Have you tried a media detox?

A follower on Instagram asked what I thought about a “social media detox.”

I told her I think it’s a very smart idea. Here’s why…

After healing my physical body from disease, I kept getting the inkling that there was another layer inside of me that needed healing.

But, to be able to clearly hear that message, I had to eliminate the external messages I was exposed to on a daily basis.

That meant to remove all forms of media.

Media back in the early 1990’s, when I experimented with detoxing from it, included radio, television, and newspaper. It was akin to the dark ages – a time before social media was the main course of programming most people consumed.

I couldn’t control the vast amounts of media outside of my home or when I attended a party, or at the MTV offices where I worked, but I could certainly control what I watched and listened to inside my own home and with my daily habits.

So, I committed to one full year of radio silence – so to speak.

My daily newspaper habit was the first to go. Every morning, I would religiously read about all of the terrible things going on around me, both locally and worldwide. As a student of journalism and media, you could imagine how much of a difficult task this was.

I also stopped listening to the morning radio programs, no longer watched the nightly news (or any television for that matter), and removed cinema/movies from my ways-to-be-entertained-and-distracted list.

My friends were baffled.

One friend said, “I can understand not going to the movies for a while, but shutting off the news, too? That’s totally irresponsible! How are you going to know what’s going on in the world?”

I said, “If there’s something important that I need to know, I’m sure I’ll hear about it one way or another. Including from you.”

And with that, my media-less journey began.

During that time, I continued to receive input from ancient texts like the Tao, The Dhamapada, the Vedas, Traditional Chinese Medicine, plus natural healing, meditation, and self-improvement books, and anything by Dr. Wayne Dyer.

I was fascinated with trying to understand my body, mind, and spirit from an alternative perspective and the ancient texts combined with self-exploration would certainly help me find myself quicker. Or so I thought.

Interestingly, without my usual daily media feeds, I noticed anxiousness and fear disappear, and I felt more in tune with myself. I knew exactly what I needed and when I needed it – without a barrage of advertisements to tell me differently.

It was a profound experience.

To learn more about the beginning of that journey read here: Do you know how to feed the emotional body?

Today’s story takes us to the very end of my detox from media experiment.

Around the 1-year mark, I was walking home from work when a flash thunderstorm derailed my journey.

I hopped onto a NYC bus to keep from getting drenched in the downpour, and noticed that someone had left a newspaper on the seat.

“Hmmmmm,” I thought, “I haven’t read a newspaper in an entire year. Maybe it’s time to see what’s happening in the world.”

I opened the paper to the second page and read a story about a group of young kids, around 7 or 8 years old, that had intentionally pushed another kid out of the back door of a moving school bus and onto the roadway.

The driver didn’t know it happened and only found out when the child wasn’t returned home to his parents. The police were called, and thankfully found the child, scared and crying, banged up and curled in a ball, on the side of the road still alive.

My heart felt like it had been stabbed with a knife. I reached up and placed my hand on my heart hoping it would move the pain somehow.

I thought, “How can these little humans do this to another human being? Why would they hurt each other like this at such a young age. Where did they learn that behavior?”

And, I started crying.

While I was letting the pain flow from my tear ducts, I expanded outward from the newspaper article and into the hearts of the parents, and to the school bus driver, and wondered what they may have been feeling.

The pain in my heart grew more pronounced.

I continued expanding my heart outward and into society as a whole and thought about all of the wars happening around the world.

“My gosh! Why are we humans intentionally maiming, hurting, and killing each other?”

The pain kept growing deeper.

Imagine?

All of that pain was initiated from reading ONE newspaper story.

Suddenly, I had the awareness that I was beyond crying and was now sobbing on a New York City bus during the height of rush hour.

And, the worst part …

Not one person asked if I was okay or why I was crying.

At that moment, I realized just how disconnected we humans are from each other.

It’s easy to push someone off the back of the bus if you are not taught that you are connected to them (or their soul) in any way.

My media-less experiment was an extremely valuable lesson. It taught me many things about myself and about the world I’m living in.

It solidified for me that when bad news is delivered to us in such a repetitive way, it can desensitize us. I don’t think our hearts can take that amount of daily pain. There’s a good possibility the heart protects itself by hardening.

It’s not lost on me that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in the world. Hardened hearts crack open to let the soul escape from the pain.

30 years after my media-less journey, I still understand that I am connected to other humans more deeply than I had been taught. I also know that media, including social media, can very easily distract us from knowing ourselves more intimately.

And, when consumed too often, it can both desensitize us from feeling more deeply connected to others and manipulate us to feel some emotions more intensely (anger, outrage, fear, anxiety).

After posting about my media-less experience on social media, I was happy to see that many other people have tried a media and social media detox and have had positive results as well.

I’m not advising folks to abandon media entirely. I loved reading all of the feedback and personal stories from people sharing about their own experiences.

That’s one of the ways social media can positively impact us and connect us to each other.

But, I am saying it’s a really good idea to release the media’s hold on your heart, mind and soul, and go more deeply into yourself – especially during times of turmoil and unrest.

It’ll help you settle down and reconnect to what matters most.

Your health, happiness, and heart are worth it.