How content and mindfulness are related.
Recently a friend asked why I write about issues of content and also about issues around mindfulness in the same blog. That’s easy.
Content and being mindful are inextricably related.
Each affects the other. In fact, content and mindfulness are essentially the Yin and Yang to each other. I’ll explain.
Not familiar with Yin and Yang?
In Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang represent the concept of dualism. Those things that exist as natural and opposite contrasts to each other. Some examples. Light and dark, day and night, good and evil.
The two opposite forces “Yin” and Yang” are depicted as interconnected and always counterbalancing each other. For example, as light enters a room, darkness recedes and vice-versa.
As content expands mindshare, mindfulness wanes.
The symbol for Yin and Yang depicts a black image and a white image that look like two number 9s, “swirling” around each other. Both in an ever-constant state of competing for dominance against each other within the confines of a perfect circle.
In the same manner, so does content (like advertising, digital experiences, news, etc.) and mindfulness (feeling happy, self-aware and in the present).
Content: Yin.
Content is the data and information from the outside world that tries to assert a reality on people.
Mindfulness: Yang.
Mindfulness is a person’s self-awareness and personal reality it attempts to assert or use as a frame on the outside world.
The forces contrast and compete with each other
The content from the outside world that you take in often seeks to distract and impact your ability to be mindful. It’s the ad that makes you worry about getting that home security system. Or the political ad saying “them” is coming to get you. Or what the neighbors will think about you if you don’t have product X. Or getting you to compare you to another’s standard for beauty. It’s information that robs you from the present and pushes you to become fixated on things that distract your happiness or purpose. Darkness pushes light out of the room.
But if you use mindfulness to stay focused on what really matters to you and that makes you happy, that “Yin” pushes back on the effects of content. You begin to avoid stories, distraction, and focus on what matters to you. Light pushes out the darkness.
Engaging content effectively (for you and not the content owner) requires some form of mindfulness. Take control of how content defines you and your actions.