I have been away from all of my Blogs, I have been sparse with my interactions on social media and I would like to say, “Wellll, I took the conscious decision to step away for a few weeks fro maintain my good mental health and to spend the summer with my family,” but the reality is slightly different. I ‘stepped away’ because life took me that way, I let it and I wasn’t alert enough to spot it before it took me over.
There is a real trend with many of the health gurus and celebrities (whatever they are?) to talk about how social media and being on your devices is bad for your health. It seems to be an all or nothing thing for them. However, if you notice, even when they are ‘spending meaningful time’ with their perfect family on a Greek Island, they have someone else still posting things online for them just so we don’t forget they are important to us. Is there a bit of jealousy swilling around in my brain, in that they can manage their life well enough that they can swan off for a month to live in an alternative reality? Of course. But is modern technology and social media all bad for those of us left with glorious Skegness (a bit of a grim seaside town in the UK for any international readers) for the weekend?
I have been away because my mental health has been poor but that was not as a result of my devices or social media. I have been continuing to juggle rebuilding my house so that my very elderly parents can move in with us, dealing with their health issues, working on getting another older relative’s house on the market which is 450 miles away in a different country (Scotland) and my mother in law entering the stage in her life which they describe as ‘fast track’ to end of life – a little scary form of terminology but there you go and I am sure you get the picture. In addition to all of that, I have been in a lot of pain from the arthritis which my consultant tells me isn’t too much of an issue! Absolutely none of this is a moan (well the bit about the consultant is perhaps), I am happy to be there for my family even though I am in Ugly Derbyshire, as I type, rather than Pretty Provence. But, if another professional tells me I need to take time for myself or I will have a breakdown, I think I will indeed have some kind of breakdown which involves blowing huge raspberries at them.
‘Ahhh,” I hear you say as you nod your head wisely, “it would appear ‘the professionals’ are correct in their analysis and advice and you are in denial.”
You are probably right, but at least my fantasies for revenge on these folk only involves an out-of-control vibrating tongue and a puffed-up face. Just telling me to slow down and do less is not helpful. In addition, telling me that communicating on whatever device I have in my hand at the time and through social media is bad for me is also not a good road to take me down unless you can be a little more nuanced with your guidance. Everything I might do that I have reasonable access to is apparently bad for me and, of course, it is my fault that I still do the ‘bad’ things because I am weak and a drain on society. Yes, this is a little tongue in cheek, but this message is fed to me, and I suspect most of you via the more mainstream media who in turn are fed this information from official sources (whatever they are). I also get it from medical consultants who have obviously not done any ‘psych’ or ‘how to communicate with patients training’ during their extensive education.
Can you see me shrugging my shoulders and hear me sighing deeply? Good.
Back to the celebrity health podcasters and gurus then. I am not sure that even if I did have the opportunity to drop out of my normal life for a month I would want to stop writing and communicating. You see, as I write in my affirmations every morning, ‘I have storytelling at my centre’. The key bit of this sentence is ‘telling’. I can create stories in my head, but I also want to share them and that means writing them down (I know some storytellers retain their stories in their heads but that isn’t for me). The next ‘tick’ I have is once I have written the story down, I have to share it. Sadly, the tribe in my village doesn’t sit around the campfire very often these days, so my only other option is to be here, on the electronic page. I have no guilt for this, and I know it does me more good than bad.
To that end, I am back to annoy anyone who will read my ramblings. I have been wrong to drop this element of my life, even though I had good excuses. I understand that nasty trolls are very disturbing and distressing on social media, which is apparently one of the reasons I shouldn’t use it. But, when I eventually get to a point where I get a nasty troll in my life, I can deal with them in the same way I have learned to deal with those who ‘push’ the ‘health’ messages of government out before they think through why they are giving the less than helpful ‘advice’. I will just take a quiet moment, perhaps sip a glass of something red (no not Ribena!) or a coffee and remind myself, the government’s agenda is not about my welfare but that of the big corporations, so I am not heeding or listening to it. I will just observe it and let most of it go.
I am now sipping coffee and enjoying the spider’s web glistening with dew outside my window as I hum along to the quiet classical music emanating from the phone. Yes, yes, I know the device is bad for me OR is it?
I am done ranting for now so I welcome you to September and I leave you with a couple of thoughts:
“Don’t make decisions only in your head.” (Rick Rubin)
“One day you will look back and realise that you worried too much about things that didn’t really matter.”
