In the last post Self Sabotage New Moon I vowed to take a weekend off from passive entertainment including the internet, social media, reading, listening to recorded voice or radio, and watching TV.
This proved to be a very difficult endeavor. But I am glad I did it all the same.
First I will describe the benefits of the media diet and second I will admit all the ways in which I cheated.
So there is something about taking a couple days off of social media and all that.
Life has more space.
It kind of reminds me of my youth when I didn’t have all these distractions—before I got a game boy and when tv was too boring to watch, on vacation with no internet or cell service and I could only read so much in a day anyway.
It reminded me that it is possible to pay full attention to people we are with, that life can be done one thing at a time.
Without passive entertainment, the easiest thing I can think of for killing time is meditating.
Every time someone with me checked their phone or I felt that pull myself, I would be struck with a thought like —oh yeah, wow it’s so weird.
Weird to want to keep checking, weird not to.
I’d look out the window instead and just observe the reality around me.
Here are all the admitted ways in which I cheated:
I scheduled multiple posts for every day, so I did still have a media presence.
Friday was reallly hard. As the first day I unplugged I got off to a bad start immediately.
Having a phone that likes to update me about everything in my online universe I quickly realized that there was an outstanding invitation from a friend, actually a couple that I should really respond to ASAP.
This got me facebooking and then I quickly began to do specific practical things online but not requiring much reading like approving Triberr posts and scheduling acupuncture.
I had a peek at my emails to see if there was anything good by the titles. Not much.
I didn’t do any reading…that is until I got settled in a cafe and read over instructions to fill out third quarter documents.
I was doing my 3rd quarterly planning and I needed to check stats for social media, websites, etc That’s what really got me into trouble as I couldn’t help but repost a status (and leave one) on facebook as well as responding to my personal messages on twitter.
I love social media. Too much.
Friday I was so bad! My boyfriend gave me crap for it as well as for stubbornly refusing to not watch tv.
That’s when I learned that cutting passive entertainment is a great time to sit with unsettled feelings and to get into fights.
Saturday:
Better. I left my cellphone alone for the most part
Had in person entertainment to distract me. Went to the gym.
Decided that tarot reading doesn’t count as reading even if I look at my tarot book.
Not quite sure why that is ok, but it feels ok.
Sunday and Monday evening I broke down and started watching tv. Television has become such a social activity.
And it was the season finale of Game of Thrones.
On the plus side Monday night I really enjoyed Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a documentary on the oldest cave drawings found in France.
Monday I shamelessly went into my email and responded to personal communications.
If I did all of this while cheating, how much passive entertainment do I normally do?
A lot. I’m one of those people
I normally pull out a book for a one minute grocery line.
I check my texts at a stop light.
I listen to webinars for every drive.
I eat while learning from audio or video classes.
I read to sleep and when I wake up.
I create reasons to use social media or check emails probably ten times a day.
So this was a good exercise for me. I will continue the challenge of avoiding passive entertainment….
So yeah sorry for getting back late.
Love
Sofia Wren.
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Yikes! Not sure what would be harder – giving up social media or chocolate!