"It's OK to notice what you don't want because that gives you contrast and you say, "this is what I do want." But the fact is that the more you talk what you don't want, or you talk about how bad it is, read about all of that all the time and then say, "oh how terrible it is", you are creating more of that."
"You know, so many times people say to me, 'well James, I have to be informed.' Maybe you have to be informed, but you don't have to be inundated."
- from The Secret
I must have been subconsciously thinking about this, because one day I just went through my email and organized everything. I took myself off of all the automated email lists I no longer wanted to be on. I love information, I love learning... but I had found myself privy to a kind of toxic knowledge, all those desperate and emotional emails from websites I had joined about political, animal, and environmental causes I care about. It was becoming too much, I was feeling bogged down and practically dreaded checking my inbox. That's not right... I thought.
When is it too much?
And specifically, the nature of those emails were distressing to me, and not in line with the way I see the world. I know "ignoring something won't make it go away", but there are more meaningful and powerful ways of fostering the good in the world than this, than drudging through all these cyber-propoganda generated emails.
Many of the lists I unsubscribed from would "apologize for any inconvenience" they had caused me, to which I thought Thank you! No longer will I have to dread opening my email! I am now free to seek out the kind of information that I want, instead of having it shoveled upon me.
This can and should be applied to other area of my life, as well. I am a huge fan of pruning Facebook (and real life, too) of people who I deem unfit for friendship: Negative Nancies, Rude Rubies, etc. I do not need these people to bring me down, as harsh as that might sound, and neither do you! :)
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