#35 Days of Dares #35 Dare to Shutdown
It’s Lent and this time of year Christians from all round the world go on fasts of some sort, giving up something they love as a sacrifice. As an avid reader, I have to put myself on book fasts every now and then. If I don’t I could easily read all day, every day.
My record for one week, after a protracted time of working long hours and, being unable to read anything besides work documents and student essays, was twenty novels in a week. I can’t believe I read that many, but I really did. I walked around the house with a book in my hand, I cooked with a book in one hand and wooden spoon in the other. Hanging out laundry was tricky!
Anyway, since that reading binge I’ve never read that many books in a week again!
In this last month of dares, it’s been a challenge to take on board some new perspectives and to live with an adventurous spirit. Today I’m daring you to shutdown your social media, even if only for a short time.
I’m on social media a lot because apparently it’s the thing to do when promoting your work as a writer. You need to be connected. Sometimes though, I schedule posts for a ten-day period and shutdown.
In 2013, we travelled through Central Australia, camping under the stars and cooking over a campfire. I didn’t have access to wifi everywhere we went, so I scheduled enough posts to cover the time I was away and shutdown for a while. It’s so freeing to be somewhere where your smartphone doesn’t get a signal and you can’t get onto Facebook.
You soon lose interest in finding out what the latest puppy photo is being shared, or what people are having for breakfast that day.
Shutting down for a while, has a way of making us appreciate time and to use it wisely. It also makes us appreciate real human contact instead of virtual contact.
Whatever it is in your life that you need to shutdown so you can focus on something more important, there is a specific time commitment which is required to adjust the neurons and the frequencies of our brain. It takes 40 days to change a habit. In doing this we retrain the brain and it gives us the opportunity to change a pattern in our lives.
You don’t have to go to a remote island to switch off, although that’s a great option! You can choose to shutdown for a while to give yourself a chance to reassess.
Dare to Shutdown.
Sand Cay Great Barrier Reef
#365adventure is a book lover’s year of adventures. Adventures in travel, friendship, family, soul, heart and, of course, book stores!
