SO Many Inputs

Hands up if you are part of the generation who remembers how complicated it was to figure out how to hook up your VCR to your TV set.  I remember how excited I was the day I had a TV and VCR to myself and how quickly that excitement faded when I looked at the back of both devices and all of the potential inputs and cables and realized that I would need to make sense of it all.  And sure, both machines came with instructions, but really, who reads those? Trial and error commenced and resulted in many different outcomes - a picture with no sound, sound but no picture, sound with black and white picture and of course, no video or audio display.  Finally after many different combinations of inputs and outputs (including many interesting expletives) like magic, it all came together.

Why do I share this journey down memory lane with you today?  I have been noticing lately just how many inputs I have been receiving about life, and how similar this experience is to the TV and VCR one above.

Unlike the audio-visual puzzle I faced in my youth, life has no instructions, so even if I wanted to stop and read a how-to manual, I simply can't.  Instead I find myself being provided prompts and nudges from many sources about how to improve this, or hack that or obtain something that apparently is worth striving for.  Many of these cues come from social media channels and are based upon algorithms around topics I may have looked into (running, for example) and some seem to be completely random (anyone else receive numerous messages about increasing flexibility with the aim of doing the splits during the pandemic?).  Without an instruction manual it is up to me to decide which of these inputs is worth looking at or trying to incorporate and which is safe to leave out.  Not an easy task.

Thinking back to the TV example, imagine if there was a cable in every input and output jack that is available to use.  Would that make it work better than simply using the one cable that makes the most sense for your situation?  I think not, and having tried to use too many cables at once in my TV I feel that I speak with some knowledge about this.  So what if we try to apply the same logic to life?  What would it feel like to remove some of the inputs and narrow things down to the ones that really matter to our personal situation?  Would we have a clearer picture and feel more in tune with the messages that we are receiving?

Back to the idea of life not having an instruction manual - perhaps it is our work to create this for ourselves.  Maybe it is the work we do through journalling, taking time to reconnect with ourselves, moving our bodies and being in the world that actually writes our instruction manual for us.  The clarity that we open ourselves up to through these actions might be exactly what is needed to help us determine which input to plug into. 



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