Choosing presence in a noisy world

As I grow older, I find myself increasingly longing to disconnect from the noise. The carefully curated social media feeds, opinionated journalists, endless sales, and the blaring audio on the memes that have strangely become a form of communication.

I’ve found myself consumed by that noise too. The deafening roars of what I shouldor should not be doing as a woman, a mum, a business owner, and everything else in between become harder to gloss over. Somehow, if I let the noise get too loud, too often, I’m never quite enough at anything.

So I disconnect, in order to reconnect- in person, in real life, and with myself. There is so much joy in being fully present in our lives, yet we are constantly distracted by notifications, phone calls, buzzing watches, and live-streamed videos. We were not designed to be “on” all the time.

I’ve had a lifelong love of words for as long as I can remember. If I’m not writing, I’m usually reading. Writing helps me make sense of the world, process emotions, and express myself. Yet the noise stopped me from doing the thing I love most. I let myself be steered off course and away from the commitment I made to myself at the start of the year, to write more.

So here I am, sitting in my freezing cold garage, tapping away at my lightly iced keyboard as I use this time to reconnect and make sense of the noise, or not, as the case may be. Both are valid.

As we approach the long-awaited festive season, this time of year becomes noisy for different reasons. Loss makes this season bittersweet and emotionally loaded. The reminders of the holes in our lives and hearts stare back at us louder each year.

There is something about the beautiful memories rooted in family and tradition that prompts me to lean into gratitude (for being able to make such lasting memories) while also kicking me in the stomach with the fragility and cruelty that life can deal us at the very same time.

If life feels noisy for you right now too, this is an invitation to disconnect from the pings and reminders, and instead surrender to presence above all else. Communicate in words with loved ones instead of reels and memes. Dive into a good book. Finish that passion project that’s been abandoned in favour of doom-scrolling.

Sometimes all our hearts and minds truly need is less.

Less is, quite often, gives us much more.