Full disclosure Happyness hub readers ….the funniest thing is for some reason I didn’t get Sally’s email with the day’s recommended exercise and so it wasn’t till the early afternoon that I realised what it was! Well by then I’d already been on my phone and caught up with facebook  posts, commented on people’s lovely pictures and ‘Whatsapp’ed my cousin to say thanks for a lovely Friday evening. Oops!!

The rest of the day, I decided to put my phone in my bag as I was determined to follow through with the day’s exercise. Only that I was shopping – and ‘needed’ to consult with Google to see if I could get my flip flops cheaper online… and then there was some talk via Whatsapp to my mum, as I was getting some things for her and needed to confirm that I was buying the right things – and as such wasn’t able to take a complete break. I will re-do this day as I know how restorative it can be…(I tend to do at least 3 days phoneless when I’m on holidays).

However from yesterday, here’s what I did learn:-

  • I am so grateful for the communication opportunities that my phone functions and social media allow us nowadays. There are so many cool ways to be in touch and stay connected.

My lovely sis lives out of London and has two young kids – and it can sometimes make it hard to chat at length. So we keep in touch by  Whatsapp conversations ( can we talk about the ‘iconology…. did you know they have a unicorn one too??!) and during the day and send each other silly Snapchats just to let each other know that were thinking of one another. One of my best friend lives in Chicago, but I don’t feel it as much, as I’m in touch with her often through facebook and Whatsapp calls.

  • I can function without my phone for a couple of hours.

I really can. I’m just so used to checking it every 10 minutes in case there’s a new text that I need to read or a new email that I need to action?  Just out of habit. Just  because. They actually can really wait for a couple of hours. I guarantee they will all still be there!

  • Everything in balance.

 

  • I have a good balance going on between me and my phone now. I am a recovering phone addict and used to be on it all the time, much to the annoyance of my family (I think my friends were too polite to tell me!). Also we put in place a really nice practice – this is after we watched a programme (Frankie & Grace) where all Grace’s children came over for dinner but before they went into the dining room, everyone put their phones away in a box and attended to dinner more mindfully and ended up having more fun.

This idea worked so well that we have been applying it ever since as our phones can be such a mindless distraction otherwise. Yes, I still take pics of my food if I’m out (so many Instagram worthy morsels out there), but then it goes back into my bag until afterwards and it’s so nice mindfully enjoying the company of who you’re with at the time, and REALLY being there instead of being half there because you’re checking something on your phone that really can wait.

Although our phones, Ipads and computers carry so much of our lives on them nowadays and they’re an undeniable and indispensable part of our busy modern lives, it’s even more important to get the balance right, otherwise it’s just too easy to sink 2 hours into internet shopping where you don’t actually buy a thing, or surf the net and catch up on celebrity gossip.  I found that giving myself 30 minute time slots, to read up on emails, to do my online shopping or reading up on articles really helped me with this, and bought my awareness to how long I spent on the computer and social media.

Whilst all this is a lot of fun and some of it’s pretty necessary , we just need to take a step back and think about the quality of our moments and let our inner  guidance come from that vantage point, as you will always be truly guided to make positive and uplifting decisions from there.  xx