The unprecedented connectivity that the digital world allows us is a great equalizer. It gives small business owners like me the ability to reach an international market in the blink of an eye, at low to no cost. It gives voice to people who might otherwise have none, and is a motor for mobilization. It helps us keep up with and inspire each other.
What a gift.
And distraction.
If you are anything like me, you are deeply empathic. So all the 'story' in the online space draws you in easily, and throws you off easily.
Hours and hours spent online, absorbing endless reams of video, news, articles and social media posts, not only has a physiological impact (learn more here), but an emotional and spiritual one as well. After a few hours, you are effectively 'in' the collective consciousness -- the noise, the anxiety, the worry. And detached from your own higher consciousness.
Notice when this happens -- you'll know because you'll feel anxious, stress, less your best self. And then experiment with an amount of online time that gives you just enough connection to the people, places and things that lift you, but not so much that you lose yourself.
For me, a couple of hours a day is my max, my happy place. My place of true contentment, where I feel myself to be "in" the world but not "of" it. Where I stay rooted in my own power, where I can hear and honor my own voice, and create my own reality.
So, find your happy place. It'll help you stay in your own story, and stick to it.