Is Your Information Diet Poisoning You?
Information is a form of food.
It’s food for your consciousness (food for thought).
Now be honest with yourself. Is your “information diet” healthy?
What’s the energy around the information you consume?
What’s the intention behind the information you consume?
Most people consume the equivalent of junk food 24/7. Scrolling social media is like munching on snacks all day. Celebrity gossip is like candy. The news is like drinking soda.
Compare that to a good book, or a heartfelt interview, which are like healthy, satisfying meals.
Just like food, the quality of the information you consume matters… A LOT.
But wait! There’s more!
Constant Consumption
If you eat nonstop, that’s not healthy either.
Your body needs time to metabolize the food you eat. And sometimes you need to fast for a bit to detox and reset your system.
The same goes for information.
If you consume information 24/7, you’ll develop information overwhelm (the equivalent of obesity), no matter how high quality the information is. Because you’re not giving yourself the space to process the information, it overwhelms your system.
That’s why “information overwhelm” is so common right now. In fact, for most people, information overwhelm has become their default (without them even realizing it).
Personal Development Junkies
Some of the biggest information consumers are personal development junkies.
These are the people who are obsessed with improving themselves.
Their obsession with personal development often leads to over-consuming information. They fill every moment of free time with books, podcasts, videos, courses, etc.
Even if they seek out the highest quality information, it’s the equivalent of eating 10 healthy dinners per day. Sure, it’s a healthy meal, but that amount is not good for you.
Less is More
Most people understand that more food doesn’t equate to more health. There’s a balance, a dynamic sweet spot, that results in optimal health.
Yet with information, most haven’t realized this yet. Like with food, a healthy balance of information is needed to achieve what you want.
If you want to start a business, sure you need to learn some principles and strategies, but less than you think. People read dozens of business books and listen to hundreds of podcast episodes before they take ANY action. This creates a trap of knowing a lot, and regurgitating other people’s knowledge, without really gaining your own wisdom.
This phenomenon happens in every area of life: personal development, finance, health, relationships, etc.
With diet, the ideal is to eat enough healthy food to satiate you, then give yourself time to digest.
The same goes for information. You’re better off reading about one concept, then contemplating it, then implementing it.
But just like with junk food, our monkey mind wants to snack on information all day. The cheap information gives us quick dopamine hits, and it’s tempting.
Resist the temptation.
The Source of Information
It goes even deeper.
With nutrition, it’s unproven that people can survive without food (though some claim to).
However, we can survive without consuming content created by other people. That’s for sure.
Metabolizing food is an outside-in process. You intake food from the external world then digest it.
With metabolizing information, it’s best as an inside-out process. This means following your inner guidance, letting it bring you to the places, situations, people and information you need to grow.
We all have access to inner wisdom and intuition.
There are some things we just KNOW, even when there’s no evidence given to our physical senses.
To access your intuition and unlock your inner wisdom, you need to create SPACE for yourself.
This means limiting your external stimuli — especially external information — letting yourself be, and noticing what emerges.
Practices like meditation, journaling, exercise, walking outside, and sitting in nature are some of the best ways to create space for yourself and receive intuitive insights.
We all have aspects of ourselves that transcend physical reality. And you access it all by going within.
Because of this, you need to consume far less information than you think.
Know thyself, and let everything blossom from there.
Information Alchemy
Want to upgrade your relationship with information?
That’s what my new book Information Alchemy is all about.
Information Alchemy is based on seven principles to help you reclaim your attention and create meaningful work in the world.
It’s all about being intentional with your information consumption (treating it like a form of diet) and creating more space in your life for divine inspiration to flow.
Do any of these sound like you?
You're always reading and learning things to grow personally and/or spiritually
You want to spend less time scrolling social media
You feel distracted and overwhelmed a lot
You want to be more creative
You want to apply and embody knowledge (not just memorize and repeat things)
You have a deep sense of purpose and want to create things that matter
Those are all addressed (in detail) in Information Alchemy.
You can purchase it here: Information Alchemy
Much love,
Stephen Parato
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