You are what you see

Between 0 and 7 years old you are downloading content from your environment. During this period our brain is in a constant observing phase. We tend to forget how primitive humans still are. We see smart things around us everyday to make us believe we are in control of the situation. SmartPhone, SmartTV, Smart Fridge, Smart Shit. But remember how you were created and what is the most fundamental mechanism inside us: observation.

Dr. Bruce Lipton explains clearly that before 7 years old you’re learning by observing. And after, 95% of your life is dominated by your subconscious mind. The one you built before the age of 7. The only way to re-program your brain is by repetition (video, must see). My gut feelings tell me we are not so much different from a kid. We continue to program our brains by feeding the subconscious mind with content. This is where shit happens.

Content is a poison

Our social media era brings too much content to us. If you become what you see, and you’re watching too much things, who are you then? You’re supposed to build your life and you have no point of reference. Or better say: you have a thousand points in your mind with no idea how to connect them.

I don’t know how many images we see each week. But we can easily observe that social media alone brought 10x more images than TV. Do you think our “homo sapiens sapiens” brain got 10x better in the last 10 years? Nope. Our brain evolves very slowly compared to the current technology. We just can’t process that much content. There is no way unless you have a very clear idea of your passion and you developed a strong discipline. Being free from this influence will be a major valuable skill in the future. This brain overload is unique in the history of humanity. We went through many wars and violence and contrary to what you might think: the world has never that peaceful. But how are we gonna went through brain disorder at massive scale?

Passion and discipline are the only cures I know to keep myself protected by this outside pressure. I stopped using Instagram six month ago. I already stopped Facebook two years ago, and my life has never been that intense and good. The ones in my case (hopefully we are many) know what I’m talking about. The other ones are just fucked up in their bubble. Social media creates a world around you. It shapes your reality.

Today, or you’re posting to please someone from the past, or you’re watching what you want to be in the future.

And what is the trick they found to make you live the present? Stories. Awesome. I guaranty you’re not improving your life by 1% with this. The dopamine release you have linked to this vibration in your pocket, these views, these likes, is way more powerful than any drug in the market. The beauty? No visible or direct side effects. We will see in 20 years from now.

Empty your mind

Deep life improvement starts when you “empty your mind.” (Bruce Lee). The first element to create is space. The second one is focus. The third one is time. Only a strong motivation and discipline can make you combine these three all together. There is no magic formula and most important: no shortcuts available.

How can you empty you mind and create you own vision of the world with probably 200 pictures a day in your timeline? “No but I’m not addicted to it. I’m still myself”. That’s probably true for a minority of people. But 80% of them are just trapped and it’s crazy how much time they spend inside this synthetic vision of the world. Time guys, you know, the thing you will never get back? You’re throwing it out the window.

You can create time. Remove the noise around you and create your own vision. Start by trying 24h without any screen, then try to reduce the time you spent on it every day. Be careful of what you’re watching. Why should we tell kids to not watch porn or violence and we tell no one about what can have a dramatic impact on their life: social media?

Sometimes, you have no idea how much I want to take the phone of someone and slap it so hard on the ground to destroy every piece of it. It feels like it’s the best thing you can do.

Turn
Off
Your
Phone.

Reverse the process

We react the same way to the same triggers. That’s what can save us actually. If we are aware of the problem and we know how visual influence works: just reverse the damn process. Why so many people are doing meditation and see clear benefits? Why so many “tech influencers” banned phones from their own kids? Why so many people are waking up?

The real issue to me is the fact that the vast majority of the people being too much into social media will never read this kind of article. The suggestion algorithms will never push a story like this one. We live in a close loop. If you know people that need to open their eyes, send them some articles, this one, another one, anything that can help them to understand this crazy mechanism.

Once you deeply internalise this, a new world opens up to you. You’re own fucking world. Whatever it is, it should be yours.

Change what you see. Change your walls, change your universe, change what is in front of your eyes. It’s not that hard. Try to spend more time surrounded by beautiful things and let yourself be influenced by that. We are visual animals. Our sophisticated eyes and the way we process images is absolutely mysterious but we mostly know how it works.

One of the reasons we are so trapped in this shit is simple: the long term solution is boring. This is what no one wants to hear. We all need a new fancy method to cure our deep problems but that won’t stick.

And because you read too much content you will remember only 5% of this post and that’s why I’m trying to make it as short as possible.

Conclusion

Visualisation: The formation of a mental image of something.

Repetition: the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.

Passion: a state or outburst of strong emotion.

Results: (insert your definition here)