I look at emails about fifty times a day, I look at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin about twenty times a day, I read the news online, I check the weather (often rather than looking out the window) Skype, Whatsapp and text on my super iphone. The iphone – a portal to learning ANYTHING.
Ten year old me would be astounded by the amount of technology I engage in. Back then we had a family PC that practically took up a whole room, where we took it in turns to play a black and white version of Tetris. We also played tapes and experienced power cuts on a regular basis.
I’m part of Generation Y. Technology and me have grown up together. I think technology is incredible, it’s exciting, it allows for so much connectivity, and I’m all about connecting, reaching out and learning from each other.
But sometimes, I feel wired by it, my mind buzzes like a computer and I get migraines after long exposures to screens. I find myself working on my computer in one position for hours, ignoring the fact I need a cup of tea, or a wee…
I’ve developed a strategy in life whereby I regularly ‘check-in’ with myself to see how engaged with my authenticity I am at any current moment. When I do a check-in, and realise I’m totally plugged in and fixed to the spot on my computer I know it’s time to go back to basics.
And so I strip myself of my technology and I go out and run. Me, my keys, the sea to one side, the wind in my face. I just run, me and my body and my mind slowly releasing all the ‘charge’ that’s built up through being plugged-in to technology.
And I know that if I don’t do this, if I don’t unplug and get back to basics I burn out, I get ill, I get utterly de-motivated and I move so far away from who I really am at my core.
Getting rid of the technological clutter around us allows us to remember the stuff that really matters; the way we feel, what we dream of, and what life is really all about.
So what is life really about? This is where we struggle, we are almost brought up to believe that life is about getting a career, a family, earning enough money to pay for holidays. What is life for? Have we ever contemplated it? Or what I think happens is that we are on this conditioned treadmill, and we are so attached to it we don’t conceive of anything else. What is the sort of thing that helps us to step out of this track? maybe the sorts of questions coaches ask help us to conceive of another reality?. It gets us beyond how we are, and how we habitually see ourselves. In coaching these are called ‘powerful questions’ like asking ourselves, ‘what do i really want?’. When we use our imagination to think beyond where we normally are we enter new realms of experience. If you were to ask yourself what does me being 100% healthy look like, at the time you are imagining it you are even becoming it too. Perhaps the thing we need to do more than anything is to admit that our lives could be different. We have a problem with admitting this, we want to keep up with everyone else, we don’t want to appear lacking. But thats our thing, we are lacking. Admit the lack and stay with the lack, rather than pushing it under the carpet. We don’t like to stay with discomfort, but its about the only thing that works.
Agree! It’s so important to find the time to reconnect with ourselves and let the blue screen in the bag.
I came across these two amazing girls who launched Unplugged Weekend (http://www.unpluggedweekend.com). Keep it up!