The cold. The snow. The daily routine. The errands and to-do lists. The housework and shopping. Of all the things I didn’t miss on my vacation cruising the Caribbean on my recent Holistic Holiday at Sea voyage, my cell phone was at the very top of the list. With no internet connection and no cell reception for 11 whole days my cell phone became just a glorified camera and watch (which was wrong much of trip due to changing time zones).
The trip was brimming full of possible activity with five ports of call to explore, endless excursions to take, a daily educational program of vegan nutritional workshops, wellness classes, yoga and chi gong classes. I planned each day as it arrived without a checklist and decided hour by hour what my mind and body most wanted and needed to do. I navigated each unknown port of call without the aide of google or Siri or mapquest. I ate when I was hungry and slept when I was tired. And best of all I didn’t hear one ding, chirp, buzz or bell from my phone. It sat, charged but silent and largely irrelevant in a world focused on the here and now. A world focused on interacting with 2000+ other vegans on and off board who also had little time or use for their cell phones. A world which required human interaction and connection despite and because of different languages.
I discovered near the trips’ end that despite not taking the time to meditate daily, (which keeps me grounded in my daily work/home life) and even after an unusually active and full vacation, I was strangely calm and centered.
Not tethered to my phone, I was free to be more connected to the present moment and less worried about future focused activities. Without the daily bombardment of state, federal and world news I was more optimistic and less worried. And without the ability to text and email, my communication and attention were necessarily focused on those people in my immediate community rather those those I could not see or feel or experience. Laughter and friendship and amazing connections abounded in a way I don’t believe would have been possible with my cell phone front and center.
There’s no need to take a cruise in order to discover how your mental and emotional energy might shift without your daily dose of technology. Unplug your phone for a day… for the weekend. Don’t log into email at night or away from the office. Put down the Netflix series and the Youtube clips for a week. As you do, I can almost guarantee you will slowly but surely come back to your own center. You’ll find you are better able to focus on the here and now. Better able to connect to the energy of the people around you, to the comfort of animals and to the solace of nature.
Unplug and let the real connections begin… Bon Voyage!
