YouTube Divination: Practice 1

When I listen long enough, I hear what exactly what I need to hear.

After 32 years of experience in this time-blind, pattern-recognizing, half-dreaming human form (thanks Narcolepsy/ADHD/Bipolar/Recovering Hippie/Multi-media Artist gods), I have come to know that the universe has a strange way of serving up exactly what I need, exactly when I need it, as long as I’m listening. Like a dream revealing our unconscious desires and showing us in symbolic forms and encoded stories. I could compile an encyclopedia of synchronicities at this point, seriously.

The Practice:

I typically start my day with a strong cup of coffee, protein bar, and a youtube video. 2 years ago I noticed that YouTube occasionally recommended some wildly unrelated video on my homepage that happened to be uncannily aligned with something I was wrestling with in that moment. Or that I might click on something I wouldn’t normally care about, and it would answer whatever existential/identity-crisis question I had written down in my journal just moments earlier. And I can’t explain it away with the algorithms because they are always new creators I’ve never seen before, and/or regarding topics I had never, or rarely, shown any interest in. Unbelievable, right?

So I’ve made a daily* ritual of this. Each morning, I scroll the recommended feed until something catches my eye. Importantly: I don’t pick what I think is right based on usefulness, time, routine, etc. In fact, if I find myself making even the slightest negative mental assessment (this isn’t useful; I don’t know them; looks too woowoo), that’s usually a sign that my unconscious self is drawn to it and my brain is trying to protect me by rejecting it as some outdated defense mechanism against “non-productivity” or impulsivity*.

Instead, I listen, knowing my heart will whisper its wish to me quietly, and I click on that. Then magic happens.

Since I’ve come to expect these synchronous messages, they’ve only increased. Don’t ask me how that works - I just know it does for me, and it has become a quintessential part of my practice as a listener and an artist. When I listen long enough, I hear exactly what I need to hear.

I invite you to try this practice - for a week, a month. Ask your unconscious what it wants you to know, and you might just be surprised by what you hear.

*ADHD’s version of daily…

*ADHD shame trauma…apparently I should write a blog post about ADHD