I’ve charged the battlefields of social media.

Like Napoleon, ideas blazing, team prepped, ready to conquer the algorithm.

And each time I have retreated.

White flag in hand, head hung low.

I became curious about this struggle.

After all, it is the new marketplace.

In the past it would have been the equivalent of hanging the most beautifully carved sign above my storefront to attract attention.

But this new market is not the same.

It has become a contest for attention.

Offering a service has become secondary; stealing time is the real game. People post to validate themselves, and your attention is what they're after.

And that’s ok.

Here's why I struggle: What I teach is destructive. Controversial by nature.

I know that doesn't sound great… until you ask, destructive to what?

To our blind spots.

To the beliefs propping up the fallacies of our suffering.

Which are safely tucked away in the depths of our psyche.

My work is to break through those defenses, with ninja-like finesse, and free the hostage inside.

 An expansive you – self-expression itself.

And this is the problem with social media.

To win the visibility war, you have to follow the ALGORITHM.

You have to TREND.

You need to say what’s already popular.

…reinforce what people already believe.

But I’m trying to free them from those fixed beliefs. I want them to lift their heads from the muddy puddle and see the horizon of possibility.

How do you tell someone they’re trapped when they don’t think they are?

Or someone who knows there’s more to life, but thinks redecorating the prison of their neurological patterns is the escape?

Then it became obvious to me: The trending algorithms are just a digital replica of our own neurology.

We develop these neural networks in our brains, by making meaning from experiences, categorizing things as good or bad, right or wrong.

This network of beliefs then becomes programmed like these algorithms.

Sifting through rights and wrongs and categorizing matches to our existing beliefs.

We project those fixed beliefs onto our lives, reinforcing them. Then we spend our time subconsciously, automatically, defending these existing beliefs.

And we don’t even know we’re doing it.

Defending these beliefs is one of humanity’s strongest biogenic traits…

We do it because it’s vital for belonging. 

If we constantly changed beliefs, we might not align with the beliefs of the tribe.

And then?

Well we’re Sh*# out of luck. 

We’d have to find a new tribe.

It's a loyalty coding.

When we defend, with our sweat and fury, a political party or principle, we’re acting out that loyalty coding.

Lining up with our tribe, shoulder to shoulder with our compatriots.

We don’t even know why we’re yelling at the TV screen. We just “feel” empowered to do so.

For me to succeed on social media, I’d have to reinforce what people already believe.

That’s like adding an extra guard to the prison exit of our minds.

A zoologist once told me: Even in confinement, the zoo becomes home to the animals.

If I opened the cage to “freedom,” it would be startling for the animals. 

They don’t want to find a new home.

You see we get used to the familiar, even if it’s not great.

Safer in our suffering than venturing into the unknown, even if it’s infinitely more beautiful.

It’s like that empowerment seminar I was just at: It was a room full of repeat visitors, chanting the matra of self-love.

But needing to attain something, means you don’t have it.

The act of reaching… reaffirms the void.

If the dark recess of my subconscious didn’t keep me from the light, I wouldn’t need to seek it.

It’s like begging for what I’m rejecting.

Therefore, making a pastime out of seeking self-love can, counterintuitively, reinforce the subconscious belief that you don’t like yourself.

It holds the loop of “brokenness” in place.

For me to make a splash in the realm of social media I would need to tell people what they want to hear.

Regarding this subject it would be that they need to find self-love.

But how can you search for what you are? The searching leads you away from it.

Love IS the void.

Try putting that out on social media…

Algorithms reinforce patterns, behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs. 

The algorithms are a mirror of our neurology – which we’re entangled in. 

And now we’re even more entangled with this replica of it in the metaverse.

In my travels, I’ve heard indigenous cultures describe this phenomenon as being “in a constant state of sleep.”

 As a human being, on an individual level, the only true measure of growth is consistent adaptability.

 The ability to shift, to pivot. 

The ability to have malleable patterns, beliefs, and behaviors. 

Not being fixed.

Because in that flexibility you realize you are not those patterns.

From one angle.realizing, and admitting that we have biases and loops is the hardest thing we can do.

Because it threatens the security of knowing “who” we are and where we belong.

By moving gently, we can expand, while knowing our patterns and loops exist.

By understanding why we have them and where they come from. We can bring them into the light, and look at them objectively, without threatening the defense mechanism that is our psyche.

On the other hand, we can find peace in the humility of not always being right.

Because each time we don’t defend the already existing belief of our psyche, the power it has over us diminishes.

Letting go of our resistance unlocks the “cell” door.

Observe throughout your day what gets the attention of your mind, what it’s sure about, what it knows it believes in and what it rejects.

This will lead you to the Zen mindset of “only don’t know.”

Gratefully,

Paul