Step Away From the Phone

Sleeping late used to be one of the great pleasures of my life. Now, for the first time in my life, I appear to be utterly incapable of staying in bed past 7am. It's usually earlier.  The day after Christmas, a day on which I did not have to go to work, I might add, found me hopelessly awake at 5am.

Always one to try and make the best of things, I said, "Okay. You've been trying to make more space for stillness (meditation, prayer etc). Here's your opportunity..."

It started well enough. I began with gratitude. This is a practice I've been cultivating as well. I silently expressed gratitude for a nice Christmas, for the people I love and for the fact that my household appeared to have survived the wretched stomach bug.

Then, I got into trouble. I have no conscious memory of abandoning contemplation for technology but the next thing I knew, I had my phone in my hand. I was Googling easy freezer meals and reading an article about how walking a labyrinth might be helpful for Parkinson's patients. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with either freezer meals or labyrinths, mind you.  And both beat mindlessly scrolling through social media.  What disturbed me though, was that I don't even remember picking up my phone.

I read a lot about mindfulness.  I teach it in my yoga classes.  I preach it to friends.  Yet I can also chuck it out the window without even realizing I'm doing it.  The lure or our phones is both pervasive and insidious.

I've been working on goals for the coming year.  They're not New Year's resolutions so much as a five year plan to get me to where I want to be.  One of my goals is 8 conscious hours a week of avoiding technology.  Now. I'm thinking 8 might not even be enough.  Not if I can't even remember being sucked into it in the first place.

Although I have some serious hopes and dreams for the future, and while I know that goal setting is a good thing, I also know that I can dwell neither in the past nor the future. The irony of typing this blog post on my phone is not lost on me here but I'm also going to work on untethering myself and becoming more present.