Check-Out! Unplug!

Check-out time. You. Now.

With all the social media and communications devices it’s so easy these days to get wrapped up in the buzz of constant pings, rings and notifications. Life has become a series of notifications. The world, your friends, your family and your job have all became accessible at the tips your fingertips EVERY second of EVERY day. How exhausting!

I noticed that sometimes I get anxiety when I go to sleep because something might happen when I'm asleep. I might get a text, call, email, etc. UGH! Then when I try to go to sleep normally, never fails, some point in the middle of the night I actually do get a text, call, notification, etc. I remember the days when we only had house phones. There wasn’t any night time anxiety because it was rude to disturb an entire household at 2 AM for no reason. You actually had to just wait until the next day at an appropriate time to tell whoever you wanted to talk to about whatever insignificant thing/event that had transpired. Everything is so now, now, now. Update status NOW, check in location NOW, etc. If people didn’t get ahold of you, well then they just had to try again or try to find that person in real life. Mind you I'm not even old. In the brief span of my life time we have so altered the means of communication that it is nearly impossible now to get 5 minutes of complete relaxation and peace of mind. The youth are literally polluted with the influence of media, ads and garbage all day, every day and with this exponential trend it’s only going to get worse. I'm not even a parent yet but I'm this concerned with your children and the future generation of the world. People are losing the touch with this earth and the natural beauties that lie right outside your very own door. We live to work and stopping to smell the roses or have a friendly chat is obsolete. Why stop to chat when I can just send a text? Even talking on the phone is even become too much these day! Now I'm just as guilty as the little teens obsessing over their phones, apps, social media, and notifications but I realized that sometimes it feels good to unplug.

Now at night when I go to sleep, I just turn my phone off. My clock that plugs into the wall, yes I still own a clock, automatically sets it’s time when it turns on so if the storm knocks the electricity off my clock will reset itself to the correct time automatically when the electricity is restores. If I'm away working I put my phone on “Do Not Disturb” mode and set it on the charger far away from my bed so that one, if it goes off I'm not going to want to leave my bed and two, in the morning to I have to physically leave my bed to turn the alarm off which helps the waking up process. I'm sure some of you are wondering, “What if someone is having an emergency?”. Well last time I checked my phone number wasn’t the 911 dispatcher nor was it the number of a taxi service. In the event of an emergency I couldn’t help you better than those that are trained professionals who make their living assisting those that are in need so you would want to call them. It’s not that I don’t care, but I will care about you in the appropriate hour of the day when I get your message.

For the sake of your peace of mind, I encourage all of you reading to go live like a caveman for a little bit each day/week and just unplug yourselves from the distraction and overstimulation of the world so you can RELAX.