Truly unplugging and enjoying life — What a trip!
It’s common to hear people say, “I’m just gonna unplug and escape.” And they do that for, what, one day — half of a day if they have no willpower.
When people go on vacation, they say the same thing but you know that’s not the case thanks to cellphones and social media. It seems like all some people do on vacation is post pictures and videos in real time to brag about what’s going on. (I often wonder if they’re really enjoying the vacation in the moment.)
But I did it* (note the asterisk). I really did it*. And it was great.
The asterisk in my case is because I couldn’t fully step away from my radio hosting duties for two weeks. As an entertainment reporter working with 20-some stations, I’m sort of always on call — in addition to hosting a morning celebrity headline show for them.
Aside from opening one email that had three pre-written celebrity stories that I later recorded for radio each day, I tuned out from everything. Everything.
I can’t tell you how many corona cases there were or what the Canadian Olympic medal count was, though I could tell you what was happening with Britney Spears.
Our days consisted of waking up randomly whenever. I started something called Mims Monday. On Sunday night, I took a bottle of (cheap) champagne with orange juice and an ice bucket up to the bedroom and we had mimosas immediately after waking up before getting out of bed on Monday.
I’d have a bath for a couple of hours, maybe another mimosa or two in the tub. We’d take the dogs for a walk and a run at the park. We had afternoon naps. We’d maybe reach for a phone to order food or have groceries delivered, while always avoiding any news app and website. We watched classic movies and old TV shows. Before we knew it it was midnight or even 4 a.m.
Staff at my company carried out my social media obligations to make it look like I was at the controls. (That part actually happens more often than not, anyway.) During that time my radio shows aired from Nashville that we’d pre-taped in June. I really had no work to do.
There was no concept of time. There was no true exposure to the outside world. By that, I mean interaction with technology. We were in a bubble, of sorts. And it was nice. It was really nice.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting forever avoiding the news, ’cause, you know, I get paid for doing this. But for two weeks while we took a break and there was no news relayed to you, it felt a bit refreshing. I’ve commented several times before that most people are tuning out from COVID news because it’s too draining. Try tuning out from everything – almost literally everything.
I’m looking forward to reconnecting with people who felt I suddenly ghosted them. (My birthday was three days ago and I still haven’t logged into Facebook to see all the b-day wishes. I’ve had no interest.)
If you have vacation time coming up, or even if it’s just a weekend, I highly recommend you ditch the technology and whatever distraction that bombards your everyday life, and enjoy the time you have.
