Why I closed my Facebook account
Today I deactivated my Facebook account.
It felt heavy and light, at the same time.
On one hand, it felt sad to say goodbye to all the friends I’ve made, remembering all the good times we shared… All the poetry, stories, laughter, support and celebrations we shared….
It was a wonderful opportunity and indeed a privilege, to connect with people from all around the world, whom I probably would have not met otherwise.
But Facebook was becoming a burden to me.
I was checking it five, six times per day, answering friends, posting and reading constantly.
I recognized that it was taking a lot of my time, and that my days were no longer balanced.
I love balance and enjoy being productive.
I love a quiet mind that is guided by my own focus and choices,not just by what was presented in my Facebook newsfeed.
While on FB, I found that my mind was becoming very unruly.
Instead of being steadily focused on what I wanted to contemplate, it would chew on ideas that my friends posted.
I recognized that Facebook is a big gossip machine, that never let out, and that by tuning into it, I was exposing myself to the constant information and chatter of many minds.
It did not only take my physical time, while sitting on the computer looking at postings, it also stayed in my mind, nagging at my awareness long after I got up from my chair.
I meditate daily and regularly.
It is a practice that I started many years ago, while in my mid twenties, when I first recognized how much it helped to reduce stress in my life.
Stress is generated by our minds.
Our minds generate a stream of thoughts, which in response, generates emotions in us.
If our minds chew on negative thinking, and disempowering thoughts about ourselves, about our possibilities or our lives, we will feel sad, disempowered, anxious and a lack of aim.
By guarding our minds and learning to direct them, we are able to tame the wild horses of the streams of thoughts, and instead focus on uplifting ideas, possibilities, and thoughts of Unity, peace, spiritual power, blessings and gratitude.
Meditation, is a way to tame these running horses of our unruly thoughts.
It draws us back into the silent, so we can start again from ground zero.
When we learn to tame our minds, we are able to use one of the most potent tools on earth and beyond – our minds.
The power of all of creation, is in our minds.
The constant chatter, does not need to come only from inside, it could and does, come from outside as well, if we expose ourselves to it.
I remember many years ago, visiting homes in which the TV was on and nobody was watching, while at the same time the radio was on, people were talking and kids were playing and screaming in another room, it all felt like chaos and the noise was disorienting.
It is best to keep your focused attention on the task at hand.
On the person you are having a conversation with…
Focused attention brings inner calm and peace.
Too much activity, too many ideas circulating in your mind, leads to procrastination, and in many cases, to confusion.
If you want to explore a subject, and truly get to know it intimately, devote your focused attention to it.
Do not flail about and do not embrace many ideas in a shallow manner.
Dare to take the time to explore the meaning of a spiritual idea, deeply and thoroughly.
Be NOT content with superficiality.
ONE Truth Principle thoroughly examined and understood, can open up a flood gate of illumination in your understanding and will carry you faster towards Self Realization.
I am not saying goodbye to all my Facebook friends.
I am saying goodbye to the constant chatter….
I will carry my friends in my heart forever… We are ONE in the Love that created us all.
I admire your strength Tali, good on you!
Love always
Jane xxxx
Thank you dear Jane for reading this and for your love… my love is also with you ALWAYS and in All- Ways…
Thank you for this messag Tali, I totally understand where you are coming from. The internet is a wonderful place and resource and i have enjoyed the fabulous friends i have made.
I notice a big difference in my mind and thinking when i have been away from the computer for a few days. Like you i start to balance up and focus, at the moment my head is all over the place and i am once again lost for any sense of direction of what i want to do with my life and i strongly feel this is because of the internet and probably the distraction of facebook.
I want to once again start following my path and reconnect with myself, i am not as brave as you to actually slay the beast all together, but I am going to slowly withdrawl myself from it week by week and look forward to getting me back.
It has been an honour to know you and have your friendship Tali, and i do hope we can keep in touch (do you write letters, postcards even?) and i look forward to when we can sit down over coffee and have a good old fashioned face to face chat
Love and friendship
Pam
Thank you dear Pam for your honest and open comment.
Yes, I do know what you mean, when you say that at times, too much exposures to others make you lose direction, and that FB is a Distraction with a capital D….
I remember once that Julia Cameron who wrote the Artist’s Way, said in a seminar that she would sometime labor at a project, when things did not go so well… and then she would get an email from one of her students cheerfully sharing how she just won some awards, her books got publishes, by following Julia’s precious advice….
Julia admitted with honesty that even though it was so wonderful to hear, it only reminded her, that her own book is not getting published… or of other issues she was stuck with…
On FB, you get this daily… Artists having art exhibitions, major openings, winning awards……
Your sabotaging ego may make you feel that you are NOT progressing fast enough… maybe even stuck…
This is all NOT TRUE!
Your own progress is not measured by career accomplishments and your progress is EXACTLY as it should be…
Your life here, and movement through time and space is NOT at random…
Never look to others to determine your goals…
Follow your own heart with devotion and patience…
I usually do not do letters, other than emails.
But I know we shall meet one day for lunch or a coffee.
With love and friendship,
Tali
Dear Tali
“Your own progress is not measured by career accomplishments and your progress is EXACTLY as it should be…
Your life here, and movement through time and space is NOT at random
“Never look to others to determine your goals…”
“Follow your own heart with devotion and patience…”
These words make for a fine mantra. One i am going to start abiding by.
Wishing you a fab day in whatever way you spend it.
Blessed be
Pamxx
Tali, dear tali… I too closed my account. I felt much the same as you, that it was tkaing up too much of time, that Iwas spending too much time(at leats in my case) going online, attempting to be atentive to other ‘friends’ postings and trying to be a ‘good friend’ by agknowledging others posts and comments. strangely, three weeks later–after I clsoed the account, it magically reappeared. I fought over it with facebook, even calling their office. They made every attempt to close it, but said there was some problem which they could not find which made it magiclaly reappear. I ignored it for a another week, by then having weaned myself off it. In the meantime, I had gone thru a huge life change(moving out of house and into apartment with argentinian messy boyfriend!) so life changed: no longer was I living in small tiny town, populaton 5000..with few people to relate to–but instead, living in easy stress free apt with easy stress free boyfriend, in large college town. I realized one day..that for most of my international friends, who did not have alot of money, that fb was a the cheap-and free- solution to staying in touch. I’d been trying to talk to people on Skype or other messaging and finding making the connections frustrating. In fact most people did not answer email, saying they rarely used it these days. I went back to fb. I’m glad I did; the hiatus streamlined what I use it for and although I occassionally have a day of checking in, or posting lots of things, sometimes quite a while goes by before I say much. Meanwhile, I use it to talk to many friends around the world who find it simpler and free. As for you and Jules, I have been keeping up with your travels via your blogs, and I’m enjoying them ever-so-much. Everything here is going well. I am enjoying living with less day to day responsibilities(no garden, just a balcony with flowerpots) (no house to rent, much cheaper apt, so way less bills)and (messy, yet romantic Argentinan to come home to everyday). Life is good. really excellent. Hugs to you and Jules, wishing you every happiness.
Thank you so much Amy for sharing your own Facebook story here.
If it works for you, it is best to stay with it.
I do know the value of social networking and being able to share ideas with friends and others.
A lot of good came out of it for many.
For me, it has been three months since I closed my account and to be honest, I has a period of missing it and missing some friends I was able to connect with, from my childhood and those I met through FB.
But now, three months away, I do not miss it in the slightest, and it seems so ridiculous to me now that I took so much time to explain to others and took so much to heart the arguing that so many did when I share my stories.
To be honest…..
It seems almost insane to me now….
Behind the anonymity of FB, and with the help of my own artistic imagination, I imagined a few people to be what they were not…
In real life, outside of the virtual world of FB, my senses would have kicked in and I would have sensed and known that we could not be close friends.
Still, I brought them into my home and temporarily complicated my life unnecessarily…
For a short while, I felt that it was my responsibility to help others understand what I understood, in how we create our realities how to make it better.
But now I understand that I do not have to do it on FB, nor do I have to devote too much time to it… time I wish to spend doing other things that excite me, not out of a sense of duty.
I realized that since we are one human family, and all our minds are joined anyway through the Divine Mind, I do not need to worry about posting on social networking, as long as I allow my own mind to expand and realize higher truth, I am helping the human evolution…
Anyway, thank you my friend Amy.
I feel grateful to have met you on FB and I admire your kind heart and feel that we shared so much…
So yes, many good things can come out of it…
Take care,
Tali
Dear Tali, I had that same experience, making others into something that they were not. It is easy to get caught up in what others present themselves to be rather than what really is true; in fact, this what I find dangerous about social media. The time I had off from it I realized I was spending more “real time” with myself and with others, and discovering friends in “real” time and seeing truly who they were. Some people surprised me, others didnt. I guess for me Fb is valuable as I am so busy(even since moving and simplfying my life) and so the messaging system works great for me.
But I’m also glad that I’m listening to my inner dialogue more now and that wouldnt have happened if I hadnt stepped away.
I am also grateful that I met both you and JUles, because we would not have “met” otherwise. I am confident we will meet in the real world as well someday, maybe even sometime this year. I am planning my next trip already to India and you know I may try to arrange a stopover whereever you are and see if we can meet for a meal at least.
Enjoying the connection with you very much and blessed by your musings and thoughts as always– amy gigi
Please excuse spelling errors , you know how my dyslexia is worse when I’m sleepy! Hopefully you can decode it.:)