Beyond the Buzz: Notifications in the Modern World
A week ago I woke up with this spiritual notification.
Ding.
Buzz.
Pop.
«Glances down at his smartwatch»
Swipe.
Okay, I’m still here.
Based on the 10,000 hours rule, I want to claim expertise in notifications.
I think we all can.
Then why are they so hard for me to manage?
We are constantly getting notifications.
I want to list out as many of the notifications I receive in a day.
But that sounds boring.
So just imagine for a moment, all the types of notifications you get.
I’m guessing that MOST of those are either unimportant, or extremely unimportant.
Of the few that are important, only a tiny amount actually need us to respond to.
I’m going to loosely categorize these notifications into three groups:
External, Internal, and Spiritual.
This is by no means exhaustive and many of these are going to overlap.
External Notifications
These are the notifications we generally think of when we hear “Notification.”
They are generated outside of ourselves by manmade devices or contraptions.
These are the conversation killers.
The distraction feeders.
We react to them far too quickly.
We are trained by the systems to respond.
Emails. Texts. Comments. Likes. Status. Etc.
These are generally unhelpful in the moment.
I really don’t need to know right now when someone comments on a post that I liked.
I can wait to know that a email was received, especially the unsolicited ones.
On and on.
On and on.
I’m sure you have a short-list of these type of notifications that drive you crazy.
They are everywhere.
They are consistent.
With a bit of work, they can be silenced.
It may require you to go into each application and customize it.
Each system will be slightly different.
I thought I had this down, until I started getting Facebook Group notifications again.
I have had to go into each group and remove notifications.
I generally only want to see Social Media notifications when I’m actively using it.
These must be actively managed to get a hold of our lives.
Some of these notifications are important.
Phone call/text from your child in need.
Beeps telling you your blood sugar levels are too low.
Emergency notification when you have been injured or unresponsive.
You see these are the exception.
What have you done to help wrangle the modern notification systems?
Internal Notifications
These are your body’s notification systems.
They play an important role in staying healthy.
Physically and Emotionally.
While I have separated these out, they are closely linked.
Physical
Need to use the bathroom?
Feeling tired?
Hungry?
Pain?
Physical notifications our body uses to regulate our system.
We often skew these notifications with behaviors and chemicals.
Overeating.
Drug Use.
Pain Medicine.
Office work (aka sitting at a desk all day).
Extreme exercise.
And so many others
What have you seen in your life and those around you?
I’ve struggled with listening to these.
I’ve pushed them away for so long that they get ignored by default.
I’m working on listening.
Emotional
Feeling sad?
Feeling happy?
Feeling awkward?
Feeling disgusted?
Feeling scared?
Do you still feel these emotions?
Or are you quick to numb these emotions?
When we try to numb the bad emotions, we numb the good ones too.
I was stuck in that state for awhile.
It’s a strategy I’ve employed for many years.
It keeps me from having to take ownership of how I feel.
This strategy doesn’t work.
It actually doesn’t just go away.
It gets stuck in a backlog of sorts.
Until something small causes all of them to come out at once.
An outburst of emotional notifications.
Emotional notifications are best processed immediately.
I’m not saying to physically react to these immediately.
But to allow ourselves to feel what we are feeling.
I’m still trying to understand and process this myself.
Do you have a process to help with your emotional notifications?
Spiritual Notifications
This is the inspiration we receive.
From my experience, these come in a myriad of ways.
They come to everyone a little different.
When we recognize and act on them we flourish.
Impressions.
These come into our heart or mind as:
Words.
Images.
Insights.
Ideas.
Faces.
Desires.
Dreams.
How many times have you heard of an artist being inspired by a dream?
I would love to harness my dreams for creative uses.
I often wake up with a dream that I think would be an amazing movie.
I haven’t developed the skills yet to record them in a way that could be helpful.
There’s too many missing pieces when I try to recall it.
Do you record your dreams in some way?
Tender Mercies.
These are the moments in life that you feel the Divine orchestrating in your behalf.
Things, events, people, line up in perfect harmony.
These are often only seen after the fact.
David A. Bednar defined these as:
“very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ.”
What other ways do you receive spiritual notifications?
Closing
Managing all these notifications can become daunting.
But removing the noise and focusing on the truly important is key to our creativity.
Be ready to receive that inspiration.
Go find it.
Thank you for this fresh look on notifications. I try to limit my electronic (external) ones but hadn't considered how I could pay even more attention to spiritual, emotional, and internal ones.
"But to allow ourselves to feel what we are feeling." This is something I'm trying to learn right now. It's been my habit to ignore my feelings. I tell myself I'll deal with it later and power through. Not exactly a healthy way to deal with things.