Unplugging & Changing

As I type this, it’s a lazy Memorial Day here in my corner of the world. The girl child and I got up and walked over to the annual Memorial Day parade and afterwards enjoyed a gooey cinnamon roll and resumed our walk.  Nothing spectacular at all, other than the fact that I have been unplugged since Friday evening and frankly I am enjoying being unplugged so much, I am wondering whether or not I should bother plugging back in.

For all that modern life gives us with instant access and 24/7 news cycles, lately I find myself wondering what am I losing? This weekend I didn’t actually plan to unplug, it just sort of happened and with each passing hour has felt good. The only reason I even bothered turning on my phone was if the college kid or my Pops needed to reach me. Granted they both know how to reach me on the land line but they also know depending on where I am in the house, I don’t hear the phone ringing.

Getting deeper into my yoga practice has made me more aware of myself and the fact that frankly I absorb too much of other people’s energy at times and to be honest, I don’t want to absorb most people’s energy, lot of folks out here got bad juju. Why in the hell do I want to absorb someone else’s drama? Yet when I spend a lot of time being plugged in, that’s exactly what I am doing. Sure, twitter provides a lot of laughs, but not all laughs are equal and for the laughs I have, sometimes I get the pain too. Snarkiness is great, but why? I am a natural smart ass, surviving in my family of origin meant you learn to  speak snark or else…. But do I really need to do so all the time? I think not.

I guess one could say I am going deeper into the land of woo woo, after all I did go to a chakra cleansing workshop a few days ago, but let me tell you, I don’t understand it all, but I will be damned if I don’t feel better. Suddenly my crazy cousin George as he is lovingly called in my family no longer seems so crazy to me, I think he was onto something when he talked about bad vibes and good vibes.

Putting the woo aside though, a recent encounter with my health provider is making me take stock of life and making it clear that change is needed. A few weeks back I broke down and went to see the doctor after thinking I had strep throat, turned out there was no strep, but my allergies have decided to start playing in the major leagues. But it wasn’t the allergies that got me concerned; it was my blood pressure which at 122 over 82 was higher than it’s ever been. Considering I had been self-medicating with a slew of over the counter drugs to combat the allergies, my doc wasn’t terribly concerned especially since I am moving back down the scale and for the first time ever consistently moving. I am concerned though, 122 over 82 is pre-hypertension and with my family history that was a cold water dump on my face.

I have been actively looking to keep stress low in my life but that blood pressure reading was the kick in my ass. Sure, it could have been the fact that I was having white coat syndrome that day as evidenced by the fact I was having a mild panic attack, could have been the fact I had decided to disregard the instructions on the side of the boxes and was mixing & matching over the counter allergy meds like a kid in a candy store…matters not, change is needed.

Social media has been great for expanding my writing, I have made some kick ass new friends and it’s fun, but it’s also stressful. Hell, my day job is stressful, I have a high energy 6 year old, a kid in college, a marriage that is finally settling back down and a father I am pretty sure will end up in living in my barn. Do I really need more stress?

So in my quest to unplug myself yet maintain a presence, I decided to unplug from Foursquare, after all why the hell am I telling the world where I am all the time? I am also spending less time with email; in fact send me an email during non-work hours and chances are if it isn’t critical, you aren’t going to be getting an answer until the next business day. Send me a text, maybe I will see it, maybe I won’t and you will get a reply when I am in a space to answer it. If you want to reach me, there is this invention called the telephone, reach out and call me. Or if you are far away, send a letter. Mail is groovy especially when it’s not bills or junk mail. Follow me on Pinterest, but know that I spend little time electronically pinning anything so it probably sucks to follow me. I’m still on twitter and Facebook but slowing that down too. As for monetizing this space, guess that’s gonna be a work in progress, if it’s meant to happen it will, in the meantime we like tips! Think of me as your daily barista except I don’t serve up a mean latte, I serve up something that hopefully makes you smile, laugh or think or even get pissed off.

So what does one do when not plugged in? Sit on my new bench in the front of my yard being social with the people who actually live near me, or hanging out in the back of my yard trying to figure out what these are.

 

 

 

 

 

3 thoughts on “Unplugging & Changing”

  1. I need to unplug more often. Especially after business hours. I spend too much time staring at screens and monitors. It’s nice to just curl up with a book and have silence.

    Don’t apologize for the “woo woo” stuff. I love hearing about it, and I love that you’re embracing yoga. It’s amazing what you opens up for you when you go deeper, and the truth is that yoga makes you more open and more sensitive. I can’t deal with violence, harsh language, bitterness anymore. Loud noises and negativity? I avoid it as much as I can because it really does affect you at the core.

    Enjoy being unplugged. I need to do the same.

  2. Your plant is called Dame’s Rocket and is an invasive plant closely related to garlic mustard. It resembles phlox. You can tell the difference though – the flowers of Dame’s rocket have four petals while phlox flowers have five. My border of my yard is covered with them, but after pulling all the weeds out of my real gardens I am kind of weeded out for now. As my husband says at least they are pretty.

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