I just took a four-day vacation from the online world. Nearly no texts or calls, (only a 30 min interval, once a day, mostly for my mother's sanity. :-)..) absolutely no Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Blogging. And if people missed me during my window of phone time, they had to leave a voice-mail.
This sounds severe for some people, especially those insanely busy people who imagine that they could 'never have enough time' to tap out. And certainly, for, say, parents of small children who are away, or on-call doctors, I'd imagine that it would be nearly impossible. For the rest of us, the childless, the parents of adult children, the jobless, the work-from-home types, and the strictly scheduled 9to5ers, etc, a day or two offline might not be as impossible as you think. If you are plugged into ANY kind of social media network, and yes that includes YouTube, you have pockets of time that you could be spending unwinding. Even if the networking is supposedly for your business, that is what they make social media manager websites for.
Hootsuite is a good example, if you need to know where to find one. And it's free.
Otherwise, work-relations aside, every once in awhile, it is definitely possible to unplug. Maybe you can't do a whole four days. I get that. I'm a lot freer with my time than some people. I also spent that time doing work that didn't require me to be online. However, a day or two without electronic communication with the outside world will not cause your business to crumble. Your adult child probably wont die from irresponsibility and need you to bail them out of jail (although I say PROBABLY here...). If they DO go to jail on your weekend to self, a day or two in the slammer might teach them a lesson anyway.
Also, you can set up the parameters yourself. I turned my phone on once in the middle of the day, and then again before bed to check my voice-mail If there WAS an emergency, (which there wasn't) I could totally break my offline vacation to handle it. Basically, your vacation, your rules.
Now, some of you may be wondering why I would recommend such a vacation in a busy, hurried society such as ours. This is the day of INSTANT. Who has time to wait? WE do. We all do. We are all given time, when we are born. And as we age, we become responsible for that 'time' we were given. Your time does not do more than my time. It's all the same time. But the point some of us miss, is that WE decide what to do with it.
"I just don't have the time."
"I'm running out of time."
"I just can't make time for things that don't matter."
"I'll do that when I have some extra time."
Seems like in this day and age, with so many technological advances meant to make our lives more convenient, we are busier than ever. But the irony is that, you definitely do have the time. You have all the time. It is yours. And you never get any 'extra.' Running out of time implies death... Let that one go. It's all about what matters to you.
Now, these studies also show that our need to hound these sites arise from boredom, and a need to connect with the world. But for many of us, the appearance of social continuity in other people's lives, gives us pause when evaluating our own. Basically, a lot of people's pages and profiles look more interesting than their actual lives. And we find it hard not to compare ourselves.
This is where the offline vacation comes in.
Imagine that you didn't check your phone every ten minutes to make sure that it didn't 'ping' without you knowing. Or that you made it all the way to the kitchen for coffee, outside for the newspaper, and back to your comfy couch, without once worrying that 'so and so' didn't respond to your missed call two minutes ago. TWO MINUTES AGO!
This world is real. You don't have to imagine it. It's the life of the unplugged person.
On day 1 of my vacation, I was sorely tempted to 'just peek' at my sites. I kept looking at my phone, but reminded myself that it was on airplane mode, and that while people knew where I was, I wasn't going to hear from them. It was self-imposed isolation, and on day 1, it made me a little itchy-antsy.
On day 2, I made just enough use of my 30 minute interval to plan a date with a friend the next day. Phone off required us both to be punctual, and off we went; light, easy fun. And not once did I check my phone. I actually forgot about it until I heard the familiar 'dead battery' beep.
Day 3 was much like day 2. And day 4, I left the phone on, but simply ignored it for most of the day. I felt much less of an urge to check it.
Thus, my vacation, and my experiment, was a success.
Here's what I accomplished and learned.
- I hadn't been alone with my own thoughts in a loooong time. There's a lot of stuff up there I have been neglecting for being busy.
- I hadn't been responsible for entertaining myself in a long time either. I caught up on some reading, and had some peaceful meditation moments.
- Self-imposed isolation is beautiful, because it feels like making time for yourself. Imagined isolation (IE, why hasn't anybody responded to my text in the last 30 minutes) feels awful, because it feels like being ignored.
- Thus, unplugging taught me to send my words, wishes, and connections out into the world, but not be as concerned about when they are fulfilled or returned. Everything in due time.
- There was a wonderful chair I purchased for my living room, that I never got to sit in. What is the point of making a space beautiful and serene, if you are only going to ignore it?
- Being still can teach you a lot about yourself.
- Food is best eaten when your focus is only on the food. Not the computer, cell phone, or TV screen.
- The Tao of Pooh is a quaint, wonderful book, whether you are a practicing Taoist or not.
- The Dalai Lama is a genius.
The last two things I mentioned are from things I read during my vacation. They opened the door for all the Zen moments I had.
I read the Tao of Pooh, a book that relates Taoist teachings to the Winnie-the-Pooh characters in a tongue-in-cheek, yet still enlightening manner. I immediately felt like a different person after reading the book. Not every person who reads it will get the same message, I'm sure. But I felt calmer, and more willing to be harmonious with the natural rhythm of this Universe.
I also came across two quotes by the current Dalai Lama (Dalai Lama XIV). They were simple quotes, that read:
"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."
"What I believe, according to my own experience, is that a calm, peaceful mind is a very important element for sustaining the body in a balanced way."
When I read these quotes, they spoke volumes to me. The first one is usually quoted to refer to the openness of religion. But for the sake of my vacation, it took on a new meaning. I am the center of my faith, of my purpose. Whether or not God is real, it is if I choose to believe in the Creator that matters. Also, my belief is that His presence is within me, as it is in all living things. If this is true, then I must be willing to take time to study and worship within the temple of myself. Being plugged in all the time hinders that natural process. It keeps us focused on the outward, the rest of the world, with no energy to look inward.
The second quote is much more self explanatory, but it touched me all the same. Anything I could hope to achieve in life, anything I want to do with my 'time,' must first come from a calm, and peaceful mind. And there is not much calm to be had in the busy-bee world of social networking.
So, I recommend the occasional un-plugging for sanity. If my weekend is any reflection of what an evenly un/plugged life can be, it will open the door for peace, self-reflection, soul-searching, and of course, discovery.
Peace, Loves.
