sabbath

unplugging & unfacing

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

I did something drastic yesterday… something very un-Maya like.
 
I quit Facebook. Cold turkey.
Why would I do such a thing? 
For a few reasons really:
one: the cultural documenting epidemic…
I’m a little unease with what Facebook is doing to our culture. The more events I go to, the more people I visit, the more I realize that many of us are living our lives in order to document them. We are always snapping pics, searching for the next sound bite, and otherwise trying to validate what we are doing for an audience. All of this comes at the expense of truly experiencing our various moments. I’m trying to live more in the moment and less in the “hey world, look at what I’m doing and how many cool things I’ve done” mentality.  
two: the time-sucking…
For me personally, Facebook was becoming a profound waste of time. Sure, it’s nice to connect with certain people, especially those that are far away – I’ll miss that – but all in all, FB was serving very little purpose in my life. It was a total time-suck at best and an inauthentic connector at best. I want to make a point of really connecting with people – seeing them, calling them, even sending a personalized email. FB was almost too easy. 
three: better things to do…
Life has been really, really busy lately and I’ve been complaining about my lack of free time – time to go to yoga, pilates, for a run or a coffee date. I heard this amazing quote somewhere recently. It went a little something like this: “If you want more time, turn off the TV.” In my case, TV = aimless interneting. 
four: a challenge…

I wanted a challenge! 🙂 I wanted to see if I could go two months without FB and how that would change me/ my life/ my relationships, etc. I may go back in a few months, but for now, I want to give this a serious go.

After the initial withdrawal, I am feeling great. It’s nice to be a little mysterious and to wonder what folks are up to. I do worry that I’ll be forgotten… but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. 
View from our room in Deerhurst last weekend… perfect place to unplug.

Happy t&s,
mxo

It’s just 24 hours…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

So I’m cheating today. 
I am taking a few hours away from Sunday Sabbath to take care of some admin matters (like my taxes… zoinks!) which means I’m fully, 100% plugged into all technology… and I regret it already.

It seems this whole business of unplugging is very chic these days! 

Look, Leelee Sobieski is doing it!
From the May issue of O


This really stuck with me:
“When I had a daughter, Louisanna, two and a half years ago, I started recording every funny or sweet thing she said or did on my phone. But on one of our unplugged days, I realized I’d been so focused on capturing those moments that I hadn’t been feeling them. I’d missed opportunities to connect with my daughter because my face was always hidden behind my cell phone… I need to let this moment exist. I don’t have to capture everything. I just want to experience it.”

Less capturing, more experiencing. With that, I’m signing off.

Happy tumbling & stumbling!
mxo

sunday sabbath redo…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

It will be Sunday when you read this (or possibly later) but, through the magic of delayed posts, I am writing this on Saturday.

Why? I’d like to redo last week’s somewhat failed Sunday Sabbath. It wasn’t a completely failure, but maybe a C… or a C minus.

I did manage to significantly curb my media intake… but when Sunday evening rolled around, I was in comfy pants watching movies on my laptop while checking Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. Alt tab, alt tab.

However, one of the things I stumbled upon in my alt-tabbing, is that there is an entire community dedicated to this Sunday media-Sabbath idea!

This is great! Tips! Communities! Yay!

So my strategy for tomorrow/ today/ the next technology Sabbath is simple: rather than concentrating so much on what I have to avoid, I’m going to focus on filling my day with fun non-tech things to do!

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

  • go to a yoga class
  • how about a walk in the park or through your favourite neighbourhood?
  • or a date with a friend?
  • call your mom/ dad/ someone you should probably call more often
  • go to the gym
  • play an April Fools prank on someone
  • iron your clothes for the week (okay, i’m running out of ideas…)


You get the point. 🙂
Happy tumbling & stumbling!
mxo