Free yourself

This past Thanksgiving weekend we did something we've never done at home -- we went Internet-free for three nights and two full days. Neither of us have smart phones so we only had to put away one laptop.

Out of habit we wanted to run to the computer as soon as we walked in the door or woke up in the morning but did it ever feel good not to.

Instead of spending time mindlessly looking at Facebook or checking sports scores we went for walks in the warm October sunshine, we ate breakfast and read in the park, and we made pumpkin pie with loads of whipped cream for our non-traditional Thanksgiving meal of takeaway Indian food.

Taking a break from being online taught me a few things. I learned that spending so much time on the computer takes away from getting more important things done. It's kind of an avoidance technique: walls were painted red, bathrooms were cleaned, piles of to-dos were sorted through. The habit of constantly being online also takes away moments to cultivate time alone and quality time as a couple.

I also realized how dependent we are on our cyberworlds. It's simply unavoidable now, for both our personal and professional lives. We still chose not to turn the computer on to look up the train/bus schedule but peeked once to check out a yoga studio's schedule. It didn't count.

I felt energized to be present and proactive in my life. It was such a needed break that I think it might become a regular occurrence every weekend, for at least one day.

Have you taken a cyberbreak today?

{photo credit: mrkvm}