An empty shell from defining ourselves by our outside life

It’s never been easier to lose our center and seek to find it in things outside ourselves.

Within seconds of picking up a device, we can desperately grab onto whatever digital anesthesia is available to help us feel more fulfilled and less alone.

Isn’t that what those perfectly targeted advertisements remind us of? That these objects can fill us up inside and become whatever is missing.

The problem is, the half life of this imitation medication is relatively short. It might work for a few hours, days or even months.

But eventually we’ll feel a loss of connection with self. The soul will howl in protest as we try to solve the project of meaning by attaching ourselves to one more outer experience in an attempt not to feel so alone and lost.

A friend of mine once told me that we should use technology to greatly enhance our lives, but technology should not be our lives.

That’s a helpful distinction. We can check ourselves by honestly asking the following question:

Is this tool meant to enhance my pleasure, or be the source of it?

If too many of our answers point towards the latter, that’s how we know the tool is a problem.

In my songwriting process, for example, tools like streaming music, sound recorders and looping machines enhance my capacity to be inspired and create new music.

But when the time comes to perform a concert, it’s just me and the guitar. My identity as an artist isn’t wrapped up in those digital objects outside myself. The show goes on whether there is internet access or not.

Call me a purist, but my relationship with technology supports and enhances my overall experience of creativity. The music comes from within, not without, and that source of power will outlast anything plugged in outside of me.

Wooten, the great bass player and music teacher, says that the music is inside of the player, not the instrument. The artist tells their story not with their instrument, but through it.

Whether you think of yourself as an artist or not, stay away from reaching for objects outside yourself for a sense of grounding.

Create meaningful rituals to help you identify a stable place within.

If you abandoned the frantic pursuit of an external object of happiness, how might your daily routine change?