Unplug

Unplug

How much daily news do you get from the TV or radio? How many times do you check your email each day or receive a "tweet"? How much do you engage in playing games on Facebook or solitaire on your computer? How much time do you experience silence each day?

My thought for this week revolves around the practice of unplugging ourselves from our often hectic lives-not just when attending a yoga retreat or on vacation, where it's so easy to disconnect, but on each and every day or our "regular" lives.


Being at Sanctuary Retreat at Mission Beach in Queensland, Australia was the perfect opportunity to disconnect and unplug. For nine days we had no phone, no TV, no radio. We had to pay for the time we spent on the Internet, so that tended to limit our time to check on anything other than "urgent" emails.

The beauty of having consecutive days of disconnect is that it allows your brain, body and spirit to find themselves in a different relationship to one another. Distractions of our busy-ness aren't given the opportunity to interrupt. Plus, if you add in a daily practice of yoga, meditation, walking along an uninhabited beach and watching a sunset, the experience enters a space of potential transformation.

So, how do we then, connect to this place of ease and stillness when we have work to do and a schedule to keep?

My answer is to firstly remember the physiological feeling of being quiet and still. Second, to create the opportunity to find it at least for 10 minutes during your day. Sit. Breathe. Be. Take a break from watching or reading the news for a few days. Turn off your phone and pick up a good book. Make it a priority...every day.

Stop doing. Just be. Even if it's only for a few moments.