Withdrawing from the digital realm
I am currently feeling called to withdraw my energy as much as possible from the online realm. This is partly to free myself up for other things – creative writing, traditional skills in the household economy, our homeschooling permaculture project, and being in relationship with community.
But also, the digital attention economy seems (to me) harmful to both people and to the planet, and something I feel increasingly reluctant about participating in.
With this in mind, I will not be posting on my websites for now, and will probably close them down in the near future.
If there are any poems you have found helpful in your own practice, you might like to write yourself out a copy. The meditation recordings will remain accessible on my Soundcloud page for a while, but you might like to make a note of anything within them that you would like to incorporate into your own ongoing practice. I will also leave my YouTube videos live for the time being.
My long-term focus will be on connecting with those in my local community, which is the Four Heatons in Stockport. I will continue to make myself available for mindful conversations to support those looking to develop their mindfulness practice (you can email me about this).
Aside from my mindfulness work, I volunteer for the community group Sustainable Living in the Heatons, so I do attend their monthly meetings when I can. In general, I’m considering how to shift my contributions further into the gift economy, and I’d love to hear from anyone locally who is thinking along similar lines.
I noticed how often I used the word ‘economy’ in this post. Maybe one day we’ll find a better word for the exchange of energy…
Sheila Bayliss 