How do you feel when you hear the word unplug? Does the thought of a one day media fast send you into a cold sweat? How about two days? A week? Just to be clear, when I refer to media I'm talking about the whole enchilada--phone, internet, social media, TV, movies, newspapers, books and articles. Are you starting to get the shakes like someone going through major withdrawals? Eye twitches. Cold sweats. Dry mouth. Muscles tensing up.
Or, are you on the flip side?
Where just the thought of going one day or several days without an invisible leash feels like you drew the prized Get Out of Jail Free card? Does it feel exhilarating, freeing, and beyond comprehension amazing? Does your body feel less stressed? Can you breathe easier? Do your eyes, mouth and jaw feel more relaxed? Does your inner voice coach you up saying you got this?
Most people have slowly had technology and social media move into their lives like a mist. It builds and builds, gets thicker and thicker and before you know it you can't see through it. You've somehow become accustomed to the haze.
This became a point of discussion recently in one of the group's I was facilitating. About half the group was ready and willing to experience this media-detox. The other half of the group couldn't even comprehend it nor did they think they could do it.
At first many of the students took media-detox to mean just the News and TV. I said no, no, no. Not so fast. Media means all of it. This clarification made things much more interesting, to say the least.
A few years ago I taught weekly yoga classes focused around gentle, restorative and beginner movements. Class always started off with a quote or passage that made for a practice theme or intention. My sources typically ranged from The Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali or a beautiful quote I had recently read that I wanted to share.
The universal messages tended towards gentle reminders to go within to find the answers. This seems simple, yet what do most of us do? We constantly look outside of ourselves for just the right "thing" that will fix us, another person or a difficult situation.
This mis-identification is often times referred to in Sanskrit as 'maha moha' or "the great delusion." As humans we have heard this many, many times so why is it so hard to look within and seek the answers?
Why can't we trust ourselves to make good decisions? Why can't we simply unplug from the outer world and embrace the calm, centering force within?
In one word: habit.
It's a habit ingrained into us starting from the time we were young. Seek out guidance from authority figures. They know what's best. Don't question your elders.
Perhaps that worked for our ancestors, but many of us are questioning such logic.
Lucky for us all habits can be changed with conscious awareness. It takes some time, but it's worthy of our effort. Do it as if your life depends on it because it does!
I was recently reading about Henry David Thoreau in Susan Cheever's book American Bloomsbury. It's hard to comprehend, but she points out that during his lifetime Walden sold less than 300 copies. It cost him more to publish it than it ever profited. It would be another century before his book was rediscovered and became an instant classic.
One theory is that more people were living close to the land in the late 1830's/early 1840's than in today's time.
So, being amongst nature like he was intentionally doing wasn't that far off from many people's way of life. Thoreau was commonly considered an eccentric genius and was known as being more fond of the woods and creatures than contemporary living.
However, it was pointed out that Thoreau was viewed as quite odd by many of his contemporaries by living completely off the land. His home was 10 feet wide by 15 feet long.
He purchased the wood for the frame, built the table, desk and chairs. Made or bought the few necessities he would need including bed, plates, bowls, utensils, cups, etc... for a grand total of $28 and 12 1/2 cents.
Add to this mixture, the fact that he was a vegetarian. So his meals were quite simple to say the least. Later, he looked back at this 2 year break from society as the most fulfilling and deeply satisfying of his life.
He was not immersed by the politics, gossip and hubbub of the typical everyday life of the mid-19th century. His life embraced and flowed with the natural rhythms of the day and the season's.
Is it any wonder that many people in current times quote from or refer to Walden as one of the greatest naturalist memoir's every written?
We have moved ever so methodically away from nature as our supplier and more towards technology. The longing for the connection to simpler times is on the rise whether we are conscious of it or not.
Here, the benefits of unplugging and media-detoxing are brought back into play. I could cite statistics about how wonderfully your life will improve if you were to trim back.
However, I am forever the believer in experiential learning. Humans learn best through experiencing life themselves. So, I pose a question to you.
Can you unplug for one whole day?
Turn the phone off, don't worry about social media or the TV and wait a day to read anything in print. At the end of the night I bet you have a very restful nights sleep with the added benefit of going to bed at a decent hour with a more calm, centered mind.
Let me know how the detox goes...
Here's to living fully and flourishing!
With love and light,
💛
Joanna
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