or reading. It's funny because at times my body feels so uneasy, but it literally does not match my experience. Why do I feel so uneasy about something that "appears" so straightforward and simple?
Our bodies, recognize the nourishment we need. Our bodies also recognize the things that are depleting us.
Take a moment, and reflect on whether you mindlessly watch and read things, or if you are mindfully encountering these things in your life. Imagine the shift within if you become mindful of the many things you are encountering.
3 Challenges With What's Feeding You In This Season
Unexplained Anxiety. As I encouraged in our introduction to this blog, the next time you watch a show or any other media, pay attention to how your body reacts. Does your mind feel clouded? Are you suddenly jittery? Has your breath shortened? Are you suddenly in a rush with nowhere to go? Studies show that anxiety can form from what we are consuming since our brain is taking in the actually lived responses of our body's reactions. Not only that, but being online can cause unwarranted emotions such as striving, comparisons, loneliness, anger, and many others that can potentially lead to anxiety in our life. This is a mental health battle that can develop in our lives and have potentially long-term effects that we may not see coming. In the future, we may struggle to experience present moments because we are so used to focusing on media or other online experiences but not the preciousness of the moments in life. We may also potentially deal with depression due to disappointments related to comparison in what we see taking place in others' life. This comparison can lead to anxious thoughts, depression, and sadness. Not paying attention to what our body is speaking can lead us to a fight that we may not be physically, emotionally, or mentally prepared to fight. When anxious thoughts show up, we now have to determine how to fight against or regulate these thoughts in our life. This can be a daily decision as we choose to train our brains to release us from this fight or flight mode that has been induced due to anxiety.
Loss of Concentration. When we are so used to the immediate availability of anything that we desire. It can be hard to concentrate on things that may take more effort and more time. We are literally living in a right now time in our lives. Everything is available at our fingertips, and since it's so readily available it has impacted our level of concentration. Our brains can permanently be impacted by what we are allowing to feed us on a daily basis. It can change the way we think, feel, and act on a permanent basis. The loss of concentration is one example of this long-term impact., The next time you are reading something, pay attention to how often your mind wanders. The next time you are involved in a conversation, pay attention to how much you are genuinely, actively listening.
Conformity Bias. In today's world, it's hard to have your own opinion. Even harder, is to be able to express our beliefs and ideas without being canceled. Humantech.com explains conformity bias this way: the tendency for our brains to collect evidence that supports our existing viewpoints—compounding our tendency to favor people we already identify with: our friends, family, coworkers, or others who share our interests or opinions. We can all be guilty of this, and most of us have witnessed how the world's agenda can be pushed on us so that we struggle not to believe it. In the long run, this challenge of conformity bias will result in the loss of our personal identity and our beliefs truly matching our personal values and not this world.
These challenges can be alarming, but here is what I want to share with you. There are solutions. In our next Bible Plan that will be released in the coming future, I plan to share with you ways to detox from negativity and feed your body and your mind, mental, physical, and spiritual foods that are nourishing to your soul.
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