If you are one of my followers on Facebook or Instagram, you may be aware that this weekend I decided to switch off my mobile device from Friday night to Sunday evening. 

This opportunity to disconnect from social media and messaging my friends has been incredibly rewarding. Although I missed the socialising, I highly recommend a short detox from it all, once in a while!

I have had such a fulfilling weekend and I wanted to share some of my personal insights and highlights over the last couple of days. 

Friday night:

I arrived home to an empty house and put up my goodbye post on social media and turned off my Samsung. I then stepped out the back door and took a few deep breaths, it was a wonderful night despite the rain, in fact the rain made it pleasant, the crisp air cooled my mind. I noticed how silent everything had become by 6pm, as if mother nature was tucking itself in for a restful nights sleep. I think modern day can be so busy and fast paced that we miss the rhythms of nature, by not having my phone by my side I was able to experience this moment and take a full advantage of an empty, peaceful, silent house.

Grounded, calm and content I started lighting candles around the house so I could dim the lights and match the atmosphere from outside and bring the stillness inside. When my family came home instead of the normal excitement which burst through the doors, they too felt settled and calm in a relaxing atmosphere. This balance remained throughout the entire course of the evening, every member in harmony, there was no arguing… not even between my two brothers! And… we even managed to all agree on a movie that we all liked, ‘into the wild’, highly recommend it, based on a true story.

After the movie had finished I felt so swept up in the present moment, that my whole mood had lifted and I felt like my cold had shifted and started to go.

After my evening mediation I climbed up into bed, only to shortly climb back down again to write in my diary, here’s what i wrote:

3rd Feb 2017

I haven’t wrote in a while, I’ve been swept up in the success, slow, fast, love, loss, illness, health, drive, friendship, full moons, sunsets, learning.

Tonight I lay awake about to close my eyes and I feel grateful for every person in my life, I think of every member in my family and I smile because my mind is flooded with so many memories from each of them and I feel the deep love and attachment I have to them all, and then I think about the wonderful experiences I have had of love and romance and all my wonderful friends. God I love them so much for their all so different and I think about the teachers and the kind souls and strangers I’ve met in town or on holiday like Ricardo. I just feel so blessed and then I think about the whole globe, the beauty and wonder of mother earth. I make one small, tiny wish for all living beings to feel this love and happiness too.

And in the silence and darkness I tamper up the ladder to my bed and as my head rests on the pillow I think about how happy I am to be alone, with just emptiness, how meditation is teaching me to be content with everything and nothing all at the same time. But nevertheless I am so enriched by all the extras I have in my life, the people, the places and the nature.

I don’t feel afraid anymore. Life bring on the adventure! 

Saturday and Sunday:

Really I just wanted to share that personal passage from my diary as I want to share how wonderful disconnecting can be, in doing so it opened up new doors to spend quality time with family as well as taking care of me without scrolling my phone and missing half the plot of the movie (which is normally what happens!)

Saturday and Sunday were both similar in that I spent lots of time doing activities which lifted me up, for example I went to a cafe in Stroud and had breakfast, day dreaming and looking at art whilst drinking a chai latte, I walked around the Farmers market and met lovely new people as well as bumping into old friends. In the afternoon I spent time with my mum and we went to Roccoco gardens to look at the snowdrops and then I bought her a piece of carrot cake, I played guitar, meditated and planned my yoga classes, I even had time to mediate in the bath and the shower… I will post about this practice shortly as it was hugely beneficial, especially with alleviating a cold and a blocked nose. 

On Sunday I baked cakes for my yoga classes, sang, meditated, danced and went roller skating (super run!) and eventually did some homework!