OMG How much time do I spend on this thing, anyways?
When I am waiting in line, when I am avoiding the dishes, when I am in transition from one thing on my list of things to do to another, I am on my phone. It’s always in my purse or in my pocket or in my hand. Whenever there is the slightest lapse in the day, it comes out and I check my texts, and I check my e-mail and I check my facebook. Heaven forbid there should be a few seconds during the day when I can be off-line!
It’s like I wouldn’t be able to survive having a few minutes of free time. Time to be aware and look around and see what’s happening in the world around me. Time to be breathe in between activities and the busyness of the day. Time to be focused on someone else and the blessings they bring to my life.Time to be.
I have to fill every minute of my time yet, I feel that I am constantly on the go, responding immediately to every question, every invitation, every prompt or post. Part of me feels like I am torn in too many directions and that there are too many expectations I put on myself. I wonder if I am contributing to this problem by being always available on my phone.
In my experience, this kind of behaviour means there is an avoidance or a fear behind it. Why do I feel like I have to have my phone ready all the time? What am I avoiding? What am I afraid of? What would happen if I didn’t have my phone at the ready every second of the day? What would happen if I left my phone at my desk when I went shopping or took a walk or went to the park with my kids?
One of the fears, I guess, is that I will miss something important, that I will be out of the loop. What if someone sends me an important message (because, you know, if they can’t get ahold of me, the world as we know it will cease to exist!) and I don’t answer it right away?
Part of me feels that if I’m not doing anything, I’m wasting my time. I have so much to do! My life is so busy. If I can attend to my texts and messages now, I can do something else later. Yeah. We all know how that ends: I just have more texts and messages later.
So, it’s looking like it all boils down to filling time. Why do I feel like I have to fill all of my time? When I fill my time with my phone, I feel important, I feel like I’m doing important things, I feel productive. But what’s really happening is the opposite: I am not focusing on the important things like spending time with my family and conversing with the people around me. Instead, I’m creating a barrier between myself and others. I have less time to spend appreciating the beauty around me because I am hiding behind my screen. I am not taking the time to recharge my battery by being still, quiet and in the moment because I am avoiding doing nothing.
Here’s my challenge: what if we put the phone away for a few minutes? What if we put the phone away while we were at the park with our kids and observed their play so we could talk to them about it later? What if we put the phone away while we were waiting for a meeting to start and had a relationship building conversation with someone? What if we put the phone away for a few minutes and did nothing but breathe, rest, and be still?
Who’s with me?
