FRANKLIN, N.Y. - the knowledge that I could be cut off from the Internet and cell phone in a few hours started me relax, long before that I have reached the site isolated, calm of a two-day yoga retreat in the State of New York.
For 43 magical hours, the birds chirping replaced sirens and the horns of the car. Two hours yoga classes, lounging hammock and hot-tubbing replaced sitting in my Office in Manhattan.
The best part: absolutely nothing replaced my iPhone. He served powered off at the bottom of my backpack all weekend, except for a brief stay as an alarm clock to wake up from a NAP.
I readily admit that I am powerless. Without a forced break from email, Facebook, text messages and an endless stream of online news and blogs, I am an information addict. Spending a few days without mobile service in an era where smartphones have become as members for many, I found immense value by taking our world still - the, always connected.
It was not easy. During the three-hour drive upstate, I my clutch and reloaded phone Facebook, Gmail and Hotmail every 10 to 15 minutes. I have followed our route on Google Maps, Route 17 on Foursquare controlled and digitized PPA for The New York Times for updates of news for the fourth, fifth and sixth time.
As we approached no signal box, I called my husband say goodbye for the second time and left a message for a friend to wish him well on the medical school admission tests that he was taking this weekend. I checked email once more.
Should I have called my mother? Posted an updated Facebook on the imminent Rapture? See if I missed any news tech by flying Friday?
My God, have I become?
Then, "None Service" appears in the upper left on my phone, and that was that. I took a deep breath, disabled the phone and turned in my entourage and, later, to the Interior.
Facebook came at least twice on retirement on Pagans Hill. On both occasions, our yoga instructor led 18 of us using relaxation techniques. Forget work, she says, forget your children at home, a moment and forget Facebook. We let our carpet, listen to eavesdropping gently rain and chirping birds and respected. We have breathed.
He became a pleasure more in rarer to disconnect from "real world" during the holidays. For many people, work and family left behind require constant E-mail and telephone contact. Wireless via Wi - Fi access is abundant and often free of charge, that I discovered in the Irish countryside, in the suburb of my hometown of Budapest, in Hungary and in some parts of the Catskills, notwithstanding the Pocket where my yoga retreat took place.
Like many people, I have also developed a bit of an unhealthy attachment to my iPhone, in the past two years although it is not to the point where I sleep with it under my pillow.
Convenient, because it is, there are many drawbacks to the constant of the ability to check - friends, strangers, work, news, gossip and what my phone instantly gives me access to the. Sometimes I note even when I have unconsciously for my phone when there is a lull in conversation over dinner or when I want to avoid the awkward trivial in the elevator.
Then there is the type of information that I get. Of course, it is useful, but more than it is on the calibre of the cute animal stories and updates to Facebook accessories from friends or knowledge. After the return from retirement, I extended my ban Facebook, it has been five days already. I'm not sure that I have missed much, except perhaps a few laughs or headshakes in the positions of the friends.
So what we did do, without news, Twitter and email in the Catskill Mountains? Yoga and lots of it.
Our teacher asked turn us inward. It is particularly difficult to do so in the era of social media, when many of us seek validation even for the smallest actions and thoughts of passage of our lives. Why should I tell my friends Facebook that it rains again? And when someone responds, why that I feel strangely validated my existence?
I do call it addiction, but for the first hours of retirement, I found myself regularly reaching for my iPhone - for what, I don't know. It was as a member of Phantom, troubling in his absence.
The second day, the feeling disappeared through a vigorous exercise, yogic breathing and our beautiful environment. We have dined on vegetarian dishes homemade, break another one of my regular days as an avid carnivore. I also brought a book with me, printed on real paper. He called "Living Dead in Dallas," part of a series on South vampires who is now a show on HBO. It helps me relax, OK?
The night we sat by camp fire, roasted marshmallows and drinking wine. Then sleep, breakfast and more yoga.
I advocate forever disconnect the Internet or social media, and I confess that a weekend was fair enough. We need GPS to find our way towards the city, on the one hand. Certain email addresses were exchanged, too.
And, as we left, we promised our newfound yoga friends: "I find you on Facebook."
No comments:
Post a Comment