The 7 - Day Unplugged Challenge!

The more things we have, the less time we have to enjoy them. 

The more Facebook friends, Instagram and Twitter followers we have, the less real connections we have. 

The more involved we are in voluntary service outside the home, the less patience and compassion we have for those closest to us. 

The more health apps we have, the more access to organic food that we have, the less we exercise and eat healthy. 

Why is that?

We in the West, live in a world of abundance! We live in a world where we have multiples of any one thing that we might want and more than that of what we need. In third world countries, most of the population is lucky to have a pair of shoes while we have an average of four to ten pairs per person. I know that I have atleast 5 different pairs of Birkenstock sandals (which is what I primarily live in), 3 pairs of sneakers including a pair of cycling shoes, 6-8 pairs of open toed heels and about 4 pairs of close toed shoes for work and then more clogs and a couple of boots. I own a couple hundred books and magazines that line up my wall of bookshelves. 

We all have closets overflowing with clothes whether seasonal or cultural.  Media in the form of VHS tapes, dvds and cds that became outdated years ago still sit in our cabinets although we haven't touched them in years. With the ability to stream almost everything anywhere, at anytime, who needs these anymore. Multiple sets of dishes, and more useless things in the form of "free gifts" fill up the many drawers and cabinets around the house. And then there are the toys: laptops, IPADS, IPODS, ITOUCH, mp3 players, cd players, external speakers such as IHome, flat screen tvs in every room and specialized printers to print photos and another for color printing and then another one for printing black and white copies. Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!

Our To do lists are never ending....we have text messages to reply to and emails to respond to and Facebook status to update and notifications to review and tweets to send out. And lets not forget Instagrams and Snapchat to capture our every waking moment and Vine, Buzzfeed and Youtube to keep us entertained in the few minutes we have free between all the other stuff we're doing.

And if you're like me, then you probably sleep with your smartphone plugged in next to you. And let's be honest...how many of you actually check your messages or your emails in the middle of the night when you are between sleep cycles. I know I do...and until recently, I would even reply to emails while half asleep and surprisingly managed to do it coherently. ( or so I think). 

But its this business that literally drains our energy. The advancement of modern technology was intended to make our lives easier but instead has only added more things we feel we absolutely must do.

So I propose a challenge. For the next 7 days starting tonite, leave your phone plugged in the living room for the night instead of your nightstand. But if you use your phone for your alarm then plug in your phone as far away from your bed ( but in the same rm) but perhaos turn your phone on airplane mode. Lets try this for just 7 days. No checking our phones during the night or even first thing after waking up.

But what will you do with all the time you have after you wake up in the morning?  Well here's an idea... How about we go back to the good old days of waking up, sitting up in bed and saying our prayers. Then we can actually get out of bed and stretch for a few minutes before we start our day.

 Now please realize that this is going to be a challenge for me! Perhaps even a bigger challenge for me then for most of you because I literally am addicted to my phone. In fact I'm writing this post from my phone. But I'm brave! And I'm game! 

So let's check in during the week and see how we do. All the best to you all! 

Love, Light and Blessings

Anita