I have realized that we have a "sphere of concern" and a "sphere of influence" in our lives.
Our "sphere of influence" is our small group of people in our life and it includes the real things we can influence. It is our immediate circle. It is our "people." It is our community.
But our "sphere of concern" is the things we are ... well ... concerned with.
Truthfully, those spheres should line up. They should be similar. They should be almost the same.
But for me, my "sphere of concern" has gotten way TOO BIG.
I truly believe, in my own life, this is due to the power of social media. We are so inundated with so much of people's lives. If we lived one hundred years ago ... heck even twenty years ago ... this wouldn't be happening. But social medial brings up close to so much more.
Twenty years ago, I only stayed in touch with people who wanted to stay in touch with me, and I wanted to stay in touch with. Marginal people would fall off of our radar. We would hear about sadness but only the sadness we needed to hear about. Not the sadness that just made us ... sad.
I have decided to try and make these spheres the same. The same size. Covering the same things.
I can't stop it totally. But I am narrowing my focus. I have plenty to focus on within my "sphere of influence." It's enough for me. I am a feeling person. And I just can't handle how much I am being asked to feel when I let in too much.
I am going to be writing more about this in the coming days and months. It has really spoken to me, and I feel convicted to make a change. I can't completely get off of social media as we use it often with our farm, our non-profit organization, and the homeschooling group I review for.
But so many of my friends are stepping back. They are getting off of Facebook primarily. They are having the same epiphany I am.
I am going to try to hit "pause" a bit and majorly slow down what is coming in. I am going to be eliminating visiting the Facebook "feed". I am not going to be going to extra websites that don't feed my soul only burden it.
I am going to narrow my sphere.
More to come. I'm still processing.
4 comments:
Love this, Wendi, and support you 100%! Makes me wonder how much of this would be good for me to reevaluate in my own life!
100% support. Just to encourage you, I took a month off social media and honestly I am just barely get back into it. FB especially has completely lost it's allure. I don't want to judge, but for me, I use it or look @ it now only to laugh out loud or be encouraged or check "in" on those that I am really interested in and haven't been able to connect with. The rest doesn't get my attention. I don't have time and if I do, I want to spend it enlightened, intrigued, enjoying and positive. LIFE is harrrrrd enough, so that given choices, i refuse to spend them on negativity or others' insecurities, ego's or agenda's.
All that to say, once you lose the habit, I honestly don't think you'll be back except for need-to-know info, school or family/farm business. Always enjoy your blog and your bloggers xoC
I am 100% with you. I have gotten off of Facebook recently for the exact same reason. I need to be concerned with the people right around me who are my real life friends. As silly as this sounds, for me, I realized it was too much when I started praying for the people in books that I was reading (fiction books). I realized my brain had started to think that anyone I read about online, in blogs, Facebook and Instagram was asking for prayer and that translated to any reading. I know that sounds really silly but when you start praying for fictional people, you realize you are a little bombarded with the prayer requests from too many sources and you need to focus on the ones you touch each day.
Thank you Connie, and I absolutely agree with you. Completely.
Jennifer, thank you for sharing ... I think that is a fantastic observation.
Post a Comment