SLOW DOWN, DISCONNECT

What’s the hurry?

Answers and decisions don’t always have to be instant. Though I will confess to generally knowing straight away which way I’ll go. I don’t believe it’s procrastination (it’s pre-thinking – see previous post dated Nov 18 2013.)

Maybe I’m mulling over the exact wording of my response and that is the reason I haven’t replied to your IM, text message or email.

Maybe I have nothing to say (unlikely).

Maybe I finally heeded my mother’s words – if you’ve nothing nice to say then don’t say anything at all.

Maybe I’m trying to see things from your point of view. This is happening far more as I get older. What’s that expression about the youth knowing everything and as we age we become wise enough to realise how little we truly know.

Maybe I got distracted by something bright and shiny – a distinct possibility.

This is related to the acknowledgement that there is very little virtue in busyness itself. We can be busy being distracted from things as much as we can by things. Multi-tasking is a myth. Some of us are just very capable of rapidly switching between tasks. We can’t actually multi-task. So why try?

Be mindful of the task at hand. Enjoy the singularity of one task, one project, one job.

This ties in to the second part of the title. Disconnect. Granted, I may not actually turn off my phone but I’ve started leaving it in a different room, occasionally leaving it in the car (albeit accidentally at times). Deliberately I have also started leaving it at home sometimes when I go for a walk and then I find myself noticing things. I notice the way the sun glints off the leaves of a particular tree making it appear to sparkle and wonder how I might capture such a thing in a painting.

The amount of times I’ve caught myself not engaging with a movie on TV because I’m distracted by my laptop or phone has even started to annoy me. So I’m trying to wean myself off it. Naturally, if it’s a semi-decent movie to begin with then it’s much easier. I’ve recently starting selling products related to my art but it’s not heart or brain surgery so none of my emails are really THAT important.

In our household, phones are banned from dinnertime (and frankly always have been). That rule is non-negotiable, even for guests. We are all surviving that easily enough so clearly this disconnection thing is possible.