Monday, June 1, 2015

Disconnect- A June Challenge

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Last night while flying home from Houston I was met with the most incredible and inspiring sunset. For forever long I have been memorized by beauty in the world, nature in particular. Searching and discovering eye-catching details in nature or beloved moments in time seem to as cliche as it sounds, take my breath away, and tend to leave me with thought-provoking ideas and refreshing inspirations. 

Before last night I had not a clue what to write about for this months challenge. I tossed around ideas of gratitude lists, fitness goals, and sleep schedules. I even considered topics on apologizing and budgeting. Maybe I should stop giving all my ideas out now so I have something to write about when my brain fog and me reunite. Also deemed as the mushy brain.

Yet as I sat at my window seat, pondering about writing this post, I turned my head and peered out the window of the plane only to be caught enjoying the moment; tuning into my inner voice and finding another gentle reminder of what I’ve been working on as of late—unplugging from the digital world. 

I know it sounds a bit contradicting. I blog. I push these words out in the cyber world and now ask to limit my time spent online. And yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. You see I noticed a funny phenomenon start to brew after owning a smartphone. A thing called instant gratification. This concept of instant relief of boredom. Instant one hit clicks and I’m caught up in what seemed like a glimpse of time but has now turned into twenty minutes. Not only minutes blown away but often times I can’t help watch others as well as myself grabbing our phones when we’re out with our friends and families. So not only do we lose out on embracing the present moment, we also send the message to the people we are with, you’re not good enough. Whether we intend it that way or not.

We’re also not curing ourselves of boredom when we scroll through a newsfeed or play on our devices. Instead we are undoubtedly reinforcing our already touchy tolerance to just sit with ourselves and be still. Letting our minds be with our bodies. Not in some mystical cyberland that creates an illusion of productiveness. 

So if you made it this far in this post I’d like to congratulate and thank you for listening to my long-winded and apparently passionate stance on this topic. As of exactly one week ago I disabled my Facebook app on my phone. Not because I have anything against this brilliant website that allows a connection no previous generation has experienced. Rather I needed to set some limits. It’s already been eye-opening as I catch myself picking up my phone with the urge to click on that tiny F. That’s not to say you have to do the same, and I’m not saying I can never look. I simply wanted to experiment with taking a break from the unconscious clicking monster I created starting with that one little app.

If you’d like to join me this month here is your challenge:

1) Limit yourself on your Internet/phone use. Create a goal that's challenging yet doable.

2) When you’re with other people at social functions do NOT browse on your phone. If you need to pick it up step out of the room.Yes, I'm asking this for the whole month. Yes I believe in you. If you see me doing this I am granting you permission in advance to knock my phone from my fingers. You're welcome, Kyle.

Let’s see what we discover about ourselves in the process. Can we live in the moment more? Can we learn more about ourselves? Have you ever tried something like this? I would love to hear what you discovered along the way. 

Oh and check out this hilarious and ever so clever video on why we need to give our phones a break HERE. 

Good luck! XO 

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