Digital Detox: Unplug and Let Go

Did you know you really are a superhero? You manage an overwhelm of life demands – work, spousal and social relationships, health and well-being, raising children, caring for others and self, paying bills, and overseeing the upkeep of your home.

Detach! Disconnect! Retreat! Isolate! Escape!

Digital Detox is of upmost importance. In the constant environment where you juggle responsibilities, you are the penultimate multi-tasker. But your heroism has its downside – it cuts you off from having the time to assess, refresh, refocus and being able to detach from all the tentacles of demands on you.

Five Compelling Reasons to take a Vacation:

Your health, Your well-being, Your Sanity, Your Soul, Your Growth

However you do it, taking a break from your day-to-day life is essential to maintaining a healthy immune system, and a vibrant soul connection.

Assess

Knowing when it is time to take a break is something you intuitively sense! When your happiness quotient is in the tank; when you feel exhausted, overwhelmed and stretched to the max; when you hear your own annoyance and aggravation in your short-fused responses to reasonable requests; when your sleep is a continued version of your waking day; when your sense of humour has left the building; when you have lost touch with the spiritual nature of who you are and you live in a reactive push-back rather than reflective response to your experiences – it is time!

Going into seclusion and separation for 10 days to 14 days a year is vitally important. Isolation can help reset and reconnect you with your true self – the part of you that guides with perspective and plugs you into your divine source energy.

Act – Make A Plan and Follow Through

Spend time planning your exit so that your duties are covered. Engage friends, co-workers, family members to step in and take over for you. Do whatever it takes so that you can fully let go and detach. Plan your destination where you will be as close to nature as possible.

Maybe it is a beach location or a cabin in the mountains… whatever you choose, find a setting that resonates, feels safe and is your flavor of self-nurturing.

Refresh, Renew and Reset – Indulge

Once you have arrived at your retreat destination, disconnect and ditch the electronics, crumple the to do list, ignore the daily routines including working out.

Create your own space bubble of just you…disconnect from your whole life… Be completely self-indulgent – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Rest. Eat beautiful food. Drink in the serenity of your surroundings. Soak up the sun or lie back and watch the clouds.

Allow plenty of space to sleep. Go for walks, swim, lean against a tree and feel its presence, sit by a healing waterfall – do whatever soothes and nurtures you. Unplug and Let go! In every sense of the word. Spend time listening to and honouring the beat of your own rhythm and living in harmony with that rhythm. Eat when you want, sleep as long as you want, be with others if you want – this is about total, pure, unobstructed time for you.

Integration and Re-Entry

Returning to your life after such a complete disconnect can feel like a blur – you are stepping out of quiet serenity into your life where everyone has been living ‘as usual’. In being away and regrouping, you likely have experienced changes in your perspective and priorities. Re-entry puts you in the challenging position of integrating the new you into the old normal.

Here are a few tips to help you manage the transition and still preserve the positive effects that your time away has delivered:

• Take your time to get back into the action – regulate your plugging back in. Take time to honour your needs and allow yourself the time to slowly acclimatize to the new normal.

• Reflect, redirect and accept your new perspective – things may not quite fit as they did. Take choice-filled steps to make changes that align with your own inner shift and clearer view of your life. Use your new eyes to decide whether you will put on the yoke you laid down before your vacation…perhaps you won’t.

• Set boundaries – in your unplugged state, you were able to recover some of that ‘other-focused’ energy you had so freely given to others. Now, you can set new boundaries that preserve your re-charged battery.  Learn to discern when ‘no’ really is the healthy response.

• Self-care – maintain the good rest habits you developed on your time of disconnect and build mini-retreats into your time…get massages, develop a meditation practice, eat well, and build some ‘alone time’ into your routine.

• Breathe and remember – your brain does not know the difference between a memory and the actual experience of an event.  Physiologically, you can generate all the good feelings and inner peace by simply recalling a memory of it. Do this as you take a moment in your day to step outside, breathe deeply and remember your time away.

Your renewed state can be a source of wonderful yet scary freedom. In that free space, there is room for you to let go of what is no longer significant or imperative any more. This is all about learning to embrace and preserve your profound well-being as you find a fresh place and new directions in your life.