Being Present
Written by Nuno Costa
As a society we are more connected now than we have ever been. Everywhere we go, we take our devices – smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc. Even our children are growing up with this sense of always having something available to distract them from what’s really going on around them.
I want to challenge you to take a 24 hour break from all technology to just BE PRESENT. This may seem impossible but it’s probably one of the best things you can do for yourself. Can you remember the feeling you have when you are on vacation and you have no worries, you are carefree and you are able to enjoy your surroundings more than ever? That’s the feeling I want you to reconnect with for 24 hours – learn to appreciate everything in your life, all the small things you might be missing because you are on a device all the time.
I’ve watched people at dinner tables where every person is on their phone. Heck, I have even done it myself more than once! I wonder why we don’t just talk to one another. What gets us to reach for our phones in the first place? Sometimes we are just scrolling through social media sites and all of a sudden we find something worth sharing with the group – and you see an actual conversation take place. Keep in mind the moments you have truly shared with someone and how they have brought joy, laughter, or some sort of interesting emotion worth sharing. Those moments couldn’t have happened had you been on your phone.
It wasn’t that long ago that we didn’t have smartphones available – 8 years ago to be exact. (The first smartphone came out in 2007 – the iPhone by Apple). What did we do with our time before the introduction of smartphones and tablets? What did we talk about when we went out to eat? What did we do when we didn’t know the answer to something? Were we more present as a society than we are today? Were we able to appreciate everything we had in our lives then? Were we aware of our surroundings at all times?
Choose a day in the near future where you are going to disconnect for 24 hours – you may want to tell your close friends and family just in case they are expecting to hear from you and don’t. Turn your phone and tablets off completely. Force yourself to stay away from a computer and just observe how you react throughout the day as you watch other people on their devices. Observe how many times you go to reach for your phone, how anxious you are at first when you are not able to send a text message, or maybe you are relieved that no one can reach you – I’d be curious to know what comes up for you through this experiment.
Just because you may be disconnected from electronics/gadgets doesn’t necessarily mean that you are going to be present – so here are a few tips that might help with this experiment. Throughout the day be conscious of your surroundings, take some deep breaths to calm your anxiety, count backwards from 20, stop to smell the roses, start your day off with a meditation/visualization that is going to set the intention for the day. The last suggestion I’ll make is that, at the end of your day, spend 15-20 minutes reviewing your day and writing about your experience. What did it feel like, what did you experience, was there a heightened awareness you carried throughout the day?
The ability to disconnect may open up the possibility of you connecting with someone on a deeper level. If, for nothing else, not having your phone on you will guarantee that you can’t text and drive! Take this little mini challenge on and share your experience of how it impacted you and what you were able to observe.