by James L. Rubart, @jameslrubart
Our minds weren’t designed to handle this.
More importantly, our hearts weren’t designed to handle this.
What’s the “this”?
- The constant barrage of news stories crafted to get our blood boiling.
- The constant posts on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter showing how everyone else’s lives are going a bit better (or a lot better) than ours.
- The shouting and name calling on both sides of the political aisle.
I could go on (and on and on) but you get the point.
But do you (and I) get the point enough to do something about it?
At the end of this past summer, Darci (my wife) and I hiked up to an alpine lake early on a Friday morning. It was drop dead gorgeous. And peaceful. And soul filling.
As we started our way back down the trail Darci said, “I needed this. Needed to get away from all the chaos. It makes me realize I’ve allowed myself to get so caught up in so much garbage and pettiness going on in the world these days … all things that I can do nothing about! And it’s draining the life out of me. This (she gestured around us) is live giving.”
She’s right. So right.
It’s time to unplug, friends. Get out. Get into nature where the cell towers aren’t lording over you, where the internet doesn’t have a stranglehold on your brain.
One more quick point, then a challenge
I was talking to my friend, Kevin a few months ago about the onslaught of information and how it sucks the life out of me.
He paused for a second, then said, “Why don’t you stop?”
“Stop what?”
“Reading the news.” He paused again. “I’ve been news-sober for two months now and it’s glorious. If something is truly critical, someone will tell me about it. But this way I don’t have to digest all the garbage, and guess what? My creativity has shot up ten-fold. My brain isn’t full of all the dreck I used to pump into it on a daily basis.”
After that conversation, I started weaning myself off the sensational stories on social media and the stress inducing stories on the news.
Turns out my friend is right. Less stress. More peace. More creativity.
My Challenge
One day a week, stay off Facebook or Twitter or whatever your drug of choice is. Stay off the news. Just one day. Then, go for two days a week. Then three.
It’s time to do a better job of guarding our hearts.
How Do You Stand Up for Yourself When It Means Losing Everything? Allison Moore is making it. Barely. The Seattle architecture firm she started with her best friend is struggling, but at least they’re free from the games played by the corporate world. She’s gotten over her divorce. And while her dad’s recent passing is tough, their relationship had never been easy. Then the bomb drops. Her dad was living a secret life and left her mom in massive debt. As Allison scrambles to help her mom find a way out, she’s given a journal, anonymously, during a visit to her favorite coffee shop. The pressure to rescue her mom mounts, and Allison pours her fears and heartache into the journal. But then the unexplainable happens. The words in the journal, her words, begin to disappear. And new ones fill the empty spaces—words that force her to look at everything she knows about herself in a new light. Ignoring those words could cost her everything . . . but so could embracing them.
James L. Rubart is 28 years old, but lives trapped inside an older man’s body. He thinks he’s still young enough to water ski like a madman and dirt bike with his two grown sons. He’s the best-selling, Christy BOOK of the YEAR, CAROL, INSPY, and RT Book Reviews award winning author of ten novels and loves to send readers on journeys they’ll remember months after they finish one of his stories. He’s also a branding expert, audiobook narrator, co-host of the Novel Marketing podcast, and co-founder with his son, Taylor, of the Rubart Writing Academy. He lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in Washington state.